What Do the Children of Latin America and the Caribbean Say?
The recently conducted UNICEF Regional Survey: Voices of Children and Adolescents in Latin America and the Caribbean provided the following striking evidence from interviews with 12,000 children and adolescents ages 9 to 18: • more than half of those interviewed say they are not heard, either at home or at school; • children express low levels of trust in their governments and do not feel that they are seen by them as important; • children express great pessimism concerning the future of their countries. Two-thirds of respondents believe that their country is going to be the same (34%) or worse (33%) in the future; • in contrast, optimism exists concerning the possibility of having a better life than that of their parents; • one of every five respondents live alone with their mother; • 25% of respondents complain of a high level of aggressive behaviour in the household; • 43% of respondents indicated that they feel hardly or not at all secure in the places where they live; • a third of
