Our Social Workers gave a checklist to the parents of beneficiaries in order to assess how each family functions. This form helped determine their socio-demographic profile and identify any potential child safety threats within the family. These threats include physical and mental health issues, developmental disabilities, domestic violence and chemical dependency. To ensure that the families had meaningful engagement with the activities implemented by the Social Support Team, efforts could be focused on building the strengths and capacities within these families to promote education and ensure child safety in the community.

Sources of family income – 71% of the families have fathers as the main income earners. Almost all of these fathers are engaged in elementary occupations. They are workers performing simple and routine tasks, which mainly require the use of handheld tools and often the use of physical effort, such as street vendors, construction site workers, cleaners, garbage collectors, deliverymen, porters, etc. 7% of these fathers are scavengers.

Only 38% of the families have mothers who are earning income. Most of them earn by having small retail stores or by selling cooked food in front of their homes. 44% of the mothers identified themselves as housewives without contributing financially to the family.

There are 10% of beneficiaries who have both parents as non-income earners. Most of these beneficiaries have guardians who provide for their basic needs.

Parents’ educational attainment – Only 31% of the families in Young Focus have fathers who finished their elementary education, and 35% have mothers who completed theirs. There are only 4% of families with fathers who reached college level education, and 7% for mothers. Fewer than 1% have parents who are illiterate.

Number of members in a family – 49% of families in Young Focus have 6 to 10 members, and 43% have 5 members or less.

Child concerns in the family – 87% of families have experienced child behavior problems at home. The concerns disclosed were about the moodiness of the child and not following parents’ instructions due to preoccupation with social media, gaming or general playfulness. Seldom were the reasons for misbehavior attributed to mental health concerns.

56% of families have experienced academic challenges with their child. Reasons included difficulty adjusting to an online learning set-up due to poor internet connectivity and multiple users of cellphone in a household. The modular approach came with its own set of challenges for the students, which included difficulty in understanding the lessons and enforcing self-discipline in studying and completing assignments.

Only 3% of families disclosed that they experienced problems with their child in experimenting with substances. Smoking and alcohol drinking were mainly due to stress in their studies.

Health and nutrition concerns – 42% of the families felt that they do not have access to clean water. Many of the households are not connected to the water line and are forced to fetch water elsewhere.

48% of households have food sufficiency problems. Some mothers disclosed that they only eat twice a day, while others said that in order to stretch the budget, they had to be creative in the food they serve.

69% of families felt that they have insufficient access to medical services. Many of them resort to herbal medicine and self-medication. They go to the hospital as a last resort.

Other family stressors – 52% of families disclosed that they often experience financial difficulties because the money coming in is not sufficient to provide the basic necessities for the whole family. Most of them said the reasons for their financial instability were: having multiple children in school, lack of regular income, debt payments and lack of budgeting skills.

19% disclosed that they experienced anxiety, breakdown and/or sleepless nights due to juggling different responsibilities. 17% disclosed having household members that are smoking, drinking or using illegal drugs.