World Vision Report: 23 pct of children living in rural areas go to bed hungry, 93 pct, bullied at school

A quarter of children living in rural areas go to bed hungry at night, shows a World Vision Romania report launched on Wednesday, at the Palace of Parliament.The report, titled "The well-being of children in rural areas" is the only longitudinal analysis of child welfare and the seventh report on child welfare carried out by the foundation in Romania, according to representatives of the foundation.According to the document, presented at the event by Mihaela Nabar, executive director of World Vision, almost a quarter of children - 23% - always or sometimes go to bed hungry at night because there is not enough food at home, while 93% of rural children have suffered at least one bullying situation at school during the previous school year.The survey shows that two out of 10 parents believe that it is sometimes necessary to beat their children to better educate them, while 42% of rural households with children have no earned income.The document also shows that 4 out of 10 secondary school children (41%) do not want to go to high school, but want to get a job, work in the family or take a qualification course. The data adds that 14% of children aged 5-17 do not always bathe every week.The data also shows that 12.3 RON/day is the average amount spent on food in the family for rural children, and 15% of rural children over 8 years of age (about 154,000 children) always feel tired because they work before or after school.The report was launched on November 20, the International Children's Rights Day, an extremely important day worldwide, emphasized the representative of World Vision Romania."What we are seeing this year is that, yes, some of the indicators have improved, but a very large part of the indicators have gotten worse, especially those indicators related to children's basic rights. (...) If we were to look, for example, at how hungry our children are, what we find is that almost a quarter of children in Romania go to bed always or sometimes hungry in the evening, because there is not enough food at home. This is a percentage which, unfortunately, has increased compared to 2020, when we had one in 10 children who go to bed hungry almost every evening or always. I think we should look at why this is happening, how much the inequity has increased and how well we allocate resources," said Mihaela Nabar.The event included a debate with the participation of government representatives and MPs from the current legislature. (Photo:https://www.facebook.com/WorldVisionRomania)