• Save the Children sees 55% increase since 2008 in children at risk of poverty
• NGO says 760,000 Spanish children lack basics; 266,000 at risk of malnutrition
The Spanish affiliate of international non-governmental organisation Save the Children has said that 1.4 million children in Spain are at risk of extreme poverty, living in households with incomes at or below 9,000 euros per year. What’s more, says the NGO in a report issued this week, the number of Spanish children at risk of extreme poverty has grown by nearly 500,000 in the last seven years, representing a 55 percent increase since 2008 at the beginning of Spain’s economic crisis.
According to Save the Children, nearly 760,000 children across Spain live in materially deprived homes that do not have sufficient monthly income to guarantee adequate food, shelter and clothing to keep children healthy, especially during the coldest winter months. And, said the NGO, some 266,000 Spanish children are at risk of malnutrition because their families are unable to provide at least three meals per week with adequate protein from meat, fish or a suitable vegetable protein substitute.
The organisation has called on the Spanish government to put into place immediate policies and programs to protect Spanish children at risk of severe poverty by increasing the level of monthly benefits assistance to families with children and to focus especially on children living with single parents, who are more likely to live in households with the lowest income levels.
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