Children death rate remains a problem
By Tatia Megeneishvili
Thursday, June 2
The death rate among children under 5 still remains a serious problem, according to the Public Defender (Ombudsman) of Georgia Ucha Nanuashvili.
According to Nanuashvili, necessary preventive measures must be taken to decrease the number of children dying.
The Ombudsman underlined that the Public Defender’s Office has sent proposal to government about tightening the legislation to better protect children from violence.
“However, our proposal has not been shared so far. We offered to increase the government’s responsibility regarding children, because there are some facts and incidents to which there were no adequate reactions from government. The whole policy concerning children needs to be reviewed,” stated Nanuashvili.
The Ombudsman named the sexual abuse of children among the main problems. According to him, proposals and recommendations regarding this issue was also given to the Government. He underlined that most of them have not been taken into consideration.
According to Nanuashvili, the main problem in the mountain regions of the country is the lack of provision of education.
The Ombudsman also spoke about media coverage of children's problems. According to him, there were several cases of incorrect or inaccurate coverage.
“Inaccurate coverage may cause some difficulties in its own right,” stated Nanuashvili.
The Minister of Health, Labour and Social Affairs of Georgia, Davit Sergeenko, stated that children from vulnerable families from the age of 6 months to the age of 23 months will receive special vitamins and minerals free of charge.
“The vitamins, which will have 15 most important components for children, will be granted to families for free. We have about 13, 000 children on our list and each and every of them will receive their own portion of medication. With this act we will prevent different diseases and stimulate the correct development of children’s health,” stated the Minister.
According to Sergeenko, the ministry already granted different aid to pregnant women from vulnerable families.
