Bolivia: Challenges for Children
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Save the Children began working in Bolivia in 1986. Today, the organization works with children, youth and their families in the regions of La Paz and Oruro, two impoverished areas in the high plains, and focuses on programs in education, health and nutrition, emergency relief, economic development and water and sanitation.
Daily Life for Bolivia's Children and Youth
- Bolivia is South America's poorest country — it was ranked 113 out of 177 countries in the world in the 2005 Human Development Index.
- The Bolivian educational system has outdated teaching methodologies, curricula and teachers who require more training.
- Approximately 24 percent of children are unable to enter school at age 6 — they either do not have access or are contributing to help their struggling families.
- Only 40 percent of the children who enter school complete their secondary education.
- Bolivia is grappling with rural/urban migration, political unrest, corruption and economic instability.
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3 year-old David eats a habas bean. The habas field was planted with the help of Save the Children. |
Two-thirds of Bolivia's people, many of whom are subsistence farmers, live in poverty. Infant mortality represents more than half of child deaths under the age of 5, and more than one-third of all child deaths. On average, of the 255,000 infants born each year in Bolivia, 7,000 die in their first month of life, and another 7,000 do not survive their first year of life. Some 13 percent of adolescent girls are pregnant or have already had children, and an increase in sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS, is cause for growing concern in Bolivia.
Numbers at a Glance
- Bolivia's infant mortality rate is 50 deaths per 1,000 live births;
- Among children 6 months to 5 years old, 51 percent are malnourished;
- Illiteracy among Bolivians 15 years and older is 13 percent.
