Children

South Africa to provide vaccinations against child-killing diseases
South Africa will provide children with vaccinations for pneumococcal disease, the major vaccine-preventable cause of death among young children, and rotavirus, a diarrhea that affects almost every child before the age of 3.

Iraqi students exempted from school fees
Jordan has waived annual fees in state-owned schools for Iraqi students to help them cope with rising living costs, a Ministry of Education official said on 26 August.

Northern desert conflict disrupts maternal health care
Since violence broke out again last year, Mahaman Hanissou Ouedraogo, director of the UNFPA Agadez office, says it is hard to reach expecting mothers who live beyond town limits, which is roughly where paved roads end. Access to the mountains, which has been the centre of much of the fighting, is strictly cut off. The most recent information on maternal mortality in Niger was gathered before the latest surge in violence. According to the Niger government, in 2006 about 14,000 women died from pregnancy complications.

WHO: World needs to strengthen life expectancy rates
Social factors have an immense impact on lifespan and health. While life expectancy rates have increased across the globe in the last decade, the world community needs to do more to even the gains, the World Health Organization said in a report released Thursday. WHO officials are looking to identify ways to address causes of disparities, such as education, access and environment, as a step towards erasing them.

Child malnutrition is an old stain on a new India
Although India has staved off the specter of famine successfully in its bid over recent years to become a greater world power, it is still home to 40% of all the world’s severely malnourished young children. Only Bangladesh and Nepal have higher percentages of underweight children than India, where nearly half (60 million) are malnourished. Experts warn that malnutrition — which has never been treated as a serious concern for policy by India — could threaten to undermine the economic boom that India is currently enjoying.

In India, New Opportunities for Women Draw Anger and Abuse From Men
Harassment of women has increased among the upper middle class in India, where a backlash from men has answered the gains made by progressive women. The shift toward new retail and technology sectors and social mobility has eroded the centrality of the traditional, joint-family structure, freeing young women from the power of the husband and husband’s mother.

Measles Returns
An uptick in measles cases in the U.S., owing to misplaced fears among parents about vaccinations, has led to 15 hospitalizations. As in previous years, most incidents of the disease began when the virus was contracted abroad, but this year it spread more easily — resulting in 131 reported cases among home-schooled children and others who were refused vaccinations due to debunked fears that these vaccinations increase the possibility for autism.

“Just because a child’s parents are poor or uneducated is no reason to deprive the child of basic human rights to health care, education and proper nutrition.” - Marian Wright Edelman, American children’s rights activist and president and founder of the Children’s Defense Fund.

Regardless of the reasons, the state, race, religion or social status of a child’s parents, each child should be born into this world with an equal foot and stake in the future. Sadly this is not the reality and millions of children across the globe are marked before birth by the status of their parents. It is this disadvantaged at the beginning of life that leaves many children lost in the grey shadows of an unknown future.

As a child of the 80’s when the word famine is mentioned I can distinctively hear my mother telling me to ear my entire plate of my despised broccoli, because “there are starving children in Ethiopia”. I know wonder if more than 20 years later I will soon find myself uttering those same words at my next meal.

Images of small lifeless children with hallow eyes being weighed in harness scales like the bags of grain they so desperatly need, flood ones mind.   Once again the children of Ethiopia are starving on a grand scale, and the images of the 1980’s haven’t changed, we only see them less.  While they may not be suffering on the immense scale of the 80’s, and be drawing the critical mass cries of support from the international community to bring forth the calls of Live Aid and Band Aid. The famine reached its peak with the drought of 1984, which at its height took more than a million lives. Sadly Ethiopia historically and continually remains one of the world’s most starved nations. The current plight of famine and malnutrition in Ethiopia, which is caused in part by; drought, various natural plagues, a substantial population increase, and the armed conflict in the Somali region; has been compounded by global inflation which has doubled the price of food.

Regardless of the historical famines, the issue today cannot be disregarded as according to UNICEF estimates some 6 million children under five may be at risk of malnutrition in Ethiopia. While Ethiopia became the face of famine for a generation, it is but one country struggling to provide the basic necessities for millions of men, women and children. As sadly the children of Ethiopia are not alone, the exact number of children across the globe who are severely malnourished and undernourished is unknown, however according to the FAO State of Food Insecurity in the World 2006 report, there are some 854 million people around the globe who do not have enough to eat. The fight against famine is global and regardless of what state the crisis is in, millions of children are in critical need of food aid.

