Quito (Fides Service) - About 40-50% of the children in Ecuador suffers from under-nourishment, 20% is underweight smaller than average and 70% lives below the poverty line. About six million need all round assistance and of these 49% suffers from chronic under-nourishment. Seven out of ten children are maltreated of which 26% subject to sexual abuse.
According to UNICEF 32% of Ecuador’s children die before reaching the age of five. The main causes of death are intestinal infections and respiratory diseases. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Programme the country is gripped by a vicious circle of under-nourishment because under-nourished mothers give birth to under-nourished children and so on. Government efforts to solve the problem are insufficient.
Camillian Father Alberto Redaelli of the Camillian community in Quito is head of the feeding centre opened in 1998 at a complex sustained by the Fecupal Foundation.
The centre cares for the most desperate cases supplying food with extra vitamins and proteins and advice on feeding and general medical questions.
The programme assists and provides food for 60 children with disabilities: 8 epileptics, 17 cerebral paralysis 6 mentally retarded, 10 Downs and the rest with congenital pathologies. (AP) (23/7/2004 Agenzia Fides; Righe;22; Parole:224)