The Open Your Eyes to Child Poverty initiative has produced a booklet aimed at helping children living in poverty.

In Our Own Words gives voice to children like Janet, who is homeless and "at the stage where I don't even want to be alive" and Mark, who is disabled and finds "it very difficult for disabled children to use public transport'.' The facts and figures about child poverty in prosperous Ireland are there too: one in four children lives in a family with less than half the average income; Ireland has one of the worst rates of child poverty in the EU; and that one in six children lives in a family considered to be consistently poor. As for facilities: there are twice as many golf courses as there are playgrounds in Ireland.

Over one week in March l999 there were 160 homeless children and young people on their own in counties Dublin, Kildare and Wicklow. Some 1,200 Traveller families live on the roadside. In Our Own Words suggests ways to help tackle the problem and gives practical advice to individuals and voluntary organisations on contribute to the elimination of child poverty. It's the work of the "Open Your Eyes to Child Poverty" initiative, for which eight organisations have come together. It includes Barnardos, the Combat Poverty Alliance and Pavee Point; the booklet is primarily aimed at teachers, social workers, public health nurses and those working in organisations broadly concerned with children and family welfare.

Contact Margaret Dorgan of Barnardos (tel: (01) 453 0355; email: margaret.dorgan@ barnardos.ie).