According to the Ethiopian government there are 75,000 children suffering from severe malnourishment across the country. At current it is estimated that some 7 million Ethiopians rely on food aid for survival, and while food aid it obviously not new, it is only a band aid to a larger problem. The crisis in Ethiopia, which is significantly affected by the low levels of investment in food deficit areas and skyrocketing food prices, has left an imbalance in the population. As mentioned in Choosing Who to Save, this is causing an uneven balance of the country’s population, leaving urban Ethiopians to benefit at the cost of their rural counterparts. 

What can be done to save the children in Ethiopia from famine? The question still lingers on the tounges of many in the international community, but the answer has yet to be found. 

Some 854 million people around the globe do not have enough to eat, according to the FAO State of Food Insecurity in the World 2006 report. The dilemma on who to save has hit many hard, but as the article, In a time of famine, who should be saved?, illustrates the issue is not just one many families are forced to make, but also governments.

Is the international community spending to much time debating, or wasting aid? Many critics will say “yes” with out skipping a beat, as seen when looking at the US, the number one donor of food aid, as illistrated in U.S. Food Aid: We Pay for Shipping. The Business Week article highlights the effect of sending products over funds, which can significantly add to the detriment of food shortages. Can we afford to take such bureaucratic approach?

The harsh reality is that every five seconds a child dies because she or he is hungry. For many the problem seems distant, but in the wake of the growing food crisis the problem is coming closer and closer to home for many across the globe.  The resources needed to end hunger and malnutrition do exist, however children are still not getting the adequate nutrition they need. While child survival has improved in the last twenty years, the progress remains slow, leaving children to continue to suffer needlessly.  The effects of malnurished mothers are passed onto thier children, as infants are born underweight, under five child mortality rates remain high, and malnurishment and undernurishment are responsible for stunting and mental underdevelopment.

Just this week we saw the World Bank revise poverty figures, to show a substancial increase in the number of people around the world living in extreme poverty, putting the new figure at 1.4 billion.  The Bank’s new numbers come following an adjustment in the deep poverty measure from $1 per day to $1.25 (Times). The World Bank urged the international community to expand the fight against poverty. 

As World Food Day approaches on October 16th, people are left asking what needs to be done and how do we ensure we are on the right road to end hunger for millions of children?  The question remains; Does the International community pick favorites, just as we would when faced with deciding who to help? And if so, how does playing favorites on a global scale affect those waiting for someone to help them? One can only hope that the Committee on World Food Security, which is meeting in connection with World Food Day, from 14 to 17 October 2008, will find answers and solutions to end global hunger.

Part 2 of 2


Links:
Hunger Facts
World Food Program (WFP)
Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
World Food Day
World Food Day USA
Global Crisis in Food Prices Increases Vulnerability of Children - Save the Children

One rarely thinks that Eenie, meenie, minie, mo is a game to be played when looking at the global food crisis, let alone when staring into the eyes of malnourished children. Therefore when you’re faced with immense amounts of people in need, but you can only help a few, who do you, choose to help?

The scale of poverty is global, while the dilemma however is becoming more local and even more personal, as illustrated in the Guardian article today; In a time of famine, who should be saved?. The article illustrates the Ethiopian nations growing disparity and almost seemingly prejuditual food price scale. The questions raised in a time when the food crisis continues to spread across the globe, thus leaves one to ask the very personal question; Could I choose who should be saved?

No one wants to be the savior so to speak, but the reality of it is you cannot save everyone…can you? It brings me back to my first time in Russia in the mid-late 90’s, I was a struggling student I had surely seen people in need and begging on the street, but it was different, I knew they had no other option there was no pension, most I saw were elderly and disabled….and I began to give a bit here and there…all I could think of was how cheap it was (6,000 rubles to a $1, it was less than $3 to get a bottle of good vodka), then one day a friend stopped me and said stop, what are you doing you cant save them all and your going to run out of money over guilt. So I did I stopped, they were right I couldn’t save them all. But if I had begun and had to choose one who would I have chosen? the guy with no legs or arms that marveled me just be the shear fact he managed to get around, the old woman who looked near blind with the small disabled child, the old man who tried to sing sweet songs but was never on key?

