Children

The global fight against tuberculosis is proving difficult, with the deadly disease spreading as cases go undetected in India and China, the World Health Organization warned Monday. Tuberculosis killed some 1.7 million people in 2006, and an estimated 9.2 million people were infected that year, the WHO said in its annual report on the disease.

Pakistan set to complete world’s largest health campaign, as a massive countrywide effort to immunize 64 million Pakistani children against measles is set to achieve its goal in April. Health officials are immunizing children at schools, hospitals and outreach facilities.

German Court Upholds Muslim Headscarf Ban in Schools, as they announced it would uphold a ban on Muslim teachers wearing headscarves in schools in the state of Baden-Württemberg. A state administrative court of appeal in the city of Mannheim ruled teachers cannot cover their heads in the classroom — at least not if they do so for religious reasons. The court’s decision overturned an earlier ruling in 2006 by a lower court, which decided in favor of a teacher who had converted to Islam. The teacher, who had worn a headscarf since 1995, took her case to court after the school board in the state capital of Stuttgart ordered her to stop wearing a headscarf in the classroom.

How can world’s poor better be part of global market? The world’s poorest people, almost by definition, typically have little stake in the goods and services offered in the global marketplace — a fact that arguably hurts both them as well as companies that would like to have more customers. In this essay, Christian Seelos, director of the platform for strategy and sustainability at IESE business school, writes about how corporations more effectively can reach the poorest of the world.

Gaza Humanitarian Crisis Worst in 40 Years, according to a report sponsored by eight British-based aid agencies and human rights groups has described the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip as the worst in 40 years. And a senior UN official has warned that the entire infrastructure there is close to collapse.

Drive to boost girls’ education in Egypt has started its 2008 arm of the initiative begun 8 years ago. The program started in 2000 with a goal of creating some to build over 1,000 “girl-friendly” schools in seven provinces. From 2003-2007 the initiative targeted villages and hamlets in the provinces of Bani Suef, Assiut, Al-Menia, Al-Fayyoum, Sohag, Al-Beihera and Al-Guiza, which had a disparity between boys and girls attending school gender gap of between 5 and 15.7 percent. Thus far some 1,063 schools have been built and with 27,784 students enrolled. “…by 2015, we hope no Egyptian girl will be out of school”.

Madagascar ratifies statute establishing International Criminal Court (ICC), the independent, permanent court that tries people accused of the most serious crimes, such as genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. The Malagasy Government deposited its instrument of ratification to the statute on March 14, according to a news release issued by the ICC.

Georgian street children and caregivers trained to deliver life saving aid, as more than 75 street children and 150 social workers and teachers in four regions in Georgia are equipped to deliver life-saving assistance thanks to recent trainings on emergency care conducted by World Vision. The trainings are provided by the “Learning the Principles of First Emergency Care” project, which aims to increase the capacity of street and at-risk children aged 10-16 in Tbilisi, Telavi, Kutaisi and Batumi, as well as among social workers of various youth centers and institutions, to avoid risks and dangers to their health and wellbeing.

Forced labor big part of globalization’s dark side, with over 12 million people worldwide are estimated to be trapped in a massive global market of forced labor that sees workers duped into near-slavery situations, Newsweek reports. These workers have little legal recourse and may have to work decades to pay off brokers who promised them high-earning jobs.

WHO survey shows heavy tobacco use among India’s young, the report shows that about 17% of school-age children in India use tobacco. More than one-third of school personnel also use some form of tobacco, mostly cigarettes, shows the survey, part of a global poll carried out in 140 countries.

Young Tibetans look past Dalai Lama’s recommendations, as the Dalai Lama’s support of peaceful engagement with Chinese to achieve Tibetan goals is not shared by many young Tibetans who believe more drastic, even confrontational action is needed. Yet even among the most radical Tibetan activist groups, respect for the leader is nearly universal.

-Ray L. Wilbur, third president of Stanford University

© UNICEF/Giacomo Pirozzi

All children are born into this world full of endless possibility, sadly many will face hardship and struggle for the entire duration of their childhood. The majority of children’s struggles are preventable, disease, poor education, hunger, lack of proper sanitation and clean drinking water. And it is these preventable diseases which hinder the possibilities of our worlds future leaders, and rob the world of so much greatness.

© Manoocher Deghati/IRIN

A boy in Guinea-Bissau. According to WFP intellectual levels increase when children are properly nourished.

