87 the children of the Community the basic conditions to ensure that the situation of vulnerability of their Community due to lack of territory will not limit their development or destroy their life aspirations.208 173. that In this regard, witness Albino Fernández, teacher of the Community, stated [w]here the Community is located today is a strip of land that the authorities say is a public road and there it is not possible to cultivate, or to have animals to hunt. The Community has been forbidden to hunt, gather firewood and get water from its lands. For this reason, many of the children cannot go on studying. Many children lose the school year due to those conditions, because they have no food, no water, especially during drought periods, and because they are ill. 174. that Pablo Balmaceda Rodríguez, expert witness in this case, in turn pointed out [w]hat we found is that the Community suffers from parasitism and anemia, and this, as I said at the outset, can be seen by the naked eye. When one arrives at the Community one sees the children’s discolored hair and their enlarged stomachs, that is what one notes most. If one asks […] their age […] one can realize that their height is not what one imagines that an eight or ten year old child should have, and this is a disease [that] is known […] as malignant tropical anemia, which is the lack of protein, a lack of protein that causes discoloring of the hair, enlargement of the stomach, and other consequences that are not so visible, such as retarded intellectual development […] the consequence [for] these children [is that] they will not have the intellectual development they could have had with good nutrition since their early childhood. 175. As regards the special consideration required by the elderly, it is important for the State to take measures to ensure their continuing functionality and autonomy, guaranteeing their right to adequate food, access to clean water and health care. Specifically, the State must provide care for the elderly with chronic diseases and in terminal stages, to help them avoid unnecessary suffering. In this case, it is necessary to take into account that in the Yakye Axa Indigenous Community oral transmission of the culture to the younger generations is primarily entrusted to the elderly (supra para. 50.111). 176. Based on the above, the Court finds that the State abridged Article 4(1) of the American Convention, in combination with Article 1(1) of that same Convention, to the detriment of the members of the Yakye Axa Community, for not taking measures regarding the conditions that affected their possibility of having a decent life. 177. Finally, the Commission and the representatives alleged that the State is responsible for the death of sixteen members of the Yakye Axa Community due to causes that could have been avoided with adequate food and medical care, and as a consequence of the lack of an appropriate and timely response by the State to the Community’s claim to its ancestral land. Pursuant to Article 4(1) of the Convention every person has the right for his or her life to be respected and guaranteed, and not paras. 126 and 134; and Case of the “Street Children” (Villagrán Morales et al.), supra note 182, paras. 146 and 191. Likewise, see Juridical Condition and Human Rights of the Child. Advisory Opinion OC17/02 of August 28, 2002. Series A No. 17, paras. 56 and 60. 208 See Case of the “Juvenile Reeducation Institute”, supra note 200, para. 160; Juridical Condition and Human Rights of the Child, supra note 207, paras. 80-81, 84, and 86-88, and Case of the “Street Children” (Villagrán Morales et al.), supra note 182, para. 196.