Children

The issue of child marriage is in no way a new issue, it is one that has plagued children, especially young girls across geographical divides, while child marriage is more prevalent in some cultures, the true cause for the high levels of child marriage is more often economic than socially based.

At the root of child marriage is poverty and with poverty comes a hard to brake cycle which keeps girls marginalized. The marginalization of girls brings with it higher levels of illiteracy, lower rates of education, and poor health care, all of which cycles back into poverty. Thus what can be done to end the cycle? Targeting child marriage at its roots is the only way forward, for education alone on the detriment of child marriage will not break the cycle for those families which feel they have little to no choice to ensure their families stability, as seen in previous posts on the increasing levels of child marriage in Afghanistan due to poppy debts.

One in seven girls in developing countries, with the exception of China, is married before their 15th birthday. Most common in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, child marriage also continues in other parts of the world, including South America, Middle East and among the Roma populations of Europe.

Why are childhood marriages so common and desired? Early marriage and feel the benefits out way any undesirable consequences. The main reason is that with early marriage continues is due to the increased economic and social benefits that it often provides, as the family of the bride may believe this is the one way to see that their child is cared for and ease the economic burden on the rest of the family. Despite any perceived economic gain or social benefits’ of early marriage, the risks and long-term harm on the child and the community far outweigh them. A girl who is married young is at a greater risk of abuse, sexually transmitted diseases, maternal mortality and have higher illiteracy levels.

The causes and implications of child marriage, are complex and interconnected, thus there is no simple solution in eradicating child marriage. To see an end to child marriage we must see an end to gender discrimination, and ensure that all communities are not just educated regarding the effects of child marriage, but see that sustainable solutions for economic prosperity are put in place. Efforts to end child marriage must include making education available for girls, seeing families have alternatives to paying debts, providing health education, and eliminating poverty, are all equally needed to see an eradication of child marriage and all forms of gender discrimination.

See previous posts for more on Child Marriage, including The Global Cost of Child Marriage.

U.N. Tackles Rising Threat of Urban Hunger in AfricaTypically tapped to distribute food and deal with crises in rural areas, the UN World Food Programme has been forced to adjust to Africa’s large, dense urban centers, where high food prices have introduced the scourge of hunger. The WFP is considering new tactics in order to reach those whose hunger is not driven by problems of distribution, war and drought.

Zimbabwe’s Crisis Raises Dire Alerts
Zimbabwe’s humanitarian situation is deteriorating rapidly, Save the Children warned in a report released Saturday, with sharp rises in cases of acute child malnutrition and cholera. Acute child malnutrition has increased by almost two-thirds compared with last year, the aid said. “Some children are wasting away from lack of food,” said Lynn Walker, the agency’s Zimbabwe director.

Families denounce China’s milk scandal payout
Chinese families of the tens of thousands of children sickened or dead following consumption of tainted baby formula have balked at a compensation deal offered by the company at the center of the scandal as insufficient. Payments offered range from $290 for ill children to $29,000 for those who died.

Tainted-Milk Victims in China to Be Paid
China’s 22-member Dairy Industry Association agreed to pay compensation to the families of children who were sickened or killed by milk tainted with melamine, a chemical often associated with fertilizers that was used to disguise the protein content of milk. Although the level of compensation has not been reported, Chinese milk industry officials have said the compensation would extend to the long-term health care needs for the nearly 300,000 babies who were affected.

If This Isn’t Slavery, What Is?
The psychological and physical abuse and torture of young girls forced by human traffickers into prostitution is tantamount to slavery, Nicholas Kristof writes in The New York Times.

A Rise in Efforts to Spot Abuse in Youth Dating
Following a rise in teen abuse and deaths related to abusive relationships, many communities are begining to crack down. Many states have recently passed laws to increase awareness and prevention in schools. Texas recently adopted a law that requires school districts to define dating violence in school safety codes. In 2007 Rhode Island began requiring school districts to teach students in grades 7 through 12 about dating abuse. New York recently expanded its domestic violence law to allow victims, including teenagers in dating relationships, to obtain a restraining order against an abuser in family court rather than having to seek help from the criminal justice system.

