An Introduction to Children’s Health
According to The Statute of the Child and Adolescent (ECA), children and adolescents have the right to protection of life and health through effective implementation of public social policies These public policies make possible birth and healthy and harmonious development in dignified conditions of existence. The path to achieving what the ECA set forth in 1990 are paved with good intentions, but these good intentions need to focus on the thousands of children and their families, whom 18 years later, still lack basic needs such as food, shelter and sanitation.
The current situation, especially when one focuses on Rio de Janeiro, is that those who can afford private care have access to the best resources and the many that cannot, depend daily on organizations that focus on providing access to health care.
Public social policies should not only be written down on paper, they need to be implemented by rightful parties so everyone can receive efficient care. Until the government takes appropriate action, children and their families will continue to depend on the scarce resources of Brazilian Non Governmental Organizations (NGO) and Community Based Organization’s (CBO), who work everyday picking up where the government has left off. This section will focus on Brazilian NGO’s and CBO’s efforts to push forth public social policies focusing on inadequate living conditions for Children in Brazil.