Imagine a world in which all children’s potential is harnessed and developed, a world in which all children’s future is regarded and revered!

In a statement issued by UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon’s message on World Water Day targeted a lack of political will as the main reason for failure to achieve basic sanitation.  However with today is marked to bring awareness to the plight of some  2.6 billion people world wide who are without proper sanitation facilities and clean drinking water.

What can proper sanitation and hygiene do:

UNICEF and UNDP will hold a ground braking event, ‘Stand up for those who cant sit down’, today in NYC’s Central Park;

Please see the official World Water Day site, and yesterdays post for more information, resources and ways you can help those in need of clean water and sanitation.

“Today 2.6 billion people, including almost one billion children, live without even basic sanitation. Every 20 seconds, a child dies as a result of poor sanitation. That’s 1.5 million preventable deaths each year.”

Children around the globe continue to endure needless suffering due to diseases brought on by a lack of access to clean drinking water and poor sanitation. Two years ago, in an effort to speed up efforts to reach the Millennium Development Goals, the UN General Assembly created resolution A/C.2/61/L.16/Rev.1, which declared 2008 as the International Year of Sanitation (IYS). The objective of the resolution is to promote the need for global sanitation.

Why is sanitation so crucial? It only takes a very small amount of feces particles to transmit disease, as ‘water carried disease’ are passed on by water, hands, flies or the ground. Thus sanitation is crucial in the fight against the spread of disease.

Children are more susceptible to diseases, and as the lack of proper healthcare facilities, access to drug treatments and education on disease prevention, children in the developing world are even more susceptible than their western counterparts to preventable diseases. Lack of clean drinking water, indoor plumping, and proper sewage gravely hinder a child’s daily life and place them in greater danger of disease and illness. There are five main types of water-related infectious disease; water-borne, water-washed, water-based, water-related insect vector, diseases caused by poor sanitation.

What diseases which can be caused by bad sanitation? Diseases include; schistosomiasis, malaria, typhoid, cholera, dysentery, gastroenteritis, hepatitis, guinea worm, filariasis, yellow fever, river blindness scabies, trachoma, yaws, leprosy, conjunctivitis, skin infections and ulcers. Many Diarrheal/intestinal diseases, like cholera can cause dangerous dehydration often leading to death. Other diseases like hookworm, can result in anemia and stunted growth in children.

Children bathe and wash dishes in a lake in Sierra Leone, February 2008. © Manoocher Deghati/IRIN

Last month Water launched a new report, Giving sanitation the green light, at AfricaSan, Africa’s conference on sanitation and hygiene. The report highlights the serious lack of priority given to sanitation efforts;

“Lack of sanitation is one of the biggest killers of children in the developing world. Yet it is given low priority by donor and recipient governments alike. In sub-Saharan Africa, at current rates of progress, the 2015 MDG target for sanitation will not be met until 2076. It is clear that without an extraordinary effort it will be missed.”

It is clear that the need for proper sanitation systems and education are gravely needed across the globe, and until they are met children will continue to needlessly suffer. Even when proper sanitation systems are in place children and their families must also be made aware of proper hygiene techniques, to prevent the transmitting disease. Furthermore it is crucially important that sanitation standards and needs be met in every country to ensure that sustainable development can take root.

Recent News on Sanitation:
YEMEN: Sanitation services limited, sewage treatment plants poor
AFGHANISTAN: Poor sanitation, bad toilets cause deaths, misery
BANGLADESH: Towards “sanitation for all by 2010”
PAKISTAN: Open defecation-free communities - one village at a time

Other Related Links:
Global Sanitation Fund
Global WASH Campaign
UN-Water
World Health Organization (WHO)
Water Supply & Sanitation Collaborative Council
International Decade for Action ‘Water for Life’
World Water Day site 2007
Water Aid
Children pay the price for lack of safe water and sanitation
UNICEF calls for children to be at centre of regional action on hygiene
UNICEF highlights water scarcity on World Water Day
PlayPumps International- uses the PlayPump water system,a merry-go-round attached to a water pump, and aims to install 4,000 PlayPump water systems in 10 African countries by 2010, bringing clean water to up to 10 million people.
Tap Project - UNICEF- Dine at Tap Project participating restaurants around the US during World Water Week, from March 16 - March 22, and donate a dollar for your free tap water.
The Water Project
El Porvenir supports self–help, community–initiated water, sanitation and reforestation projects in Nicaragua.
Water Advocates

