On the floor of a gymnasium in the Årstad district of Bergen, around thirty fifth-graders run around. This day, taekwondo is on the program. Other days it can be volleyball, gymnastics or tennis. The sport is part of the project Homework help, sports and food – known by the abbreviation LIM. – The homework help is very good. It is not certain that the parents at home can always help with the tasks, says 11-year-old Arwa Omer. – And then children can go on leisure activities even if they don’t have much money. AFTER SCHOOL: Seventh grader Arwa Omer gets free food, homework help and gets to try various sports after school. Photo: Oddgeir Øystese / news The seventh grader grows up in the poorest district of Bergen. One in four children here grows up in a home with persistently low income. The inhabitants of the Årstad district live more cramped, finish upper secondary school less often and have a lower life expectancy than in the rest of the city. To mention something. What will the politicians in Bergen do for Arwa and her friends? Why has the proportion of poor children in this district increased? And why is it the LIM project – an initiative by a local zealot – that provides these children with free leisure time? POVERTY: 24 percent of the children in the Årstad district grow up in households with persistently low incomes. Low income is defined as below 60 percent of the median income. Offers homework help, food and 15 sports Recently, most things have become more expensive for everyone. The electricity price has increased. The interest rate has increased. Basic goods have become more expensive. But in the Årstad district, the economy has been bad for a long time. Regardless of whether the leader of the city council has been from the Conservative Party or the Labor Party, the social differences in this particular district have been high. Under the Conservative government from the beginning of the 2000s to 2015, the proportion of children in low-income households increased from 13.9 per cent in the period 2004–2006 to 22.8 per cent in 2014–2016. Since 2015, the Labor Party has had the city council leader in Bergen. For the children in Årstad, the number of poor increased further to 24 per cent, according to the most recently available figures in FHI’s public health profile. TAEKWONDO: The children get to try out many different sports, including taekwondo. Photo: Oddgeir Øystese / news – Everyone should have equal opportunities One person who has seen the development is Arild Hovland. He is retired and passionate about Trane IL, one of the local sports teams. Seven years ago, he got the idea to do something for the district he himself grew up in. A collaboration between zealots, parents and the school for pupils who, for various reasons, have nothing to do after school. – Everyone must have equal opportunities. There is always someone who doesn’t want to join when the train leaves, but everyone needs the opportunity to join. And it should be free for everyone. Homework help, sports and food, abbreviated to LIM, is an after-school offer for pupils from 5th grade and upwards at Slettebakken School in Bergen. LIM must integrate, equalize and prevent anyone from being left out. The core of the project is ten different sports teams which together offer the children fifteen different sports. Everything is based on volunteerism. Only in 2021 did the public sector contribute a small sum. The offer started in 2017 and was a huge success. Now LIM has been extended to five schools in Bergen. Facts about the LIM project LIM started as an offer in collaboration with Slettebakken school in 2017. In 2021-22 Fridalen and Ny-Krohnborg school started with LIM. In 2022-23, Møhlenpris school joined. Loddefjord School will start the offer this year. The offer has been financed through funds from private funds and foundations and through the public sector via Bufetat and Bergen municipality. They have also received inclusion funds through the Swedish Sports Confederation and the Swedish Sports Council. As of August 2023, there are 11 sports teams: Bergens Turnforening, Paradis Tennis Klubb, Gimle Basketball Klubb, Bergen Ishockey Klubb, Bergen Kunstløpklubb, Bjørgvin Atletklubb, Bergen Klatreklubb, Bergen Handballklubb, Centrum Taekwondoklubb and Sportsklubben Trane, in collaboration with the Sports Council in Bergen. The mastermind behind LIM is Arild Hovland. After the start in 2017, four other schools in Bergen have joined, and a fifth will start up this autumn. Photo: Oddgeir Øystese / news – Everyone is included here Monika Schelander is the general manager of the charitable organization KIL Fond, They help poor families in Bergen with everything from clothes to food boxes. In this election campaign, the politicians have argued about free after-school education for all third-graders. Another solution the politicians have discussed is to remove the property tax. But the problem is unlikely to have an easy solution, according to Schelander. She believes that the municipality itself has contributed to the differences by gathering many municipal housing in the same district. – I don’t think the politicians have any idea of the consequences of that election, says Monika Schelander. – We see an enormous social heritage, especially in the Årstad district. Parents who do not have the resources to help their children further, because they have no network that can help. I therefore believe that the municipality should have distributed these families to all the districts, says Schelander. And network is a key word. Research shows that finances have a lot to say about whether children participate in sports or not. When parents are given bad advice, one of the first things that often happens is that the children are taken out of leisure activities. Discount schemes from the sports team can help, but asking for help is often shameful, says Schelander. – When children are not allowed to attend after-school or leisure activities, they lose the opportunity to form networks. We also see a trend that young people in this social group are becoming increasingly less socialised, she says. On Tuesday evening it is Storbystudio from Bergen, where social inequality is the theme. The principal at Slettebakken school, Torgeir Skjælaaen, is particularly positive about homework help. – It is homework help in a more holistic way. Photo: Oddgeir Øystese / news – It’s important that it’s free Jens Niranadand in seventh grade says that almost half of his classmates go to LIM. He believes all schools should have a similar offer. – There are a lot of children who are outside, but here they can make friends. – Yes, everyone is included here, Arwa Omer interjects. At Slettebakken, an area in the Årstad district, the principal believes they are succeeding with their scheme. – The most important thing here is that things are free. This offer would not have been the same if the parents had to pay a deductible. It is also about the fact that there are football boots and climbing boots here that you can borrow. You just have to come, says principal Torgeir Skjælaaen at Slettebakken school. He has no doubt that LIM means a great deal to many of the students. – I find that children who otherwise would not have had the opportunity to take part in leisure activities now can, says Skjælaaen. LIVE AT 8 PM: Social inequalities in Bergen are the main theme during news’s Storbystudio from Bergen on Tuesday 5 September.
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Arwa lives in the Årstad district of Bergen. The LIM project ensures a free offer after school – news Vestland
