Around half of Romania’s children live in the countryside, where the poverty risk is three times higher than in urban areas. Romania’s most vulnerable children thus live in villages, and instead of playing, they have to do chores around the house, according to a recent study by World Vision Romania.

These children hardly make it to school, which is either far, or for which they don’t have the proper clothes and shoes. They sometimes go to bed hungry at night. “For them, work and not play or education is a daily preoccupation; they go to bed hungry, and are often marginalized,” according to the study.

One in eight children sometimes or always go to bed hungry, an increase of 2 percentage points on 2012, according to the study.

One in five children aged up to 5 has never been to the doctor in the last year, while another one in five work before or after school. One in eight kids even skip school to do chores around the household.

Quite worryingly, one in 13 children between 12 and 18 smoked at least once, and one in five drank alcohol at least once.

The study covered 2,700 households, most of which were covered by the same study two years ago.

editor@romania-insider.com