The children’s bed poverty charity Zarach was established in response to the devastating effects that assistant headteacher Bex Wilson was seeing of poverty on the children she was teaching in inner-city Leeds.
In 2018, when teaching a year 6 class, Bex noticed a boy scratching his tummy. He told her that he and his brother slept on a cushion. The cushion had bed bugs which made his tummy itchy. Struggling to find a charity that could support this family, and discovering that this was a problem that was affecting 400,000 children all across the UK, Bex vowed to make a difference.
Barnardos released an updated report in 2023 estimating that a devastating 900,000 children are now living in bed poverty. (Barnardos ‘No Crib for a Bed’ report)
We know that the benefits of good sleep are far-reaching. Zarach is now an established charity on a mission to end child bed poverty in England giving children the opportunity to engage at school and a chance to break the future cycle of Poverty.