Internally displaced persons (IDPs) at the Jamhuri grounds, Nairobi, Kenya. January 2008 © Julius Mwelu/IRIN

The battle for a peaceful Kenya is far from over as a semblance of everyday life remains a distant dream for most Kenyans. While this month saw the signing of a power-sharing deal, the fight for peace and stability in the country is no where near complete. The “Real work” begins after political deal, while the power-sharing agreement between Kenya’s two main political parties may be set, humanitarians working in the country state that the real work hasn’t even started yet, as reconciliation and resettlement is the true priority and test of peace. “We still have 200 camps [for the displaced],” Bob McCarthy, regional emergency coordinator for the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), said. “People are being assisted to meet their immediate, short-term needs. The challenge now is to establish whether conditions are conducive for IDPs to return to their homes…”.

It is the IDP children falling through protection cracks amid the ciaos and displacement. Children in the camps lack access to proper education, healthcare, and lack the basic necessities of childhood including play. With some 150,000 displaced children in dire need of support and care to cope with the mental trauma they have endured. Many children who have; witnessed the unspeakable, are now parentless, separated from their families. Healing the children is the biggest challenge of Kenya in the wake of the post-election violence.

“The future of Kenya is very dark because the children are bringing up, the things they saw, we don’t know how those things are going to [affect] their lives,” said James Riako, a counselor with the Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS), working in a transit camp for displaced people in the grounds of St Stephen’s Cathedral in Kisumu, the capital of Nyanza Province in western Kenya.

While it appears the countries focus is shifting to recovery, resettlement of IDPs, and while many IDPs are ‘voluntarily’ able to return home it seems unlikely that many will make quick returns as the infrastructure remains crippled and the feeling of security has not completely returned for most in the country. According to the UN’s guiding principles on internal displacement those displaced may go back to the homes from where they fled, be resettled in another part of the country or reintegrated into the area of displacement. This has sent many Kenyans searching for their ‘ancestor’s’ homes, others have sought to return home, but it has left many to remain in IDP camps as the fear of renewed clashes remain. According to the UN’s principles;

“Competent authorities have the primary duty and responsibility to establish conditions, as well as provide the means, which allow internally displaced persons to return voluntarily, in safety and with dignity, to their homes or places of habitual residence, or to resettle voluntarily in another part of the country. Such authorities shall endeavour to facilitate the reintegration of returned or resettled internally displaced persons.”

The words safety and dignity stand out the most, and one can imagine this is the battle that will be the hardest for most looking to return home.

Sadly violence in the country has not completely subsided with the signing of the power-sharing agreement, and peace still looms in the distance. This week has been met with more out brakes and tension is high as hundreds flee clash-torn Laikipia where it has left some 300 houses destroyed by fire, leaving some 3,000 people to flee and resulted in some 14 deaths in the last 3 weeks.

So can Kenya’s children be healed? The truth is something only time can tell, as the country continues to remain in shambles despite the loosely painted image of peace. The children more than anyone need the return of normality, and for their sake one can only hope that it will come soon, and end their suffering. When peace finally covers Kenya the children will continue to be the ones in most need of rehabilitation and psychological care.

On this day around the world people drink, dance and celebrate the Irish, their culture and spirit. While the holiday has lost much of its meaning and the non-Irish join in the festivities often far more than do many Irish at times. I want to remind you that the day for the Irish is a feast day, a holy day, to honor their patron saint, Saint Patrick.

Saint Patrick, or Naomh Pádraig in Irish, was born in Scotland, and as a mear teenager when he was kidnapped from Wales by Irish brigands, raiders, and was then sold as a slave.  Enslaved as a farm labor for some six years he eventually escaped and returned home, where he studied to be a priest.  Saint Patrick returned some years later to the island where he was once held as a slave to be a missionary, bringing Christianity to the mostly Pagan island, sometime in the 5th century.

Why do I tell you this story? Saint Patrick was a slave and he was able to not only overcome, but to turn his struggle into empowerment.  Our world is full of slaves, many have escaped and they forget not those who have not been so fortunate and now dedicate their lives to helping others to freedom.  So celebrate today, and tomorrow remember those children who have not found freedom.  Fear often increases ones faith, maybe that is something we have lost a lot of in our modern world, regardless of our religion it seems that we all to often forget that our world is not our own but shared and many of the worlds children have only faith to carry them through.

