The
Central African Republic is one of the poorest and most dangerous countries in
the world with ongoing instability since its independence from France in 1960. There have been ongoing outbreaks of violence between the army and rebel groups since 2005 often reflecting tensions between ethnic groups. In reality the government has limited control over outlying and border areas where those rebel groups frequently use guerrilla tactics to terrorise and subjugate local communities. This is all reflected in the fact that Central African Republic is in 188th place out of
189 countries and territories in
2019 when ranked in terms of life expectancy, literacy, access to knowledge
and the living standards of a country. Life expectancy
for a child in the Central
African Republic is 53.28 years (2019) with one in ten children dying at before their fifth birthday ~ one of the highest child mortality rates in the world.
With access to electricity running at just 3%, falling to just 0.4% in rural areas (2019), Central African Republic also has one of the world's poorest school
enrolments at 62% for boys dropping to 41% for girls with only around 22% of all children in the country completing their primary school education. This is reflected in the overall adult literacy rate of 37.4%; with male literacy at 49.51% but just 25.76% for females. According to UNICEF and the World Food Programme (WFP), 80,000 children under the age of five are currently at risk of severe acute malnutrition across the Central African Republic with little or no clean drinking water in many communities. Overall, approximately 71% of the country's population lives below the international poverty line despite CAR having natural resources including diamonds, uranium, timber, gold and oil reserves. Part of the problem is that, for most, their lives depend on subsistence farming yet only 2.9% of land is arable and is affected by hot, dry, dusty harmattan winds inbetween regular floods. For those who do work, one week's earnings can just about buy a chicken.
What child
sponsor programs there are in the Central African Republic focus on the 370,000
child orphans and thousands of abandoned street children, as well as reaching out to child soldiers or those who have been traumatized by the levels of violence they had been exposed to. Other charitable work includes general
medical care, education access and clean water projects. You can make a
difference when you sponsor a child in the Central African Republic.
Child Sponsor Central African Republic: SOS Children's Villages
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Child Sponsor Central African Republic: Volunteer in Central African Republic
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