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World's children bearing brunt of COVID-19 pandemic, Vatican studies say

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Philip Pullella, Reuters

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="Children go home after attending the first day of face-to-face classes at the Ricardo P. Cruz Sr. Elementary School in Taguig City on December 06, 2021. Jonathan Cellona, ABS-CBN News" src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2021/life/12/17/20211206-face-to-face-class-taguig-jc-034659880.jpg"/><figcaption>Children go home after attending the first day of face-to-face classes at the Ricardo P. Cruz Sr. Elementary School in Taguig City on December 06, 2021. <em>Jonathan Cellona, ABS-CBN News</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>VATICAN CITY — The world&#x27;s children are bearing the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic, with marked increases in violence, abuse, child labor, lost schooling, and malnutrition, two Vatican studies said on Wednesday.</p><p>The studies, based on academic, scientific, United Nations data and other source material, were produced by the Vatican&#x27;s development office and the Pontifical Academy for Life.</p><p>&quot;Reports of violence, abuse, and exploitation of children have sharply increased since the pandemic began. Poorer communities disproportionately bear these adversities,&quot; one of the studies said.</p><p>They said that as of September, more than five million children were estimated to have lost a parent, custodial grandparent or secondary caregiver to the pandemic. This translated to a child losing a parent or caregiver every 12 seconds.</p><p>The pandemic reversed an encouraging trend in poverty reduction, plunging 150 million more children into poverty and increasing the number of children in child labor to 160 million.</p><p>Rising food insecurity led to between six and seven million new cases of acute malnutrition in children under five, translating to about 10,000 deaths a month in 2020, 80 percent of them in South Asia or Sub-Saharan Africa.</p><p>Child malnutrition was also increased by the loss of some 39 billion school meals, which even in some developed countries are the only good meal they receive.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/advertorial/life/12/20/21/how-nutrition-affects-a-childs-learning-ability">How nutrition affects a child&#x27;s learning ability</a></li></ul><p>The rate of dropping out of school was increasing significantly in the global south and an estimated 10 million children worldwide may never return to school.</p><p>Child marriages were increasing as the poorest of families sought to relieve financial pressures.</p><p>The studies called for the equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, which Pope Francis has championed, more government spending on children, and keeping schools open as much as possible. </p><div><strong>RELATED VIDEO</strong></div><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" frameBorder="0" height="100%" id="ivsplayer01" scrolling="no" src="https://player.ivideosmart.com/ivsplayer/v4/dist/html/iframe-src.html?iframeid=ivsplayer01&amp;key=e8c22c015ca9eafa76f1e3edfa03c603&amp;spid=3001339&amp;vid=1704853" width="100%"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more in <a href="//www.iwantv.com.ph/">iWantv</a> or <a href="//tfc.tv/">TFC.tv</a></div>

The studies were produced by the Vatican's development office and the Pontifical Academy for Life.

World's children bearing brunt of COVID-19 pandemic, Vatican studies say

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World's children bearing brunt of COVID-19 pandemic, Vatican studies say

Philip Pullella,

Reuters

Published December 23, 2021 02:10 AM PHT

|

Updated December 23, 2021 01:43 PM PHT

Read More:

COVID-19

pandemic

child labor

schooling

child malnutrition

Vatican

Pontifical Academy for Life

child marriage

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