Children

Today as I was taking my morning brake, I decided to watch The View on TV and it was a typical show full of quirky antidotes and sudden ramblings on celebrities, politics and whatever else the big story in the news is. The guest co-host today was Jamie-Lynn Sigler from the hit show the Sopranos. A bright and intelligent young girl she spoke candidly about her battles with anorexia and then the conversation turned into the subject of rape for a brief moment.

Jamie-Lynn told everyone about a time when she interrupted and stopped a rape. She was sleeping soundly in her hotel room when she heard a lot of commotion and yelling from the room next door, so she decided to listen closer and make sure it was nothing serious. She soon realized they where the muffled screams of a woman and when she heard a bottle broke her instincts sent her running into the hall. She saw the woman’s arm half out the door and she was desperately fighting her assailant to get away. Jamie-Lynn’s reaction was to kick the door and grab the woman and run her into her own room and then call the hotel security to block all the entrances. These efforts caught the man and though his story was widely different than that of his victims, both women’s willingness to testify sent him to jail.

Now this story in itself is a great show of both courage and awareness, but I want to focus on the awareness issue. Had Miss Sigler not taken a moment to listen closely she may have just gone to sleep and awoke oblivious to the rape next door. But she didn’t and this is what I want to talk to you about. The victim, turned out to be a teenage runaway and the man had promised her a job on a cruise line, but the reality is that this attack was probably only the beginning. This is actually only the sad beginning for so many children and adolescents that are victims of human trafficking. The story rings so similar to ones I’ve heard about victims of trafficking and how they were forced into the cold and violent world of sex trafficking. So in my mind Ms. Sigler didn’t stop a rape, but prevented a victim of trafficking. If only we could all be so aware and safe an innocent child from such a horrid fate.

The sad part is Jamie-Lynn said when she got out into the hall there where people sanding idly by dumbfounded by the scene. But that surprises me little, for everyday millions of people obliviously walk by victims of abuse. We blatantly ignore the signs of domestic violence, child abuse, human trafficking, bullying, sexual abuse and so much more. But why? Why do we ignore the signs’ when I know so many of you feel in your guts that there is something wrong with the situation? Are we just too scared to know the truth or do we think there is nothing we can do? I think the answer to the last question is that yes we are scared and yes we do think there is nothing we can do. But that is where we are wrong we can all do something and we don’t have to be scared. As a society we need to become more aware and more empowered or victims will go on being victims and the numbers will continue to grow.

So if you see a child or adolescent that is being abused don’t stand helplessly by and let them suffer, report it, talk to the child, and look for the signs. We can end violence against the vulnerable and if we all start with one child we are well on our way to winning the fight.

Please find a few resource links listed below to learn more on how you can identify a victim of abuse or trafficking. This is in no way a conclusive list of resources, please see my resource links on the Children’s main page for more associated organizations and information.

Human Trafficking Resources, Facts and Signs

The Storm Project - Resources for Health Care Providers

US State Department - Tips for Recognizing Victims of Trafficking

Be Smart, Be Safe…Don’t Be a Victim of the Trade in People

Salvation Army - Emergency Response to Suspected Trafficking Cases

The Campaign to Rescue and Restore Victims of Human Trafficking

Fact Sheet

Child Abuse Resources, Facts and Signs

Signs of Child Abuse

Find Counseling.com - Signs and Resources

Help Guide.org - Types, Signs, Symptoms, Causes and Help

Child Molestation Research and Prevention Institute

American Humane - Fact Sheets

Child Abuse Statistics, Research and Resources

No child should ever fight the wars of their countries, nor should they ever have to live in such fear. But the truth is that millions are doing just that every day, there lives are lost and their innocence is never returned. Children, who never had a doll or a video game, but know how to load a Kalashnikov and shot to kill. An estimated 300,000 or more child soldiers are actively fighting in at least 30 countries around the world, according to both Amnesty International and UNICEF. Deplorably they are not alone for there millions more fighting in states not currently engaged in a war (Insight on the News). Africa has the largest number of child solders, I’ve seen figures from 100,000 - 200,000, but the true number will never be known. “It is estimated that 43 percent (157 of 366) of all armed organizations in the world use child soldiers, 90 percent of whom see battle. In the last decade, more than 2 million children have been killed in combat, a rate of some 500 per day” (Teach Kids Peace)

Child Soldiers Around the World

Unfortunately the use of child soldiers is not a new topic, through out time children have been used in military conflict. However in this new millennium it seems to be a story that has continued to grow and yet is too often untold. Our western society dictates a minimum age for a solider, an age we voted for and felt was when one was no longer a child but that of a consenting adult, well able to make a free and clear choice to join the military. In the majority of countries the age of conscription is 18. But age of consent is an unheard of term in many parts of the world, where children some so young we can’t even imagine are recruited or forced into the brutal acts of wars. Many US soldiers in Vietnam will recall the surprise they saw when a child launched a grenade in their direction, as will soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. But the majority of child soldiers are in a land far away, fighting a war you’ve never even heard of, in a country some didn’t even know existed. It is these children who never play with toys or games, who live in poverty and disease, in a country riddle by years, even centuries of conflict, that never grow up. These are our lost children.

True many of the countries with children in conflict have laws and ages of consent, but what good are laws when no one cares to follow or enforce them. I know many countries do not have good documentation like we do in the West, so sure you may get away with saying you didn’t know about some of the older children, that they lied about their age. But when you see a child caring around a gun almost the same size as their own body, can anyone honestly not notice this blatant act.

