Iquitos, in the middle of the Amazon rain forest.
Iquitos, a city area of over 600 000 inhabitants, in the ‘middle-of-nowhere’ of the ancient Amazon forest, also known locally as “The Green Hell”, has many poor and broken families. The population is still much inhabited by Native Indians who live primarily from the green forest and the many arteries of the Amazon. National Healthcare or Policy as we know it in Holland or the developed world does not exist. Government support or investment from the capital Lima is little to none, and education is far below basic standards.
Children often live in alarming conditions as many also have only one parent who cannot feed them properly, and who often send their children out to the streets to sell candy. Usually the single parent is the mother who has multiple children, often from different fathers. Within these families violence and abuse is widespread.
The unemployment figures are appallingly high, with 62% living below poverty level and 42% in extreme poverty (Ministry of health care, 2004). The percentage of illiterate adults is shocking: according to a national study of the Ministry of education (2003) more than 17% of the 5to15 year-old children of Iquitos never have been registered at a school. Of those children who do make it to school almost 10% never complete their schooling.
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