Dundee Bairns charity manager Genna Millar grew up in the city and knows better than most the challenges that local children can face.
It was just her mum and her sister at home and, although the family had a lot of support from her grandparents, Genna admits that things were tough at times.
“I have lived all over Dundee, I have moved house about 17 times in my life!”
These days, Genna is mum to three bairns herself, and is settled with her husband and sons aged, 15, 13, and 9.
A hard-worker from a young age, Genna is never happier than when she has a project to get her teeth into.
“I have worked since I was about 13 – I was often the only kid in my year who had a job and I think I was aware that it was quite challenging, that we didn’t really have the same chances as a lot of the children we went to school with.” she recalls.
Dundee is a city where children face hidden poverty
Through her work at Dundee Bairns, Genna sees some eye-opening cases of child poverty and feels that there is less and less support available for those in need.
“The referrals that we get in sometimes are really quite harrowing,” she says.
“It can be a great feeling when you know that you can help, but it is also so hard to fix lots of things and it is hard to be a sticking plaster when you know that the same issues will return in the long run.”
For Genna, seeing families struggle first hand at Christmas time is one of the most difficult aspects of her job.
“Christmas is the hardest time for me,” she admits. “It is one of the biggest shows of injustice.”
But, having said that: “there is a lot of really good stuff that happens around Christmas.
“People are so generous,” she points out, “even people who don’t have much themselves.”
What are the challenges Genna Miller sees?
“We see a lot of people who are struggling to give their children enough food or clothing and a lot of people who are really struggling,” says the charity manager.
She cites examples such as a family who lost all of their belongings because their house was so mouldy.
Then there’s the grandparents who gave up their own bed to their grandchildren who ended up in their care.
“They were sleeping on the floor so that the kids could have a bed,” says Genna.
Dundee bairns living without a bed
The Beds for Bairns campaign, which is run in partnership with Help for Kids and the Hillcrest Foundation, has been established to help in cases such as this.
Genna is also aware of cases of pregnant mums sleeping on the sofa or disabled children still sleeping in cot beds because they don’t have a suitable alternative.
“Even things like not having enough bedding can be a struggle if you have a child who is a bed-wetter,” explains Genna, “Through Bairns we have had a family who weren’t changing the nappy of their child because of the cost of nappies.”
Even though the scale of the problems faced by children in Dundee can be daunting, Genna is determined to keep working for the city’s bairns.
“I’ve got quite a strong sense of justice and injustice, and I really do feel that what we do makes a difference,” she insists.
Genna also points out that although the team of seven permanent staff are the lynchpin of the Dundee Bairns operation, “we couldn’t do any of this without our volunteers and trustees.
“The trustees are all people who have worked hard in their careers and could quite happily walk off into the distance but they choose to keep giving back.”
“Dundee Bairns is a real show of community spirit.”
Conversation