Impacts on Early Emotional Development

This week we were asked to visit the UNICEF website and choose one of the eight regions of the world to investigate. I chose Latin America and the Caribbean because many people view this area of the world as a vacation destination and may not realize the challenges that children face who live in this region. 

One of the biggest challenges that children face in the region of Latin America and the Caribbean is  poverty.

Here are some facts provided from the website regarding poverty:
In Latin America, the poorest 20% receive less than 10% of total income, while the richest 20% receive roughly between 50 and 60%.
* 37% of the rural population of Latin America is indigent, compared to 13% of the urban population.
* The incidence of extreme poverty affects more children than any other population group. Approximately 30% of children under 12 living in extreme poverty, compared with 14% of those over 20 years.
* Indigenous and African descent are the poorest, have the worst socioeconomic indicators and their access to knowledge and political participation is lower.
* Although the region produces enough food to meet the nutritional needs of three times the current population, 8.8 million suffer from chronic malnutrition (UNICEF, 2015).

Education is another challenge that children in this region face.

     Children in this region who have disabilities and those from poor households in rural areas have lower rates of access, enrollment, and completion of school. When we look at the differences among the gender of children, boys tend to get lower results in the Caribbean, while in some countries in the region, indigenous girls face greater obstacles to achieving good results in education. The level of education that children are receiving is not meeting expectations. The increase of poverty, unemployment, natural disasters, and violence continue to bring challenges and threaten the progrss that is being made; therefore, limiting the growth opportunities in education (UNICEF ,2015). 

     Child mortality is another challenge that children face. According to the website, the inequities in income and ethnicity have a marked impact on infant mortality. Child mortality is consistently higher in the lower income groups and affects large-scale rural people.

     According to the website, In Latin America and the Caribbean, chronic malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies are the nutritional problems affecting mostly children under 3 years and pregnant women. It is now recognized that the period between pregnancy and 2 years of age is crucial for optimal growth and development. Among the many causes influencing the low nutrition of stage are;

* low breastfeeding exclusively until the first 6 months of life;

* inadequate or delayed introduction of complementary foods with poor nutritional quality of food;

* high prevalence of diarrhea, respiratory infections, and other diseases (UNICEF, 2015).

     When I take the time to take a closer look at websites such as UNICEF it reinforces within me the impact that poverty has on children’s growth, development, learning, and opportunities. We strive for ALL children to develop to their fullest and it saddens me how children all over the world do not have the same opportunities, access to food, clean water, and education. It is hopeful to know that there are organizations such as UNICEF who wants all children to have a good start in life.

     According to the website, UNICEF's vision is to contribute to a good start in life, help children to obtain the necessary learning abilities and ensure that no discrimination of gender, ability, ethnicity and class. It also promotes the participation of adolescents, families, communities and schools for better culturally appropriate, inclusive and healthy upbringing (UNICEF, 2015).

Reference

Website

UNICEF

http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/