Even when a child is free or escapes there is no place for them to go, they are ostracized from their own communities, turned away by their families. They face endless mental anguish and rehabilitation is more often than not a word that is unheard of. When one of our adult solders returns from a war they face post traumatic stress and unrealities nightmares, and we all know how difficult it is for an adult, now place that immense burden on the shoulders of a child, who has seen little that is right with the world and so much that is wrong. Many child solders are forced to committee crimes that one cannot even imagine; killing and harming people they know, sometimes even members of their own families. The girls are most often forced into sexual slavery, many children are maimed, tortured and simple witness the unspeakable. While all wars carry a risk of death, a child solider is much more likely to sub come to injury or death. And if one manages to survive they pay with the death of their innocence and childhood.

So how do we stop this horrid situation? Monitoring and the enforcement of laws, these crimes need to be reported and those responsible on every level must be brought before a court of law. We need to establish and enforce more international tribunals. Structures must be in place for the recovery and rehabilitation of former child solders. As well as reunification programs need to be established. Yes the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Geneva Conventions both have taken great strides to establish international and ensure that no child under 15 is recruited or active in conflict, but this is not enough as we can clearly see. The Cape Town Principles which where adopted in 1997 thanks to the efforts of UNICEF, formally raised the legal age of conscription to 18. Now if only we could see all of the worlds solders at this legal age, but I fear we are farther away than one can bare to think.

These children have spent a short part of life in ways one cannot imagine, nor should they ever have to, but if they are to regain their lives and have a chance at a normal life they need endless amounts of support and protection. For many, the only chance is to leave the only country they have known, but we need systems in place to allow them to remain in their own countries and learn from the past. They are the future and they know all too well what happens when political leadership, hate and ignorance fails. They are the future leaders of the country, we must help them to be good leaders and learn the errors of their fathers…to lead without war and if in conflict to lead by the strength of man, not child! For all too many children they will never get the chance to make that decision.

I will leave you with the words of Archbishop Desmond M. Tutu:

“It is immoral that adults should want children to fight their wars for them… There is simply no excuse, no acceptable argument for arming children.”

 

To find out more on child soldiers please look on the following:
Child Soldiers 1379 Report
Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers
World Revolution
The Middle East North Africa (MENA) Regional Network to Stop the Use of Children as Soldiers
Stolen Childhood
Children with Guns
War Child
Choike
Optional protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict
The Child Soldiers Project

Children’s rights are not always what you think they are, no one needs to tell you that sexual exploitation, slavery, rape, etc. are crimes against children and that these crimes infringe on a child’s rights.  Issues such as poverty, nutrition, education, literacy, and other such issues areas are also part of children’s rights, these are fundamental rights of each and every child.  So who’s responsibility is the nutrition of a child?  Is it left only to the mother or caregiver?  What if that person is unable to adequately provide for an infant, then who does the responsibility fall to?

We all know that meeting the nutritional needs of  children is an issue everywhere, even in developed countries.  In the last few years the UK and the US have both had a number of issues and structural changes to school lunch programs.  The issues that have been raised in the UK and US are more about choices and habits than the unavailability of quality nutritional foods, but in the developing world it is nutritional necessity.  Please don’t get me wrong, nutrition is a right and necessity of each and every child, and if a child in the US is not having their nutritional needs met we must correct the situation.  Every child has the right to a healthy life and we must insure that this right is not violated.

Recently I was reading up on the International Breast Milk Project an organization that sends breast milk to critically ill, or orphaned infants in Africa, as well as critically ill infants in the US.  The project was started by Jill Youse, who came up with the project by accidental necessity, when looking for a way to donate her own unused breast milk to Africa.  The World Health Organization and UNICEF both recommend that an infant is solely breast fed for the first six months of life, however this is nothing but impossible for many infants.  There are a number of reasons why a child would not be able to be breast fed, including that fact that some mothers are just not able to produce enough milk, a mother has a transmittable disease, a mother is on certain medications or a child has been left motherless.

 http://www.childinfo.org/areas/breastfeeding/status.php

Milk banks in the US have grown over the years and getting milk to infants in need in the US has grown in both ease and availability.  However the need for breast milk in Africa is currently at a near crisis level due to the level of orphaned and infants whose mothers are unable to breast feed.  The need for breast milk in Africa is heavily increased by the high percentage of HIV/AIDS, which can still be transmitted through the breast milk of an infected mother.  The epidemic has also increased the number of abandoned and orphaned children Additionally formula is not always a suitable option due to unclean water supplies.  The high nutritional value of breast milk makes it a high commodity throughout much of the continent.

“An estimated 800,000 children under the age of 15 contracted HIV in 2001, around 90 per cent of them through mother-to-child transmission. The vast majority of HIV-infected mothers live in Africa, as do the children living with AIDS.” - UNICEF

The nutrition of a newborn or infant child is critical and it will set the foundation for their future, it is not the responsibility of the mother alone and we must all look for ways we can see that the worlds children are properly cared for.  As they say it takes a village to raise a child, but I believe that it takes the world to raise a child.  I look forward to seeing the International Breast Milk project grow and develop in the near future and will keep a close eye on the issue.

Relevant articles and organizations:

UNICEF on nutrition and breastfeeding

UNICEF Nutrition Table by Country

Child Info - UNICEF Statistics

The World Health Organization (WHO) on infant feeding and related topics

World Vision Report ‘Breast Milk for Africa’

Human Milk Banking Association of North America

International Breast Milk Project

iThemba Lethu Breast Milk Bank

‘Mothers avoid breastfeeding violates children’s right to a healthy life’

‘Breast Milk Saves Lives in Africa’

‘Time; Putting Breast Milk to Good Use’

‘Foreign Policy Article, Seven Questions: The International Breast Milk Project’