African Christian

Connecting People and Resources to help fight child poverty in Africa

Understanding Child Poverty in Africa

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CHILD POVERTY IN AFRICA

AFRICA means ‘pleasant’ but unlike it’s meaning, there is a lot of misery and a lot of child poverty in Africa.

Africa was poor, is poor and will remain to be poor if Africans do not take it upon themselves to curb the poverty. Unfortunately, most of the people affected by this poverty are the little children…these little angels that are under punishment that they do not deserve!

The top ten poorest countries in Africa are: Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Burkina, Burundi, Central Africa, Niger, Somali, Mali and Ethiopia.

Go to any village or even town…you will not miss to see little beings from all walks of life playing around innocently, not knowing what lies ahead. These are the off springs of poor village girls who out of desperation turned to marriage seeking consolation only to add more trouble to themselves.

Some of the African cultures contribute a great deal to the levels of child poverty in Africa in their respective communities. Talk to a teenage girl in one of the villages. You will learn that she was denied education to be given in to marriage to an old man as a third or fourth wife: just because their culture says so. If this is the trend in say only five countries in Africa, can poverty ever be eradicated? Never!

The poor African child, despite lacking a balanced diet also lacks clean water to drink. The water available to them is the one they have to go and fetch miles and miles away which they also share with the animals. The water is therefore contaminated. On intake, the child is infected with water-borne diseases and getting medical attention is the other problem. It is not that there are no drugs in Africa but the poor African child has no access to them. Most of the children do not get access to education and therefore remain confined to their villages. Those who find their way to towns again land in slums.

STATISTICS ON CHILD POVERTY in Africa

  1. About 120,000 African children are participating in armed conflicts. Some are as young as 7 years old. There are several thousands of ‘children of wars’ in Africa today with no parents and no relatives at all to care for them. Most join gangs, sleep on streets and struggle all day long just to get something to eat. (sources: United Nations, African Union)
  2. About 30 percent of all children in developing countries suffer from stunted growth (underweight). Nearly one third of children in Sub-Saharan Africa are underweight. (source: UNICEF)
  3. Between 12 and 16 million African children have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS. About 70% of these orphans in sub-Saharan Africa (source: World Vision)
  4. Nearly 2 million children under 14 years old are HIV positive in sub-Saharan Africa. Some of these children face abandonment and could die in isolation. (Avert )
  5. 43% of children in Sub-Saharan Africa do not have safe, accessible drinking water. Bad drinking water causes several water-related diseases in these communities. (source: UNICEF)
  6. More than 200,000 child slaves are sold every year in Africa. There are an estimated 8,000 girl-slaves in West Africa alone. (BBC: Anti-Slavery Society)
  7. Only 57% of African children are enrolled in primary education, and one in three of those does not complete school. For the price of one missile, a school of hungry children could eat lunch every single day for the next 5 years. (African Union: Poverty in Africa statistics)
  8. More than 2.5 billion people in developing countries lack basic sanitation. 64% of children in Sub-Saharan Africa do not have adequate sanitation. (UNICEF, WHO)
  9. For every 100 boys there are only 83 girls enrolled at primary school. Almost one billion people in the world today are unable to read a book or even sign their names. Meanwhile, less than one percent of what the world spends every year on weapons can put every school-going child in the world in school. (Sources: World Vision, African Union)
  10. About 500 million malarial cases are recorded every year with about 1 million fatalities. About 90% of all malaria deaths occur in Africa especially in Sub-Saharan Africa with children being the most affected group. (Source: WHO, UNICEF)