UNICEF video about children shocks and surprises viewers

UNICEF has released a shocking video that shows how society reacts to a child based on the clothing they are wearing.

The video is in conjunction with its 2016 State of the World’s Children report which indicates that children around the world are in dire need. According to the report, based on current trends, 69 million children under five will die from mostly preventable causes, 167 million will live in poverty, and 750 million women will have been married as children by 2030.

“Denying hundreds of millions of children a fair chance in life does more than threaten their futures – by fueling intergenerational cycles of disadvantage, it imperils the future of their societies,” said UNICEF executive director Anthony Lake. “We have a choice: Invest in these children now or allow our world to become still more unequal and divided.”

The report notes that significant progress has been made in saving children’s lives, getting children into school and lifting people out of poverty. Global under-five mortality rates have been more than halved since 1990, boys and girls attend primary school in equal numbers in 129 countries, and the number of people living in extreme poverty worldwide is almost half what it was in the 1990s.

While progress is being made, UNICEF says much more needs to be done as the poorest children in the world are twice as likely to die before age five and be chronically malnourished than the richest. Across much of South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, children born to mothers with no education are almost three times more likely to die before they are five than those born to mothers with secondary education. And girls from the poorest households are twice as likely to marry as children than girls from the wealthiest households.

The video has sparked a conversation online about social acceptance. Many people have commented about how surprising the real life actions of people were and their shock to how the reaction was common. To read the full report from UNICEF, click here.