Children in Need and girl's rights

[Sunkisses]

Children in Need.... It's Friday next week (15 Nov) and we will all get guilt-tripped at school into participating. I know CiN have supported child-sterilisation supporting charity Mermaids in the past, and Allsorts (with their appalling trans schools toolkit), but it would be good to find out if they are still supporting any charities promoting harmful gender identity ideology that removes girl's rights to privacy and dignity (and the rights of all children not to be gaslighted that people can 'change sex'). Is anyone able to tweet at them to see if they still support any trans charities who promote gender identity ideology (I cannot I am afraid!): twitter.com/BBCCiN

There's a list of their donations here, but no dates unfortunately. Mermaids not listed (are they hiding their past donation, or only listing recent donations?), although Allsorts had a grant of £99,813
www.bbcchildreninneed.co.uk/projects/

Previous threads on Children in Need donating to groups who promote gender identity ideology:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3415611-Children-in-Need-funds-group-who-promote-sterilising-children
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3420861-children-in-need-and-mermaids

I no longer support CiN, either. Instead I will give a larger-than-usual donation of consumables to the local Food Bank. And, rather than just my usual a-bit-extra-of-what-I'm-buying-for-myself, I will also put in things like Pyjama Pants.

A child in a family that needs the support of a food bank is a Child in Need. A bedwetting child in a family who cannot afford continence product is most certainly a Child in Need. These children can be helped directly, without any fanfare.

And I will say so at work.

My child has a non uniform day and we have to donate £2 to this charity.

Donating money to organisations who groom and experiment on children goes against my principles, so I would prefer that the money goes 100 per cent to worthy causes (as cited by pp above).

I crawled through their donations last year - a lovely huge spreadsheet. I think my understanding was an awful lot of money given to ‘trans’ charities (some under the whole rainbow umbrella, but with a heavy slant) - and even charities with a bit of a question make over them - and so much less to charities aimed at girls, children in general etc. Quite a big bias from memory.

So we can see where money has gone but not really where they are going to send it all? I had to dig a bit to find the detailed one.

Hang on - that may have been the Sports one.

My child has a non uniform day and we have to donate £2 to this charity.

No, you do not. Donations are entirely voluntary.

The thing is that if kids don't donate they are made to feel like crap. It's bullying them into handing over money to charities you wouldn't want to give to in a month of Sundays. I don't think the people granting the awards actually look too carefully at them (or care).

It's social pressure to participate in something they are not fully informed about for kids taking place at school. Comic Relief is the same by the way.

I do wish schools would consider doing this but for small, local charities, who no doubt need the cash and publicity and who can be easily researched for their connections to anything dubious.

OP can you ask the school as to where the decision came from to participate? I think sometimes shift because it's always been done it continues I without questions. Just because it has always been done doesn't mean it should always be done.

I think I'm going to let my kids go to school in non-uniform, but talk to school and say I want my donation to go to the school (I am sure they will not say no!), but insist that it does not go to Children in Need - and I will explain why (I do not approve of a lot of their grant giving because x,y,z etc). It would be great if mums up and down the country did that. I'll also donate to the local food bank too @JellySlice, good idea

It’s nearly always better to choose your own charities after appropriate research, rather than getting dragged onto the latest fashionable bandwagon. I’m glad I no longer have school age DC, as I can see the difficulty of one’s own kids being picked on for not contributing.
I also dislike the concept of non uniform days to fund charities, as it puts pressure on poor families who can’t afford the donation.
I support various organisations, and as I’m a Christian feminist, they include campaigns against fgm, safe toilets for women, sanpro for third world girls, legal help for DV sufferers in poor countries, etc, along with all the usual foodbank/clean water/farming help ones.
A lot of third world charities specifically target their help at women, for example in funding and equipping women’s business collectives.
It’s usually possible to cherry pick specific campaigns for this sort of thing within the larger ones. That way you can avoid funding anything that teaches gender stereotypes as reality, or tramples on women’s rights.

What do women think about sending your kids to school in non-uniform, but telling the school that you want the donation to go to the school and NOT to Children in Need (and tell them why)? I think it is a great idea, and the school can hardly refuse can they?

The school could have a selection of charities, like Waitrose do for their green tokens.

I told my DD that she could wear mufti but we’d explain to her teacher why she wouldn’t be donating as she’d pick her own charity (we did this last year no problems). This year she’s asked if there is a charity that ‘helps boys who like to wear dresses to know that it’s ok to be a boy who likes dresses’ (she’s 7) so we’re going to see if we can donate to a group like transgender trend unless anyone could suggest a different charity with this aim

I'm letting my DD go in non uniform but I'm not giving a donation to Children in Need. I already give a regular payment to Plan International and also donate to the foodbank.

@JellySlice I no longer support CiN, either. Instead I will give a larger-than-usual donation of consumables to the local Food Bank

I was planning to do exactly the same thing! I figure it's the best way to ensure a donation goes directly where it's needed; directly to a child rather than an organisation which will use the funds goodness knows how. This is my general approach to charity giving from now on.

This is my least favourite part of parenting - dealing with all this snash that as an adult one can happily ignore. Who actually 'supports' these charities these days? It's just an unavoidable school expense we are compelled to take part in, in practise.