Salina Miguel, 14, from Maffeking Village in Ortorie Mayaro, Trinidad, earns a living selling green bananas and ochroes at the family’s garden stall. Like hundreds of children her age, Salina can’t attend school due to extreme poverty or other social ills. She is among a growing global population of children who are deprived of life's necessities - including food, shelter and medical care.
It is estimated that 14 per cent of school children in Trinidad and Tobago are dropouts. And there is concern that it will get worse, especially in rural areas.
While education is free up to the university level, the associated costs for travel, school uniforms, books and other essentials make education a luxury for many families. So they keep their children at home and the vicious cycle of poverty continues.
Trinidad and Tobago, unlike most underdeveloped nations in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa where the problem is even greater, is endowed with the resources to end this neglect, but its priorities appear to be misplaced.
Children represent a nation's future; to neglect them and rob them of their basic rights is the greatest injustice any society can inflict on itself.
The UNICEF report on the State of the World's Children 2008 released a few weeks ago notes that millions of children born into poverty worldwide will die before their fifth birthdays.
Fortunately, Trinidad and Tobago is far from that state of decline. But continued disdain for the rights of children will condemn generations to lives of poverty. Children are too precious to be ignored; they are the future.
The UNICEF report is essential reading for anyone who cares about the future of children, especially policy makers and governments.
Read the full report: State of World's Children - 2008
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