By: Daniel Nardini
According to a report put out on its 2011 KIDSCOUNT databook by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, children in Puerto Rico are especially at-risk from a number of factors from poverty to poor education. The report was published with the purpose of alerting not only Puerto Rican authorities of the problems children on the island face but also for all Americans since what affects Puerto Ricans affects all of the United States.
The report discloses that a record number of Puerto Rican children are born and live in dire poverty—57 percent (higher than any single state on the mainland United States). Puerto Rican children are also exposed to far more danger to contracting dangerous viruses than is true of children on the mainland United States because many parents cannot afford doctors or health care facilities.
According to the report, Puerto Rico’s infant mortality rate has come down considerably. Even so, at 8.4 infant mortality rate per 1,000 births, it is still higher compared to the infant mortality rate of any U.S. state and shows that Puerto Rico must try to reduce its infant mortality rate further. The real weak link for Puerto Rican children is the Great Recession. Puerto Rico was especially hit hardest by the economic downturn, and at present 3,000 children, along with their families, have been affected by the foreclosure crisis that has hit both the United States and Puerto Rico. In other words, these children and their families have lost everything when their families lost their homes and all their possessions.
On the positive side, the number of Puerto Rican children born to teenage mothers decreased 24 percent from the years 2000 to 2008, but at present the economic crisis has only made their overall living conditions that much harder. In fact, 52 percent of all those Puerto Rican children at-risk now have at least one parent without a job and 54 percent live in a single parent family. If these numbers are alarming, we must keep in mind that what we are seeing could keep getting worse and may eventually create a lost generation of Puerto Rican children. The report cited that whatever economic gains most Puerto Ricans had made during the 1990’s have been lost in the current economic crisis, and the children will be the ones who will suffer the long-term consequences.
And these consequences will affect all of us. We are not talking about statistics here, but people who will go to great lengths to help save their families and their children. During times of economic crisis many children will grow up in a damaged environment and this can have catastrophic consequences. Think of how many of these children may grow up to become gang members, drug addicts, and maybe criminals if we do not help them now. Those parents who try to seek to get out of their impoverished environment will definitely pack up and go to the mainland United States. Whether they will find a better life here is questionable.
If nothing else the report is a serious wake-up call for trying to deal with problems that are both deep-seated and also the result of the Great Recession. Whether we as a nation will help our people and most of all our children at this juncture of deepest need remains an open question.
Puerto Rican Children at Risk
By: Daniel Nardini
The report discloses that a record number of Puerto Rican children are born and live in dire poverty—57 percent (higher than any single state on the mainland United States). Puerto Rican children are also exposed to far more danger to contracting dangerous viruses than is true of children on the mainland United States because many parents cannot afford doctors or health care facilities.
According to the report, Puerto Rico’s infant mortality rate has come down considerably. Even so, at 8.4 infant mortality rate per 1,000 births, it is still higher compared to the infant mortality rate of any U.S. state and shows that Puerto Rico must try to reduce its infant mortality rate further. The real weak link for Puerto Rican children is the Great Recession. Puerto Rico was especially hit hardest by the economic downturn, and at present 3,000 children, along with their families, have been affected by the foreclosure crisis that has hit both the United States and Puerto Rico. In other words, these children and their families have lost everything when their families lost their homes and all their possessions.
On the positive side, the number of Puerto Rican children born to teenage mothers decreased 24 percent from the years 2000 to 2008, but at present the economic crisis has only made their overall living conditions that much harder. In fact, 52 percent of all those Puerto Rican children at-risk now have at least one parent without a job and 54 percent live in a single parent family. If these numbers are alarming, we must keep in mind that what we are seeing could keep getting worse and may eventually create a lost generation of Puerto Rican children. The report cited that whatever economic gains most Puerto Ricans had made during the 1990’s have been lost in the current economic crisis, and the children will be the ones who will suffer the long-term consequences.
And these consequences will affect all of us. We are not talking about statistics here, but people who will go to great lengths to help save their families and their children. During times of economic crisis many children will grow up in a damaged environment and this can have catastrophic consequences. Think of how many of these children may grow up to become gang members, drug addicts, and maybe criminals if we do not help them now. Those parents who try to seek to get out of their impoverished environment will definitely pack up and go to the mainland United States. Whether they will find a better life here is questionable.
If nothing else the report is a serious wake-up call for trying to deal with problems that are both deep-seated and also the result of the Great Recession. Whether we as a nation will help our people and most of all our children at this juncture of deepest need remains an open question.