- The percentage of low birth weight is high.
- Teenage and unmarried mothers are common.
- Poor infrastructure and services – overcrowding, no clean water or safe sanitation, inadequate housing, poor hygiene
- High levels of stress and threat of violence
- Poor maternal education and skills training
- High level of rural-to-urban migration
- No financial security, with high levels of unemployment
- General disempowerment of women
- Malnutrition is common.
- Poor access to health care
- General feelings of helplessness, hopelessness and depression
- Alcoholism and prostitution are common.
Female education and empowerment of women improve the lives of children living in poverty.