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Child Sponsor Equatorial Guinea
Equatorial Guinea, including its five islands, is one of the smallest countries in Africa with a population of 1.675 million (2022) and today is a large exporter of oil being sub-Saharan Africa's third largest oil exporter. As such it has a thriving economy, however very little of that wealth has extended to the poorer in society where some 70% of the country live below the United Nation's poverty threshold with 40% living in extreme poverty. There are allegations that most of this wealth is siphoned off into the pockets of the ruling elite. Equatorial Guinea is in 133rd place out of 191 countries and territories in 2021 when ranked in terms of life expectancy, literacy, access to knowledge and the living standards of a country. It has one of the worst human rights records in the world according to Freedom House's annual survey of political and civil rights.
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The majority of the child population live without electricity, basic education or heath care facilities and live within families making a living of subsistence farming whilst the offshore oil industry engages mainly foreign workers. In 2019, child mortality rate (under fives) for Equatorial Guinea was 81.8 deaths per 1,000 live births. Overall life expectancy is 60.59 years (2021) and, according to the latest WHO data published in 2018, HIV/AIDS Deaths in Equatorial Guinea reached 973 or 9.41% of total deaths, ranking the country in position 16 in the world. Less than half of the population has access to clean water resulting in outbreaks of diarrhoea, cholera and other diseases.
Whilst Equatorial Guinea's constitution enshrines the protection of children's physical and psychological health and normal development, child labour is both legal and widespread with the U.S. Trafficking in Persons Report identifying Equatorial Guinea as a source and destination country for forced labour. Due to its size and limited child population, there are few child sponsor programs in Equatorial Guinea. Those that do exist focus on caring for orphaned children and promoting access to education, nutrition and health care as well as family strengthening. You can make a difference when you sponsor a child in Equatorial Guinea.
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