With the dawning of a new year, we’ve moved passed our parties and our family functions and are now sitting and thinking what will I do this year to make a change in my life and make a difference for others. As you sit-down and thin of your New Year’s resolutions, remember life is not about what you have, but what you do. We are not remembered by what we leave behind, but by those whose lives we touch.

This year my resolutions include taking a more active role in securing a better future for the children and working for more sustainable approaches to end modern slavery, and while I know my resolutions may be ambitious I know that if we all make one small resolution this year to help secure a better future, and act upon it, then we can truly change the world. So what can you do to take that small step? Here are a few ideas to get the ball and your mind rolling;

• Sell gifts you don’t need through eBay’s Giving Works program (givingworks.ebay.com), which earmarks a percentage of sales for the charities of your choice.
• Donate your used, working computer equipment to Kidsurfer Project to use for after-school tutoring of at-risk city youth. 
• Start or join a local childrens/youth resources hotline, or volunteer to staff a National Childrens Coalition Referral Hotline a few regular hours each week from home (calls can be forwarded to where you are!)
• Help distribute information from Children Now, Childrens Defense Fund, National Childrens Coalition or Kids Campaigns about what children need.
• Form or join an existing Join Together community group to prevent teen substance abuse.
• Give unwanted clothing and toys to kids in need.
• Volunteer at a local soup kitchen.
• Help sponsor, fix-up or staff a local playground.
• Collect books for local youth programs and schools in your community.
• Become a volunteer to be a counselor or assistant at a day-camp for children in need or children with disabilities. 
• Also take a look at some of the ideas and ways you can act in my holiday posts; 25 ways for you to help make a child’s life better this holiday season. and Gearing Up For Holiday Giving.


As you embark on the journey that is 2009, remember to have fun and enjoy life, especially the little things. Luck and prosperity has been bestowed upon you, forget not that there is always someone who dreams of a life like yours, that there is a child out there dreaming for only the basics…freedom, education, food and shelter. I hope you look back on 2008 with fondness at your success and achievements and look forward to the New Year with nothing less than hope and ambition for yourself and the world’s children.

Don’t forget to read the 2008 Year in Review page.

March 12, 2008 Nothing left to lose: A landless peasant in Brazil resists state police forcibly moving her and some 200 other members of the Landless Movement from a piece of private property in the Brazilian Amazon. Their bows and arrows were no match for tear gas and trained dogs.

March 18, 2008 Playing amid the rubble: A young Iraqi girls fiddles with her chewing gum amid the ruins of a former Iraqi military headquarters destroyed early in the American invasion of 2003. Her family calls the ruins home.

May 2, 2008 An Iraqi boy looks on skeptically as he is dwarfed by a US soldier in Baghdad.






May 8, 2008 A boy in Indonesia prepares to siphon off fuel from a container. At the time, oil prices were reaching record highs.





June 6, 2008 A boy runs as tear gas canisters rain down on demonstrators in the West Bank village of Bilin, near Ramallah, protesting Israel’s erection of a separation barrier.



October 14, 2008 Younger victims of the drought in Indonesia: Children bathe in waste water in Jakarta.






November 8, 2008 A male student waits to be rescued from the rubble of a school that had collapsed on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti. The collapse killed more than 90 students and teachers and left 150 wounded.

Novermber 21, 2008 If it wasn’t school collapses or devastating tropical storms, in 2008, the grossly impoverished island nation of Haiti was also the scene of scores of tragic deaths of children caused by malnutrition. Here, a 4-year-old girl embraces an aid worker preparing her to be weighed.

On each and every one of these 365 days, I will look at everyone and everything as if for the first time, especially at the smallest things.