Thinking back I am not sure I could have picked and if I had begun that way maybe I would have never even tried to save anyone so to speak. So if I were lined up in front of a bunch of starving children would I be able to choose if I were forced to play favorites?

Part 1 of 2

 Palestinians return to school despite hardships As one million Palestinian children in the West Bank and Gaza Strip prepare to return to school next week, UN agencies and the Palestinian Ministry of Education have been stressing the problems schoolchildren face in the occupied Palestinian territory [oPt].“We should celebrate - in spite of all the hardships - going back to school,” said Filippo Grandi, the deputy-commissioner of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, at a press conference held under the banner of “Unite for Education”.At the same time he noted that 76 Palestinian children had been killed so far this year, a 50 percent rise on last year.

Yemen confronts plight of child brides
Owing to widespread poverty and deeply rooted tradition, child marriage makes up nearly half of all marriages in Yemen. A law prohibiting marriage for girls under aged 15 was revoked in the 1990s because some readings of Muslim law suggest that age of marriage cannot be restricted. Parents who are unable to provide for families send off, and sometimes, sell their daughters.

Searching for Freedom, Chained by the Law
Increasing numbers of Pakistani women are stepping forward to challenge gender inequalities ingrained in Pakistani society. The brothers and husbands of women seeking independence often use false charges of extramarital affairs or other immorality to imprison women who refuse an arranged marriage or seek a divorce.

Germany Reports Hike in Childbirths
For decades now, Germany has been a demographic time bomb, with a fast-graying society and a shrinking population…creating a recipe for disaster for the future of the country’s cradle to grave social welfare system. On Wednesday, though, the country reported its first fertility rate increase since 2001, with an average number of 1.37 children per woman in 2007 — up from 1.33 the previous year. Germany’s Federal Statistical Office reported 685,000 births in the country last year, 12,000 more than in 2006.

UN mission alarmed as another child kidnapping victim is killed
Officials with the UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti have voiced alarm at the continuing spate of kidnappings of children, days after abductors killed a boy apparently because his family could not pay the ransom. The body of the 12-year-old boy was found in Grande Ravine on August 16, four days after he had been kidnapped, the mission reported on August 19. He was the third child kidnapping victim to be killed this year. UN Police (UNPOL) announced that a 10-year-old boy was kidnapped last week in a separate incident in the Martissant neighborhood of the capital, Port-au-Prince.

End Beating of Children in Public Schools
More than 200,000 US public school students were punished by beatings during the 2006-2007 school year, Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said in a joint report released Aug. 20. In the 13 states that corporally punished more than 1,000 students per year, African-American girls were twice as likely to be beaten as their white counterparts. In the 125-page report, “A Violent Education: Corporal Punishment of Children in US Public Schools,” the organizations found that in Texas and Mississippi children ranging in age from 3 to 19 years old are routinely physically punished for minor infractions.

UN project in Cote d’Ivoire to speed up reintegration of ex-combatants
The UN mission in Cote d’Ivoire (UNOCI) launched a USD 5 million project on August 14 to speed the reintegration of ex-combatants from the country’s civil war, as well as young people at risk. The “1,000 micro-projects” initiative was launched in Bouake by the UN’s top envoy in the West Africa nation, Y.J. Choi. The projects seek to support ex-combatants, ex-militias and young people at risk, along with children and women associated with the Ivorian conflict. The projects cover a range of activities, including technical training, agriculture, cattle rearing, fishing, forestry, construction, transportation, motor mechanics, public works and catering.

Children are main victims of violence in Chad, Ban says in new report
Children continue to be the primary victims of the conflict in Chad, whether they are recruited as soldiers, killed or hurt by landmines or denied humanitarian access, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon writes in a report made public August 12. “The political, military and security situation remains highly volatile,” he said, due to the ongoing violence between Chadian armed forces and rebel groups, the presence of foreign rebels in the country’s east, cross-border raids by allied militiamen known as the Janjaweed and continuing tensions, mainly between Arab and non-Arab communities. As a result, children are made to suffer.

