The child poverty emergency and Europe's future

Eurochild member Sérgio Costa Araújo wrote an opinion piece for the Portuguese newspaper Público featuring the findings of Eurochild Report Invisible Children.

"Since joining the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1986, there has been an undeniable overall improvement in the living conditions for Portuguese people, particularly for the most vulnerable groups. Europe also gave Portugal the opportunity to carry out a true cultural revolution: it shifted the way of combating poverty from an immediate assistance to citizens to a higher level of social action, centered on human rights." writes Sérgio Costa Araújo .

However, as Sergio writes, the situation is far from being perfect. In 2021 child poverty in Portugal reached 22.9%. The Portuguese Government should make preventing and combating child poverty and social exclusion a national priority. There is also no clear strategy regarding the deinstitutionalization of children and young people.

The chapter on Portugal from Eurochild's (In)visible Children report was written with Eurochild members Fundação Nossa Senhora o Bom Sucesso, Instituto de Apoio à Criança and Sérgio Costa Araújo. The main recommendation for the national government is to take action to reduce the inequalities that child poverty exacerbates, by improving the timely access to high quality health services for all, with special attention to children.

Read the full opinion piece (in PT)
Read our report

(Direct link to the Portuguese country profile coming soon)