JUNE 1 st, INTERNATIONAL DAY FOR PROTECTION OF CHILDREN
Hundreds of thousands of children without access to basic goods. According to the survey conducted for Unicef by the Faculty of Primary Education of the University of Athens:
•in 2011 69.000 children lived in abject misery, that is, in families where there is poverty, severe material deprivation and low work intensity.The corresponding figure in 2010 was 12,000 children. Within a year, not only has the number multiplied almost seven times, but also the number of children, who are at serious risk of poverty or social exclusion (poverty, severe material deprivation, low labor intensity) reached 597,000.
• in 2011 9.2% of the children in Greece lived in households where no one works.
• 13.330 children aged 15 – 18 years have been looking for work in 2012, while the number
of children looking for work in 2007 was approximately half (7,697 children). This is caused
by a lot of things and surely it also reflects the need for more children to contribute to the
family’s income, either dropping out of school, or working and going to school at the same time.
•It is estimated that poor children are 465,000 (23.7% of the children population) and 322,000 children are in serious material deprivation: It is characteristic that in 2011 50.8% of the households with children stated inability to pay one week of vacation, 37.2% of these households stated that they faced difficulties in paying utility bills, loan installments etc,
34.5% stated that they faced inability to pay contingency costs: of around 500 euros or more, 19.3% of them economic inability to keep themselves adequately warm, 10, 6% of them economic weakness to provide for themselves a diet that includes every other day chicken, meat, fish or vegetables of equivalent nutritional value (note: these apply for 56.9% of single parent households and 68.8% of families with more than three children).
• As noted in the study of the University, “These conditions, when combined with problems of the buildings related to moisture in the roof, walls and rotten frames”, that affect 14.8% of households in 2011, “can have a significant impact on the health of children, especially of the younger age groups. ”
• There is a steady increase in births of underweight children (under 2,500 grams) associated with the way of living of the mothers, and may have serious effects on the health and development of the child: From 8.8% in 2007 to 9.6% in 2009 and 10% in 2010.
• In 2011 10.1% of the population stated that they could not afford medical costs (tests,etc).
30.05.2013
International Relations Department