UN probes India ‘abuses’ in Congo
The UN has found that its peacekeeping troops from India may have engaged in abuse and exploitation while serving in the Democratic Republic of Congo. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was deeply troubled by the findings. Ban said the Indian government had assured the UN the allegations would be thoroughly investigated and if proven action would be taken. One UN official said there may have been abuse of young girls and boys by at least 100 Indian peacekeepers.

Australia Increases Support for Food Security in Indonesia
Australia will provide USD 6.5 million over two years to the World Food Program (WFP) to address malnutrition caused by chronic food shortages in Nusa Tenggara Timur and Nusa Tenggara Barat in Indonesia. Nutritional food supplements will be provided to the most vulnerable, including pregnant and nursing women and children. This two-year program continues Australia’s partnership with the WFP and will also build the Indonesian Government’s capacity to respond to the adverse impact of food shortages on communities in these provinces. Australia has committed USD 38 million to lift productivity in Indonesia’s agriculture sector.

UN mission launches countdown to International Peace Day
The top UN envoy to Afghanistan joined graduating students from Kabul’s Polytechnic to launch a countdown on Aug. 12 to the annual International Peace Day intended to be marked by a global ceasefire on September 21. “Peace is Afghanistan’s greatest need and it is the United Nations’ highest calling,” Kai Eide, the head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), said. In other news, three female international aid workers were killed on Aug. 13 in an ambush by insurgents in the Logar province in southern Afghanistan, a provincial governor said.

In despite of numerous, and seemingly successful, efforts to alleviate malnutrition in Sri Lankan children, children continue to be malnurished.  Why are so many children still malnurished, despite numerous health programs in incitives?  Inspite of various successes the country remains in a serious child health crisis, as reported in a newly released survey.  The Demographic and Health Survey 2006/2007, a draft of which was released by the Health and Nutrition Ministry and the Census and Statistics Department, shows that 22% of Sri Lankan children are underweight, 18% are stunted and 15% show signs of wasting.

Increasing food cost and unemployment are only serving to compound the growing problem of malnurishment affecting hundreds of thousands of Sri Lankan children.  Those areas of the country which are feeling the burden most are those regions effected by conflict.  According to Judy Devadawson, an adviser to a Trincomalee-based NGO, the Women and Child Care Organisation (WACCO);

“What is very common now is to see people struggling to buy food because of the high prices of staples like rice and bread.  In some places, we see very thin children with sunken eyes and they seem lethargic.” (IRIN)

In my post earlier this past week, The Thin Balance Between Life and Death, Sri Lanka was not one of the countries of significant mention in regards to infant mortality as they ranked seemingly high in regards to other countries, however the courntry’s infant mortality rate may not rank as high, at #113 with at rate of 19.01.  Nonetheless there is grave concern over the high levels of child undernurshment and malnurishment, which often leads to death in children under 5 years old.

“There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our young people – one of these is roots, the other is wings.” -Hodding Carter

We seek to give our children everything we can, wanting them to have infinite possibilities and striving to see our children have all that we did not. However often in our quest to give children all they need for the future we miss the key essentials to a prosperous and happy future. Life is demanding and the world is constantly changing around us, leaving the needs and wants of our children muddled together and thus parents all too often loose focus on the true essential needs of their children. One can easily become consumed by materialism giving children the latest gadgets, the best clothes, newest games, all in an attempt to better the life and future of the child. Nonetheless in hindsight it is not the things one has in childhood that they will look back fondly on.

In a world where one works to be the best in school, the best our field, etc., we often fail to be the best version of ourselves that we can be. Forgetting that in the end the most important things are not what we have, but what we have done and experience and who we have become. Whilst the technologies and advances of today give children a world of opportunity, let us not forget the endless value of giving our children a solid future based on the experiences of the past with the encouragement and freedom to be whatever they choose.

Water is something we rarely think about; we get up in the morning and turn on our taps to brush our teeth, hop in a nice hot shower and pour ourselves a glass of ice water on a hot summers day, all without a thought about how clean it is or where it came from. While the idea of water rarely plays on our minds, no one can live with out it, and across the globe some 2.6 billion men, women and children across the globe lack access to access to clean water.

