Beirut: More than half a family in Lebanon has at least one child who missed eating on October 2021 in the middle of the “dramatic damage of life conditions”, the UN children’s funds said in a report released on Tuesday.
Children have been hit hard by the economic crisis of the profound state that was exacerbated by the Global Coronavirus pandemic who had left around eight in 10 poor people and threatened to education around 700,000 children including 260,000 Lebanon, the report said.
The multifaceted crisis, rooted in the decade of corruption and mismanaged, has caused interference in providing basic services such as electricity and water.
Nearly half of the households have inadequate drinking water in October 2021, the report said, with a third of them quoting costs as a major factor.
“The magnitude of the surprising crisis must be a wake-up call,” said Yukie Mokuo, representative of UNICEF in Lebanon.
The report noted that less than three of the 10 families had received social assistance, leading them to take “desperate actions”.
The proportion of the Lebanese family that send children to work has increased seven times to seven percent between April and October, the report said.
The government of Prime Minister Najib Mikati has slowed to implement a social security program including $ 246 million funded by the World Bank adopted by parliament in March and a $ 556 million ration card scheme supported by the legislature in June.
“Urgent action is needed to ensure that no child is starving, being sick or must work than to receive education,” Mokuo said.