With a population of around one million, the tiny country of Equatorial Guinea together with its five occupied islands gained independence from Spain in 1968, and true to form, its first president, Francisco Macías Nguema created a one party state within two years and started on a reign of terror that led to the death or exile of around one third of the country's then population.

As with some many other newly emerging African countries, foreign investment dried up, Equatorial Guinea's skilled population fled and the economy effectively collapsed.

In 1979 there was a coup d'état deposing Nguema and installing Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo as president over a notionally democratic state, but in essence one controlled by presidential decree.

Today Equatorial Guinea is a large exporter of oil and, as such, has a thriving economy, however very little of that wealth has extended to the poorer in society where some 70% of the country live below the United Nation's poverty threshold.

In Equatorial Guinea one in five children die before the age of five usually from diarrhoea, cholera and other diseases linked to poor water supplies and around half of the child population of the country live in single parent homes, normally because of high levels of adult mortality due to HIV/AIDS.

Equatorial Guinea's constitution enshrines the protection of children's physical and psychological health and normal development however child labour is both legal and widespread. For child sponsor opportunities in Equatorial Guinea click here.