The Stolen Child
Where dips the rocky highland
Of Sleuth Wood in the lake,
There lies a leafy island
Where flapping herons wake
The drowsy water rats;
There we’ve hid our faery vats,
Full of berrys
And of reddest stolen cherries.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand.

Where the wave of moonlight glosses
The dim gray sands with light,
Far off by furthest Rosses
We foot it all the night,
Weaving olden dances
Mingling hands and mingling glances
Till the moon has taken flight;
To and fro we leap
And chase the frothy bubbles,
While the world is full of troubles
And anxious in its sleep.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand.

Where the wandering water gushes
From the hills above Glen-Car,
In pools among the rushes
That scare could bathe a star,
We seek for slumbering trout
And whispering in their ears
Give them unquiet dreams;
Leaning softly out
From ferns that drop their tears
Over the young streams.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand.

Away with us he’s going,
The solemn-eyed:
He’ll hear no more the lowing
Of the calves on the warm hillside
Or the kettle on the hob
Sing peace into his breast,
Or see the brown mice bob
Round and round the oatmeal chest.
For he comes, the human child,
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world’s more full of weeping than he can understand.

-William Butler Yeats

In speaking with friends who are all parents about teaching young children about the world and the world issues, we then ended up talking about books. While there is undoubtedly a plethora of books availible for children, its actually almost daunting how many books there are, and while most are good books few seem to tackle the many diverse world issues. I then did a bit of investigating and hunting at the bookstores and online, and I did discover a few books dealing with the issues, they really where a few. There did seem to be a fair few on peace, but very few on other issues such as poverty and true tolerance.

I have begun to put together a list of Books for Children as a resource page on the site. However I would be interested to hear the views from all of the parents out there. Do you feel there isn’t enough resources out there to teach your children about the issues facing our world, such as poverty, war, disease, racism, religion, tolerance, etc?

Here are some resources and list I came across you may find it interesting for your kids:

2008 Notable Children’s Books

Teaching Books

Reading is Fundamental

Various books -Canadian

Healthy Books

Books with a theme of peace

Jane Addams Children’s Book Award

International childrens Books

HIV major factor in rising child deaths in South Africa as “every year 20,000 babies are stillborn and another 22,000 die within the first month of their lives. In total, at least 75,000 children die before their fifth birthday, while 1,600 mothers die due to pregnancy or childbirth complications, according to a report on infant, child and maternal mortality, released at a conference on perinatal care in Johannesburg this week.” The report, Every Death Counts, produced jointly by the Department of Health, the Medical Research Council and the University of Pretoria.

After police raids in June 2007 freed hundreds of child laborers working in China’s kilns, the government took steps to crack down on trafficking. Despite the government crack down, children are still routinely kidnapped from villages in China and pressed into labor in slave-like conditions (The Washington Post).

While Kosovo revels in it’s newly found independence from Serbia, many women and girls in the country find themselves enslaved in the sex trade and many others continually suffer from domestic abuse. It will be a challenge for this newly free nation to improve conditions for women (The Los Angeles Times).

A dangerous type of childhood meningitis has been virtually eliminated in Uganda in just five years after a vaccine was introduced this week. The vaccine could save the lives of some 5,000 children a year, according to a new report. “This is the first time we’ve seen this kind of impact, a 100 percent drop,” said Dr. Julian Lob-Levyt, executive secretary of the GAVI Alliance. The vaccine, known as Hib, protects against haemophilus influenzae type B, a bacterium that can inflame the lining of the brain or cause pneumonia. Each year, it kills 386,000 children globally (The New York Times).

In an effort to lead young men away from armed military groups, Turkey’s government is planning a broad series of investments worth as much as USD 12 billion in the country’s largely Kurdish southeast, in a new economic effort intended to create jobs and draw young men away from militancy, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said. The program is intended to drain support for the militant Kurdish group, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, by improving the lives of Turkey’s impoverished Kurdish minority (The New York Times).

Sierra Leone maternity hospital’s have become a “last resort” for both patients, do to the shortages of staff and supplies. Sierra Leone has one of the highest levels of maternal mortality in the world because of underinvestment in health programs, malnutrition, and harmful cultural practices, UN children’s agency (UNICEF) Executive Director Ann Veneman told journalists in the Sierra Leone capital. “Child mortality in this country is the worst in the world at 270 deaths per 100,000 children born”.

