In the Dominican Republic, every day 13 babies die before they are a month old and another 7,000 die every year before they are five years old. The infant mortality rate is 25 for each 1,000 live births.
This situation is among the worst in the whole of Latin America. Child mortality is only higher in Haiti and Guyana.
The child mortality situation in the Dominican Republic is impacted by Haitian immigration. It is estimated that around 30% of births in Dominican public hospitals are undocumented Haitian immigrants. In some hospitals up to 80% of the births are to the Haitian immigrants.
The data is contained in a report published by the United Nations Fund for Infancy (Unicef), based on results of a 2014 survey where 33,000 homes were interviewed throughout the country.
Other data shows that 323,000 Dominican children are victims of child labor and six out of 10 suffer from physical or psychological punishment
The data indicates that at least 8% of children are not enrolled in school and only 60% of the poor will make it to eighth grade, 175,300 aged under 5 do not yet have a civil identity; 21.2% of girls between 15 and 19 have been pregnant; 20,558 girls under the age of 15 have had a child and 11.7% are married or living with a man before their fifteenth birthday, which is higher in the poorer classes. The local data also shows that 8% of
Faced with this reality, the head of Unicef in the country, Rosa Elcarte has demanded better investment and equality in care for children.
http://www.diariolibre.com/noticias/salud/republica-dominicana-queda-mal-parada-en-informe-sobre-la-ninez-IE4170208
http://www.elnuevodiario.com.do/app/article.aspx?id=485410
