The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) has established that in the one year that Covid-19 has affected the global community children have been left hungry, isolated, abused, anxious, living in poverty and the number of forced child marriages has increased.

Reacting to the development a child rights campaigner Caleb Ng’ombo said, the same is true for children in Malawi and there is need for political will to address these problems.

“The increased number of children forced into child marriages and child labor are worrisome and if left unattended to the impact will be felt in years to come.”

Nonetheless Ng’ombo said it is possible to recover from the current effects, government should step up efforts on child protection by ensuring that children that have been abused access counseling services .

As of March 2021, 13 per cent of 71 million COVID-19 infections in 107 countries (62 per cent of the total global infections) with data by age are among children and adolescents under 20 years of age.