Children need to be at heart of resolving SL crisis: UNICEF regional director

COLOMBO (News 1st); The UNICEF Regional Director for South Asia, George Laryea-Adjei says that children need to be placed squarely at the heart of the solution as the country works to resolve its crisis.

In a statement after his visit to Sri Lanka, the UNICEF Regional Director said that what he saw in Sri Lanka is a caution for other countries in South Asia, and emphasized that acute economic precarity and inflation across South Asia is poised to further threaten the lives of children - in a region which was already home to one fifth of the world’s extreme poor and profound hardships and inequities impacting children’s health, learning and safety.

Adjei said that it is the poorest, most vulnerable girls and boys who are paying the steepest price, as the economic crisis continues to rattle Sri Lanka.

“Almost half of children in Sri Lanka already require some form of emergency assistance. The education of 4.8 million children, already severely hampered by two years of interrupted learning, is at risk as school attendance continues to be jeopardized. Children’s education is being hindered by the current crisis in many ways—children no longer get the warm and nutritious meal that they used to have before the crisis, they lack basic stationery, and their teachers struggle with transportation," he said.

Pointing out that reports are already emerging of increase in abuse, exploitation and violence against children due to the mounting economic pressure, the UNICEF Regional Director for South Asia said that the current crisis is pushing more and more families to put their children under institutional care as they cannot afford to provide for them, including feeding.

"If the current trend continues, hard-earned progress for children in Sri Lanka is at risk of being reversed and in some cases, erased permanently." Adjei cautioned.