Although widely known as the Ivory Coast, the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, with its population of some 20.6 million, is today a sad example of how a stable and peaceful country can slip back into internal warfare and factionalism. A former French colony, the Ivory Coast gained its independence from France in 1960 under President Houphouët-Boigny and became respected for its developing economy and social harmony that was so missing in neighbouring nations. Yet from 1999 the Ivory Coast has suffered a series of military coups and stand offs leading to thousands of peace keepers currently being stationed in the country to maintain a fragile peace.
The conflict has seen a million people displaced in the Ivory Coast, over half of them children, with many others fleeing to safety in nearby Liberia. Thousands have lost their homes and all of their possession in the violence. Today the Ivory Coast is in 168th place out of 186 countries and territories in 2013 when ranked in terms of life expectancy, literacy, access to knowledge and the living standards of a country. Infant and under five mortality rates are among the highest in the world and violence against children is built into the culture there. The war has seen poverty levels soar with over half the population living on less than 60p a day compared with just 10% in 1985 effectively multiplying those in poverty by tenfold in a single generation and of the 9,780,000 children living in the Ivory Coast, some 420,000 are orphans as a result of AIDS, and 52,000 children are infected themselves. Life expectancy stands at just under 57yrs.
Even before the war the Ivory Coast had seen a large increase in population with many families migrating to urban areas putting a strain on limited resources with increasing unemployment and children living in sub-standard accommodation. Child sponsor programs in the Ivory Coast focus focus on the long term care of orphans and abandoned children, access to health and educational services, but of late, much of the work focuses on the immediate desperate needs of the child population who require food and medicines simply to survive. You can make a difference when you sponsor a child in the Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire).
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