In Somalia displaced families surviving on less than one meal a day. Large numbers of families displaced by the continuing violence are living on less than one meal a day and spending large proportions of that to buy drinking water, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Get more girls in school, activists say, “This is a situation that must change rapidly because the education of girls will shape the progress we want to see for Somalia in terms of peace and development,” Christian Balslev-Olesen, the representative for the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Somalia, said on 7 March. Somalia has one of the worst overall child educational attendence rates in the world.

Senegal’s leading news agency reports on a newly minted peace deal between the leaders of Chad and Sudan, signed today in Dakar.Voice of America notes that several Chad-Sudan peace deals have failed in the past and it has many looking at theLatest peace pact to revive past failures.

A new report from the International Crisis Group previews Sudan’s 2009 general elections and a planned 2011 South Sudanese independence referendum and questions what the future of North-South relations might look like.

Reports that the head of Kenya’s election commission will face a public probe over the country’s heavily disputed December 27 vote. While some try to return to some form of normality in the face violence many

urban displaced still looking for a home. “My baby is 10 days old, I remain under this tarpaulin tent not knowing what the future holds,” Elizabeth Mueni, one of 263 IDPs camping at the Dagoretti district officer’s (DO) compound.

The words of Martin Luther King, Jr., ring as true today as they did they did then. It is our silence that allows suffering to continue. As a society we cannot remain silent about the injustices that plague our world, the injustices that children face daily, for if we speak then we can hear not only our voice but that of the voiceless child.

Photo by Omar

Every man, woman and child has a voice and it is those voices that are the first steps to fight hunger, disease, hate and violence.

As spring peeked its sleep head though the last days of winter, the sun shown on the steps of the Senate Building as a group converged to demand that America fight to end slavery in its fields.

Today Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin from Illinois, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers of Michigan, Congressman Dennis Kucinich from Ohio, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, The Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights (RFK Center) Director Monika Kalra Varma, and supporters from various citizen groups and NGO’s converged just outside the Russel Senate building to support the Coalition of Immokalee Workers’.

The event was opened by Senator Durbin who boldly stated;

“Burger King argues that a penny a pound is too much. I wanna tell Burger King thats a ‘Whopper’!”

While the morning was full of supporters from all sides and all ages, there where some distinctive members missing. Those represenatives from Florida were invited, however their support was not found at todays signing. According to CIW when asked about their support stated that the reach of the agricultural industry in Florida is strong and far, and they have “not shown real or sustainable support”.

Lucas Benitez, farmworker and co-founder of CIW, took the stand today in honor of all of those who fight for freedom and fairness in the feilds, his voice was strong and loud, but most of all he was determined that these crimes would come to end. He told of not only the struggles of the workers, but of the progress and hope they have thanks to their supporters and their courage. Mr. Benitez also spoke of those who stand in the path of freedom; “…Burger King and it’s allies stand in our path and threaten the important progress we have made.”

“Together we are stronger than Burger King and the handful of backward growers and their lobbyists!” -Lucas Benitez

Photo from CIW

What is truly sad is that in a day and age where most in America are more concerned with buy cars, toys, clothes and so many other needless items, men, women and whole families are fighting for freedom. What makes this beyond intolerable and incomprehensible is that freedom and a better wage cost a merer penny a pound. The CIW, the farmworkers of Immokalee and all the slaves with in the midst of the ‘Land of the Free’ are the true Americans fighting for justice, freedom and survival. The next time you buy a burger, a container of tomatoes, a new shirt, remember that in many cases someone literally ’slaved’ for that item in your hand.

Even a child knows right from wrong; Issiah , just 3, was the youngest supporter in the crowed. He boastfully repeated the key points from the speakers, and yes, while he may not have comprehended the matter at hand, when I asked him; “Is not treating the people who work for you a bad idea? “, he quickly answered “Yes!”. Issiah’s mother told me that just this week he told his father, that “fair trade coffee is a good idea because they treat their workers good, but Burger King is bad because they don’t.” Children learn from their parents examples, and we can all teach our children that slavery is a bad idea. It is with steps like these today, and young minds like Issiah’s that will lead us to a slave free America…a slave free world! It’s time we stood for what is right so our children and their children no longer have to suffer and fight for freedom.

Add your name to the National Petition to End Sweatshops and Slavery in America’s Fields!

Please see yesterdays article for more information on CIW and their fight for slave free fields for America’s farm workers.

To hear the todays press conference and petition signing click here or to hear the press conference, click here.