Main content

Peru's left behind children

The hidden pandemic in Peru; the thousands of children who have lost one or both parents to Covid-19. They face a challenging future.

Peru has been battered by Covid-19. It has the highest known death toll in the world per capita. But behind the figures there鈥檚 another hidden pandemic. By the end of April 2021 around 93,000 children had lost a father, mother, grand-parent, or other primary caregiver to the virus - that鈥檚 one in every hundred children. For Crossing Continents, Jane Chambers travels to Lima to meet the families struggling to cope. The immediate urgency of the health crisis is masking a much deeper malaise; that of a generation of children mentally and physically scarred by loss and poverty.

Reported and produced by Jane Chambers.
Editor, Bridget Harney

(Image: Jhoana Olinda Ant贸n Silva and her children in their home at the shrine they built for their father who died of Covid-19. Credit: Paola Ugaz)

Available now

29 minutes

Last on

Mon 3 Jan 2022 20:30

Broadcasts

  • Thu 30 Dec 2021 11:00
  • Mon 3 Jan 2022 20:30

Podcast