Sunday 22 August 2010

Peru has fastest growing economy in Western Hemisphere.

Indigenous children, Peru
THE QUESTION IS WILL THE WEALTH TRICKLE DOWN TO THE POOR?
The United Nations Fund for Children (UNICEF), warned in a study of poverty in Peru reaches 78% of the indigenous population between 3 and 17 years, compared with 40% of those with Castilian as language.
"The disadvantage is accentuated in the jungle native groups, which concentrate the bulk of negative indicators in terms of poverty, education, identity and health," said the AP on Thursday the UNICEF representative in Peru, Paul Martin.
"He notes that there are inequities between speaking and indigenous children, but there are also differences between the Quechua and Aymara indigenous children compared with those of the tribes in the jungle," he said.
"The study shows that part of Peru's human capital is wasted.
Besides the legal arguments to improve is a good economic argument for investing in Indian children, "he added.
The research, which used official figures between 2007 and 2009, indicates that indigenous people in Peru over 4 million, of which more than one million are children and adolescents.
Not specified the number of children and adolescents with Castilian as their mother tongue.
SERIOUS PROBLEMS
The figures show that more than half of Indian schools do not have water, electricity or drainage.
An example of these shortcomings are schools Yine natives who live in gas-bearing province of La Convencion, Loreto and Ucayali.
Research shows that lack of identity documents, which hampers the precise social assistance programs is higher in the indigenous jungle.
The Ashaninka, the largest ethnic Amazon has 25% of children aged between 3 and 5 years with no birth certificate.
Health facilities in areas where indigenous children live, usually remote, have problems with supply of health professionals despite the state cover increased health insurance since 2007.
The UNICEF representative in Peru recalled that motherhood is more common among adolescents of different ethnic groups of the forest, compared with adolescents Quechua and Aymara.
According to official figures there are 43 languages in Peru Andean and Amazonian grouped into 19 language families.