AMERICA/BOLIVIA - Malnutrition and lack of health care and hygiene for children who live with their parents in prisons

Tuesday, 27 November 2012

La Paz (Agenzia Fides) - Bolivia is one of the few countries where inmates can live in cells with their children. It is an irregular situation which, besides being dangerous for the integrity of children who are subjected to deficiencies in health care, education and food, it penalizes their normal development. In fact, in addition to having to live with criminals in an environment full of violence, most children eat just once a day. There is no fund to cover their food needs, and if the parents do not produce an income, they have to settle for leftovers. In addition, the children have to wait at least two weeks to be able to wash themselves, there is lack of qualified medical assistance, and many of them sleep under their parents’ bed or in the corners better equipped for the purpose. There are no spaces for recreation or school material for them to study. Hundreds of children are thus condemned to live among violence, projected towards a future of suffering compounded by malnutrition that in the young ones under 5 years of age, causes irreversible damage, delays in physical and mental growth. (AP) (Agenzia Fides 27/11/2012)


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