UNICEF has warned of closed schools, poverty, forced marriages and depression – after a year of the pandemic, symptoms that measure the development of children and adolescents.
“The number of children who are hungry, lonely, abused, anxious, living in poverty and being taken into marriage has increased,” said Henrietta Fore, executive director of the International Children’s Emergency Fund. United Nations, in a statement released just a year after the World Health Organization classified covid-19 as a pandemic.
“Their access to education, socialization and essential services including health, nutrition and protection has declined. The signs that children will be carrying the scars of the pandemic for years to come are unparalleled. , “Fore said in the statement. Receiving such “devastating” effects, Fore urged children to be “at the heart of recovery efforts,” particularly by “prioritizing schools in reopening plans.”
UNICEF produced a series of worrying figures supporting Fore’s words. Although the pandemic has taken a heavy toll on the elderly, children and adolescents under 20 make up 13 percent of the 71 million coronavirus cases reported in the 107 countries that provided age-specific data . In developing countries, projections show a 15 percent increase in child poverty.
Six to seven million more children could suffer from malnutrition in 2020, a 14 percent increase that could translate into more than 10,000 additional deaths per month, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Sahara and South Asia. For 168 million students worldwide, schools have been closed for nearly a year. One third of these students do not have access to online education.
Children have a right to “learn and be prepared for the world that awaits them, but it goes beyond that,” said Sanjay Wijesekera, UNICEF’s director of global programs AFP. “When children are out of school, and their parents don’t have jobs, and they don’t have an income that creates unique dynamics that mean families are looking for alternatives and girls brought to early marriages. ”
As schools close and the economic situation worsens, the pandemic could prevent the marriage of 10 million children by 2030, adding to the 100 million girls who were already at risk of premature marriage sin. At least one in seven children or teenagers have spent most of the past year under lockdown orders, increasing anxiety, depression and loneliness, according to Unicef.
The pandemic has also disrupted vaccination campaigns against other diseases – starting with measles – in 26 countries, increasing risks to the health of non-vaccinated people. “Children have paid a heavy price,” Wijesekera said. “And that’s why it’s important to have children at the heart of the recovery. Some of those separations will last … a long time.”