- Paulo Coelho, Chronicle - As If For The First Time

As you spend your last hours of 2008, one hopes you look fondly on the year and ring in the New Year with both hope and great expectations for yourself and our global community, especially our children.

Wishing you and a wonderful night and please check back in the New Year when the Foreign Policy Association Children’s Rights blog will be back up and running in full swing, bringing you all the events and news of 2009!

UN urges better built schools after 2008 collapses
The United Nations called on Tuesday for action around the world to build safer schools after natural disasters killed thousands of children from China to Haiti in 2008 because of poor construction. “Safe schools don’t just save children’s lives, they can also serve as temporary shelters for communities in times of disasters.” said UNICEF education chief Cream Wright.

Up to 6,000 child soldiers recruited in Darfur - U.N.
Thousands of children are being recruited by rebel and government forces in Darfur even though Sudanese law forbids the use of child soldiers, UNICEF said. “All the armed factions and groups in Darfur have used children … We have seen children in uniform and children carrying weapons with virtually all the forces. An 11-year-old in this sort of situation basically looses their childhood. It dehumanises them.”, head of the U.N. children’s fund (UNICEF) in Sudan Ted Chaiban told reporters.

Saudi girl, eight, married off to 58-year-old is denied divorce
A petition for divorce in Saudi Arabia between an 8-year-old girl and a 58-year old man filed by the girl’s mother was dismissed after the judge ruled that only the girl can file for divorce and only after she has reached puberty. Although senior Sunni clerics have denounced child marriage, human-rights watchers say that it is common in conservative parts of Saudi Arabia. Shariah law does not provide a clear definition of adulthood and gives great discretion to judges, who frequently rule that women cannot bring forth cases to court except through male guardians.

Nothing But Nets delivers 740,000 bed nets to the Central African Republic
The UN Foundation’s Nothing But Nets campaign, a global, grassroots initiative to prevent malaria, announced today the distribution of nearly 1 million bed nets to children and their families throughout the Central African Republic. The nets will be distributed as part of an integrated measles immunization campaign led by the government of CAR with support from the Measles Initiative. The bed nets contributed by Nothing But Nets will provide full coverage for 740,000 children under the age of 5 who are being targeted in this effort.

Angry Youths Become a Force in Darfur
The youngsters of Darfur, who have grown up in Sudan’s refugee camps, have become a political force of their own, challenging traditional tribal systems and adopting a pro-rebel position. The younger generation has expressed a more hard-line position, which may complicate efforts to strike a peace agreement with Khartoum. The New York Times (12/20)

New target for Mexico’s drug cartels: schools
Mexico’s drug war has heated up in the past year increasing in violence, as related deaths have doubled, and now the drug cartels are expanding their targets to include children, as was seen in Ciudad Juárez. Fear has increased as threats have now been left at schools, including Kindergartens, threatening to harm the children. Ricardo Ravelo, an investigative journalist with Proceso magazine, says that children in states torn apart by the drug war now idolize and imitate narcoculture. “The narcos are powerful, untouchable, undefeatable,” he says. “For these children, it’s not very important to them to study or imagine themselves on a career path. For them, the attractive path is drug trafficking and its personalities.”

Tomorrow many will sit with their family’s for Christmas and celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, however this is the holiday season for all and it is with that note that one must remember the true spirit of the holidays regardless of your religious beliefs. Take this time to look around at all who are in need this year and lend a helping hand, or simply a smile, to someone today.

The map below shows the spread of religion across the globe, and as one can see their is no one dominating religion.  It is a reminder to all that we must live in a world of tolerance and acceptance, and only then can we see peace. 

 












Please click here for a full scale version of the map.

Today begings the first of eight nights of Hanukkah, and as you Celebrate the Festival of Lights, please remember to give thanks for the children in your life, and prayer for those who are alone this holiday season.  Nes Gadol Haya Sham (”A great miracle happened there”), and let us again see great miracles for children around the world this holiday.