The Covid-19 pandemic which began at the end of 2019 has caused “serious hardship” relating to domestic violence, sexual abuse, increased child labor exploitation and mental health to children and adolescents, particularly girls, says a new study by nuns from four congregations.
The Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd, the Salesian Sisters of Don Bosco, the Comboni Missionary Sisters and the Sisters of Our Lady of the Missions collaborated on a study entitled “How are the girls?”
All four congregations have been working for decades in support of children and girls in the most vulnerable communities in resource-deprived countries, and is at the core of their mission. The study looks into how Covid affected the lives of girls in Ecuador, Peru, South Sudan, Kenya, India and Nepal. The quantitative research involved 3,443 adolescent girls in those six countries, selected among participants in the congregations’ programs.
The findings of the study were released at the headquarters of the International Union of Superiors General (UISG) in Rome December 7.
Social dimension problems
A key highlight that emerged from the study is the significant difference in the incidence of child labor. More than 20 % of girls under 15 years of age versus 5% of girls between 15 and 18 report having being engaged in child labor. While generally, for one out of six girls, there has been a decrease in the number of daily meals since the beginning of the pandemic, currently about 10 % of girls live eating less than two meals a day.
Less than 30 % of girls report having witnessed at least occa-sional conflicts at home during the Covid-19 lockdown, and more than half of them say that this has changed with respect to before the pandemic. More than 60 % of girls reported a sense of worry, and half of them have experienced sadness.
The results show that more than 35% of girls experienced serious or very serious hardship during the pandemic, with 100% of girls having experienced a serious or very serious hardship being 15 years or older.
Among those who experienced very serious hardship, 80% live in Africa (Kenya or South Sudan), and 64% live in rural or remote areas.