This week, August 17-23, 2008, World Water Week is well under way. Held in Stockholm leaders from around the world unite to strategize on ways in which the global community can work together on capacity-building, partnership-building and follow-up on the implementation of international processes and programs in water and development. This year’s theme is; “Progress and Prospects on Water: For a Clean and Healthy World”

The global summit has once again been met with please to resolve the growing challenges of sanitation, climate change and providing drinkable water supplies to communities across the globe. At the top of the agenda for this years summit is sanitation, as summit organizers say lack of adequate sanitation is a scandal that costs the lives of 1.4 million children every year.

While having access to clean water is a major concern, for many just accessing any water at all is a strenuous burden. Imagine walking for miles once or twice a day, to collect water, then having to carry a 5 gallon bucked on your head the long journey home. The task of water collection is not only time consuming, but strenuous as those who bare the heavy loads are most often women and children, often causing injury or permanent damage. Now imagine being able to collect five times more water and then being able to almost effortlessly push it home, it would be life changing! And that is why I love the hippo water roller, which organizations like Project H Design are working to improve and distribute. What about when the water collected is unclean and filtered, or you are out all day trekking and you have no access to clean water? Well innovative products like the Life Straw, can really be life savers.

Products like the Hippo Roller and Life Straw, are both inventive and practical, and while they are cost efficient, distribution of such devices and the many other products and programs are greatly needed to see that the access to clean and potable water is something that will no longer be a struggle for any man, woman or child.  However, while the global community has made significant strides there is a long way to go in seeing that everyone has access to sustainable water solutions, and global investments need substantial increases if we are to see an improvement to not only access to water supplies, but awareness, prevention and the eradication of many water borne diseases, there are many inventive solutions taking foot.   

Pregnancy and birth should be happy times for women and their families, however in many countries they are cause for grave concern as high levels of mortality follow both. While both maternal and infant mortality are easily preventable, there numbers remain at shocking highs in many countries around the world.

In recent news some countries have begun to see the thinning balance between life and death, and are now working to quickly increase prevention programs. Countries such as Ghana, who are now facing a race against time to cut maternal mortality, as it has now been declared a national emergency by Health Minister, Courage Kwashigah. While in the Congo the government sets its sights on infant mortality, as a nationwide campaign has begun to fight the country’s increasingly high rates of infant mortality, as well as juvenile and maternal mortality.

According to the CIA Factbook the Congo ranks 24 on the list, while Ghana ranks number 52 on the list, only serving to further illustrate the extremity for which infant mortality rates needlessly plague the developing world. The top ten country rankings for infant mortality rates (deaths/1,000 live births) are;

1. Angola (182.31)
2. Sierra Leone (156.48 )
3. Afghanistan (154.67)
4. Liberia (143.89)
5. Niger (115.42)
6. Somalia (110.97)
7. Mozambique (107.84)
8. Mali (103.83)
9. Guinea-Bissau (101.64)
10. Zambia (100.96)

In sub-Saharan Africa one can also find the highest maternal mortality rates in the world, as according to the World Health Organization some 900 deaths per 100,000 live births occur each year.

Why are so many countries struggling with such high mortality rates, when the majority of the deaths are preventable?
The main causes of infant mortality were once due mainly due to dehydration and diarrhea, however successful awareness programs about oral rehydration solutions over the last two decades have helped to substantially lower this cause of death. The leading cause of infant mortality is now largely related to pneumonia, however other infections and SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) also play a large role.  Maternal mortality’s leading causes include; bacterial infections, gestational hypertension, hemorrhaging, ectopic pregnancies, amniotic fluid embolism.

In all cases of maternal mortality the shortages of both doctors and midwives is only serving to severely compound the problem. The increasing of free and accessible access to healthcare would significantly decrease the number of deaths, as many women are forced to give birth at home unaided or with unqualified medical assistance, due to the high cost of delivery. An additional and often overlooked cause of high maternal mortality rates is child marriages and child pregnancies, as well as rape and abuse often leading to conditions such as fistula. The cost and lack of access to healthcare also significantly compounds the rate of infant mortality, as mothers do on seek appropriate prenatal care and advice, including advice on the benefits of breastfeeding.