Inter Press Service - December 9, 2004
Diego Cevallos

Her father, Jesus Omar, who has lived on the streets since he was 10, and his tiny daughter who was born on Tuesday are just a few of the millions of youngsters in Latin America for whom "childhood" is an empty word.

Between 56 and 59 percent of children and adolescents in Latin America and the Caribbean are poor, the regional director of the United Nations children's fund (UNICEF), Nils Kastberg, said Thursday at the release of the Latin American section of the "State of the World's Children - 2005: Childhood Under Threat" report.

In this region, 21 percent of children under 18 lack adequate housing, 16 percent do not even have access to a latrine, seven percent lack health care, five percent are underweight or short for their age, and three percent of children between the ages of seven and 18 have never gone to school.

And in many places around the region, children face threats like domestic violence, armed violence, and contagion with HIV, the AIDS virus.

For them, childhood is a word devoid of meaning, as well as a broken promise, says UNICEF.

And although progress has been made towards improving the conditions faced by children and teenagers in the region, there are still many problems to overcome, said Kastberg.

Omar is all too familiar with these problems. In his years on the streets, he has "seen and done just about everything," he told IPS.

His earliest years were marked by violence, meted out by his father, and the rest of his childhood by drugs, early sex, and the constant struggle of scrounging for food.

"Well here, you can experience everything, and even be a father if you hook up with the girl you like the best," said Omar.

The "home" he shares with his girlfriend Laura is in a small, run-down park near Reforma boulevard, one of the main avenues in Mexico City. Their tent is surrounded by garbage, stray dogs and rats that come out at night.

"I don't know what we're going to do with the baby, but we want to keep her and give her what she needs," said Omar.

Their daughter was born early, and the birth was attended by medical students who happened to be passing by. Today, Laura and her baby, who weighed 2.2 kgs at birth, are in a public hospital, where they were taken by paramedics.

UNICEF underlines that insufficient family income, like the poverty that Omar and Laura's daughter is facing, represents inequality of opportunities for children to survive, grow up and thrive.

In Brazil, children in families with incomes below half of the minimum wage are three times more likely to die before their fifth birthday, 21 times more likely to be illiterate, and 30 times more likely to live in a home without piped water, says UNICEF.

"I don't know what we'll do. Maybe I'll look for a job to support my daughter, to give her what she needs," said Omar.

The countries of Latin America and the Caribbean are ranked towards the middle of UNICEF's list of 192 countries, in terms of under-five child mortality rates, a key indicator of child welfare, says the U.N. agency.

Cuba, where the under-five mortality rate stands at eight per 1,000 live births, ranks at the top of the region, in place 153. Haiti ranks lowest, 118th, with 39 deaths per 1,000 births.

UNICEF recognises that the region has made strides with regards to the conditions facing its children. Between 1960 and 2003, the average under-five mortality rate shrank from 153 to 32 per 1,000 births, and infant mortality (under one year) from 102 to 27 per 1,000.

Latin America is in a good position to meet the United Nations Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of cutting under-five child mortality by two-thirds by 2015, according to UNICEF.

The MDGs, adopted by the international community in 2000, are: to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, improve maternal health, achieve universal primary education, combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases, promote gender equality and empower women, ensure environmental sustainability, reduce child mortality, and develop a global partnership for development.

The UNICEF regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean called on governments and societies in the region to see the goals as "a floor, not a ceiling."

But Omar's aims are more modest. His immediate goal is to find a job and earn a little money to get off the streets, with Laura and their daughter.

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+ UNICEF report (http://www.unicef.org/sowc05/english/index.html)

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