Save the Children: ‘Outbreak could cause millions of children to suffer for years to come’

Children’s rights to survival and protection must be a core part of Canada’s Covid-19 response, Save the Children said today, to ensure an entire generation does not suffer the catastrophic, long-term consequences of the outbreak. To meet children’s needs and guarantee their voices are heard, girls and boys should be directly involved in the decisions being made to battle the virus and mitigate its impact.

Save the Children issued this warning in response to a brief by UN Secretary General António Guterres that was released today.

According to the briefing, an estimated 84 to 132 million people around the world could fall into extreme poverty as a result of the global pandemic, half of them children – meaning their families would have less than $2.80 a day to live on. Save the Children is particularly concerned that loss of income will hinder a families’ chance of survival and ability to put food on the table for their children. With health systems overstretched, hundreds of thousands of additional child deaths could occur this year, particularly if health resources are diverted to fight COVID19 at the expense of other life-saving interventions, such as vaccinations.

Bill Chambers, President and CEO of Save the Children, said:

“We welcome the much-needed words of the UN Secretary-General, and call on Canada to ensure children’s needs and rights are central to its response. The COVID-19 outbreak threatens to undo in just a few months the progress the world has made in recent years on education, protection from violence, child poverty and child survival. It is vital we do not let this happen.”

An estimated 1.5 billion children and youth have so far been unable go to school and many of them have limited access to distance learning. Social disruption and high stress at home can have a deep impact on children’s health and mental wellbeing. Save the Children is warning millions of children- particularly girls- now face an increased risk of violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation. Families stricken by poverty often see no alternative to marrying off their daughters or putting their children to work just to survive. While children are at an increased risk of their rights being violated, the systems designed to protect them are scaled back. This means more violations go unseen, unreported and unpunished, especially in conflict zones where verifying violations is challenging even without a deadly outbreak.

Chambers continued:
“Our teams in Canada and around the world are working hard to prevent the devastating effects of the pandemic on children every day. However, to protect a generation from bearing the brunt of this outbreak and to ensure the rights of the most vulnerable children are upheld, a globally financed and coordinated response is needed.

“Fragile health systems must be protected so that sick children can still be treated for malnutrition and diseases such as malaria, pneumonia and diphtheria. Families need to receive financial support from their governments to prevent them from sliding into poverty, to be able to afford food and basic necessities. Canada can support children here at home, invest in their education and keep them safe, as well as the global response to protect the most vulnerable children already impacted by conflict, displacement and extreme poverty”.

ENDS