“The impact of COVID-19 on working children in Buenos Aires”, 17 February 2021

...Despite many countries announcing national lockdowns to prevent the spread of COVID-19, millions of people around the world don’t have the privilege of working from home or stopping work temporarily. In many countries, such as Argentina, where more than 35% of the population lives below the poverty line, this includes children and adolescents who work. In Argentina they describe themselves as chiques del pueblo (or working class youth). Due to their financial circumstances at home, they see themselves required to work at home or in the informal economy. To learn more about the situation in Buenos Aires’ low-income neighbourhoods, the Child Rights International Network spoke with Santiago Morales, a sociologist and local teacher in the area...In the city of Buenos Aires many children and adolescents do the necessary chores so that the adults in the family can work outside of the home in exchange for money...The problem in Argentina, and in all of Latin America, is inequality. One out of every two children in our country lives below the poverty line...The main issue they face in the context of the pandemic is access to food...Something else that’s concerning is the violence children suffer at home. They can’t call on school and community support services because everything has ground to a halt…