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Children and Youth
One of CIDA's priorities is to secure the future of children and youth. CIDA invests in education and health and works with communities to build a safe and secure environment in which children can grow, learn and play.
Girls in class in a community school in Mali. Education helps children and young people build a better future for themselves, a CIDA priority. CIDA supports teacher training and universal primary school enrolment.
Young Haitians have fun in Port-au-Prince. CIDA is working toward helping youth at risk find alternatives to violence and crime, and engage as positive and productive members of their societies.
A teenager in Ghana. Children born in 2011 have a life expectancy of only 61 years, compared to 81 for children born in Canada. CIDA supports the Government of Ghana's efforts to provide communities with access to safe drinking water. This will have a significant impact on the health and well-being of children and youth.
This Grade 5 student is one of 2.7 million children who have benefitted from a CIDA-funded program to improve access to primary education for children in Vietnam's poorest provinces.
A little girl from a village in the Peruvian Andes. In Peru, children who live in the country and children who live in the highlands are among those who face the greatest hardships. CIDA seeks to improve the quality of their education so they may have a brighter hope for their future.
A young Afghan schoolgirl in Kabul. Afghanistan has one of the world's lowest enrolment rates: about half of its children (especially the girls) do not go to school. Canada is the lead donor to the Education Quality Improvement Program project in Afghanistan.
CIDA is improving maternal and child health delivery systems in Bangladesh. CIDA has also helped provide polio vaccinations for 69,000 children under the age of one, thereby preventing an estimated 3,450 deaths.
As part of the Muskoka Initiative, CIDA is focusing on increased access to qualified health care workers, particularly in underserved areas and increasing the percentage of births attended by skilled health care workers. In 2009, CIDA helped 88 percent of the Tanzanian population receive measles vaccinations.
CIDA has helped provide emergency health assistance to more than 1.75 million people in eight communities of Sudan. CIDA has also helped increase the number of doctors in southern Sudan by 33 percent.
