ARGENTINA:
Hunger Endemic Among the Little Ones

Viviana Alonso


BUENOS AIRES, (IPS) - The children, some of them carrying younger brothers and sisters, file in and take their places at the tables, to wait for the only meal they will eat that day, and perhaps even one of the few they will receive that week.

The scene repeats itself day after day in thousands of community soup kitchens around Argentina, where poverty and unemployment have left shelves and tables empty in so many homes, and where chronic malnutrition is compromising the future of as many as six million children.

Twelve million people, or one-third of the population, do not get enough food in crisis-stricken Argentina. Half of them are children -- often the children and grandchildren of malnourished people -- who show signs of stunted physical and intellectual growth, and who frequently fail in school.

''We have not seen an increase in acute or extreme malnutrition, which has traditionally held steady at around one or two percent, but there has been a rise in chronic, silent malnutrition, and in the stunting of growth among children,'' researcher Sergio Britos told IPS.

''Malnutrition is the most visible aspect of a complex inter-relationship of socioeconomic factors,'' paediatrician Adelaida Rodrigo, director of the Centre of Studies on Nutritional Rehabilitation and Development (CEREN), remarked in an interview with IPS.

Among the consequences of malnutrition are higher mortality rates from infectious diseases, decreased physical capacity, low performance levels in school, and the deterioration of a child's interaction with the social environment, which in the future could affect their social and labour insertion.

''Since the brain reaches approximately 80 percent of its adult size by age two, nutritional deficits, especially a shortage of iron, can alter normal brain development under some circumstances, from the time of conception until age two,'' said Rodrigo.

''If the damage caused by malnutrition is sufficiently early, intense and prolonged, these children will not reach their intellectual potential,'' she explained.

''Research shows that children who have suffered severe malnutrition at an early age undergo alterations of attention span, motivation, and physical activity, which leads to the impoverishment of the experiences that foment learning,'' said the paediatrician.

''In these cases, lower quality mother-child interaction tends to be observed, in response to the fact that debilitated infants make less demands'' for their needs to be met, said Rodrigo.

A study by the Centre of Research on Child Nutrition (CESNI), carried out in 1994 in the southern Argentine province of Tierra del Fuego, found stunted motor skills development among 26 percent of six-month-old infants, and stunted intellectual development in 51 percent of two-year-olds.

According to CESNI, which has consultancy status in the World Health Organisation (WHO), child malnutrition nearly doubled in Argentina, from 11 to 20 percent, between 2001 and 2002.

In December 2001, a nearly four-year recession came to a head in an all-out financial, economic and political meltdown when protests and rioting toppled the government of Fernando de la Rúa. In January 2002, the peso was devalued after a decade of being pegged to the dollar.

Last year, the World Bank reported that 17.5 percent of households in Argentina, Latin America's third-biggest economy, suffered hunger repeatedly in 2002, while ''the rise in food prices caused by the devaluation had a devastating effect on the diet of poor families,'' Britos, a CESNI researcher, told IPS.

''It is very likely that poor children do not eat less as a consequence of the devaluation, but that their diets include many fewer essential nutrients, like iron, zinc, calcium and vitamins,'' he said.

''The food items whose prices increased the most are those consumed by poor families,'' said Britos.

The health coordinator in the Movimiento Barrios de Pie (Neighbourhoods On Their Feet Movement), Laura Berardo, pointed out that ''to confront the problem of hunger, people organised themselves in community soup kitchens run by social, political and religious organisations.''

But Berardo told IPS that ''the soup kitchens only have enough dry goods, like rice, pasta and flour,'' to provide one meal a day two or three times a week, and are rarely able to offer ''fruit, vegetables, meat or dairy products.''

The soup kitchens are stocked with donations from neighbours and small local shopkeepers, as well as government contributions, ''none of which are steady, and which generally only include dry goods,'' she said.

''Since 2001, demand for community soup kitchens has increased. Although they are still mainly visited by children, more recently many elderly people have been coming as well,'' added Berardo.

According to weight and height-chart measurements carried out by the Movimiento Barrios de Pie among 500 children who regularly visit seven soup kitchens on the westside of the Greater Buenos Aires, 10 percent were malnourished, and another five percent were at risk.

Similar measurements among 350 children who eat at soup kitchens in neighbourhoods in southern Buenos Aires found signs of malnutrition among six to 19 percent, while between 10 and 15 percent were at risk of becoming underweight, said Berardo.

The National Institute of Statistics and Census reported that 40 percent of the population cannot afford to purchase the essential food items basic to an adequate diet.

''Children under five are the most vulnerable group,'' said Britos, who pointed to ''chronic dietary deficits, with a greater preponderance of short, skinny kids.''

One of every two nursing infants is anaemic, and 3.5 million children under five are malnourished, she said.

In 2003, the government earmarked 380 million dollars for the social programmes run by several cabinet ministries, with the aim of fighting hunger.

CESNI reports that 1.4 million families periodically receive boxes of food, and 200,000 children visit soup kitchens on a daily basis.

But CESNI presented a proposal for the government to replace its system of purchasing -- the suppliers are selected through a public tendering process -- and distributing food, on the argument that it is not always fair and transparent.

The alternative suggested by the group is the creation of magnetic food purchase cards ''to restore people's initiative and choice,'' said Britos, who argued that ''people should be given back their dignity, instead of being forced to go and pick up, or ask for, a box of food.''

''In pilot projects carried out in the province of Buenos Aires, mothers demonstrated great wisdom in shopping for food,'' he said. ''Besides, families must recover the habit of gathering around the table at meal-time.''

But Berardo defended the role played by soup kitchens, where people are fed ''in a context of community care and support.''

''The soup kitchens emerged in response to hunger, out of the people's needs and the work of non-governmental organisations, which control less than 10 percent of the social plans administered by the government,'' she said.

Eighty percent of those who run the soup kitchens are women, said Berardo.

She added that the soup kitchens are more than just eating places, because they also help deal with problems involving ''education, gender issues, health and violence.''

Malnutrition has become endemic in Argentina, but no nationwide study has yet been carried out, said Britos, who noted that the last official weight and height assessments were conducted by the Health Ministry in 1996, and in only 18 of the country's 23 provinces.

Rodrigo, Britos and Berardo underlined that malnutrition is not merely a question of access to food.

''It is a problem of decades, of generations that have suffered a deterioration in their health and intellect. Ignorance and problems of social and labour insertion all come together to repeat and perpetuate the cycle,'' said Britos.

Berardo noted that issues like domestic violence, neglect, sexual abuse and the break-up of families burdened by poverty and social marginality often exist alongside the problem of malnutrition.

Rodrigo stressed that ''malnutrition does not exist in isolation, but forms part of multiple negative social conditions, which interact to limit the potential for mental development.''

To overcome that set of problems, the country not only has to address the problem of child malnutrition, but must also bring about an improvement in the home environment, and help raise awareness among mothers at social risk, especially with respect to child-rearing, nutrition and literacy, she said.