these children are our future

National Situation:

* Infant mortality rate is pegged at 42.73 per 1,000 live births
* 28% of children under age 5 are severely and moderately underweight based on international standards
* 49% of the total population of infants and 26% of the total population of children with ages ranging from 1 – 6 years old suffer from iron-deficiency anemia.
* There is one (1) hospital for every 113,040 people. There is only 1 doctor for every 24, 417 people; 1 nurse for every 22,309; 1 dentist for every 578,124; and, 1 midwife for every 722,654 people
* More than half of the over 42,000 barangays in the country do not have provisions for a pre-school. Only 19% of children aged 4 to 6 years old are able to go to public and private pre-schools.
* More than 1/3 of the more than 42,000 barangays in the country could not offer the required six years of elementary education.
* Sixty percent of the children drop out of school when they reach the second grade
* Sixty-one towns in the country do not have a high school.
* It is estimated that there are about five million child laborers in the country. Two-thirds of them are found in the rural areas.
* There are 1.5 million streetchildren. DSWD estimates that this number increases annually by 6,365.
* Of the 1.5 million streetchildren, 60,000 are prostituted. The DSWD claims that the annual average increase of prostituted children is 3,266. The Philippines is the fourth country with the most number of prostituted children.
* Research studies conducted in schools show that for every 3 Filipino children, one child experiences abuse. During the first semester of 1999 alone, there were 2,393 children who fell prey to rape, attempted rape, incest, acts of lasciviousness and prostitution

The statistics are growing each day. These clearly depict the immense hardship which Filipino children are subjected to.

We did a report on Philippine Poverty for Geog 1 and this is what I found. This is the real state of this nation.