Children

 The 2008 Election isn’t child’s play, but children are sure taking their voices to the streets and event the polls.

The countdown has begun and soon American’s will find themselves under new leadership, so who will it be, McCain or Obama? The votes are still out, but the heat is still on! So what do kids think about the election? Obviously many kids are just mirroring what their parents choices, but if kids could vote who would they choose?

In a gumball vote at the Mall of America in Minnesota Obama won the, and while a turnout of 1800 in one state wont seal an election, but what about a turnout of 250,000? The Scholastic News Election Poll is the largest child ‘voter’ turnout, has Obama taking 57% of the votes. Therefore it appears children would chose Obama.

So what types of questions would kids ask? This video shows a few kids asking the candidates their most important questions:

Its not too late to muster up a troop of witches, warlocks, fairies and superheros, young and old, to make a big impact on children’s lives this Halloween.  Why not do some reverse trick-or-treating. 

What is reverse trick-or-treating? Reverse trick-or-treating is when you walk around door to door and instead or, or including, taking candy as your ‘treat’ you hand the candy giver a treat of your own. As mention in the earlier post Fair Trade Trick-or-Treating, is becoming increasingly popular and fair trade chocolate companies have launched reverse trick-or-treating programs to bring awareness to the cause. However reverse trick-or-treating is more than just passing out a treat, but passing along awareness…and what is a better treat than giving back.

So what can you do for your reverse trick-or-treating this year? Well as I preciously mentioned you can join establish programs to promote fair trade chocolate, or as mentioned in the post Help Children This Halloween, UNICEF has a well established program. However you don’t have to have a little pre-printed box or fair trade chocolate kit to participate charity or activism this Halloween. You can also in reverse trick-or-treating, by choosing your favorite cause, and/or organization and collect money, or advocate, on their behalf. Most any organization will gladly send you facts and information materials on their organization and the cause they support, for you to pass out as you go door to door making a difference with each ring of a bell. So not everyone will toss you a few bucks, or even a few coppers, but your efforts and the information you leave behind, may very well jumpstart them into action. And you may be very well surprised at what you find lurking behind some doors.

Besides the reward of doing something that will benefit others, I’m sure there will be some sugary and chocolaty sweets in it for you too! So what are you waiting for, go out there and get yourself all decked out and hit the streets and scare up some funds for a good cause.

SOMALIA: Conflict, drought force more children onto Hargeisa streets
Conflict, drought and economic hardships have led to an unprecedented increase in the number of street children in Hargeisa, capital of Somalia’s self-declared independent republic of Somaliland, with government and aid agencies calling for urgent steps to stem the increase. Saleebaan Ismail Bulale, chairman of Hornwatch, a local human rights group, estimated there were 3,000-5,000 children on the streets of Hargeisa.

Returning Burundians win university scholarships from UN refugee agency
A group of 40 Burundian students started university classes this week in the capital, Bujumbura, after becoming the first returnees to be granted scholarships by the United Nations refugee agency. The new students at Universite Lumiere in Bujumbura were selected to receive scholarships by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which helps to administer the German-funded DAFI scholarship program. The program - which has been running for 16 years and now supports 1,800 students across 33 States - had previously only been available to refugees living in countries of asylum, UNHCR said.

Charity denies hunger ‘forgery’
Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has rebutted claims that it exaggerated the number of malnourished children in Niger. The charity has appealed to be allowed to resume work in the region of Maradi, where Niger’s government ordered it to stop operating in July. MSF said some 8,000 children had since been deprived of treatment. The BBC’s Idy Baraou reports from Niger that there are fears of a malnutrition epidemic in coming months. Human rights groups report that government hospitals are not adequately equipped to deal with the challenge, he says.

SOMALIA: Nasir Ahmed - “I feel bad every time I see children my age going to school”
More and more children are missing out on childhood as conflict continues in war-torn Somalia. Families who fled the violence have been separated from their children and, as poverty bites due to drought and hyperinflation, many children have taken to the streets to fend for their families. Nasir Ahmed, 12, is one such child in Hargeisa, the capital of the self-declared republic of Somaliland.

PAKISTAN: Swat Valley violence shatters education hopes
“We saw the school being blown up right in front of our eyes,” said Abu Junaid, Sara’s father. “Even the security forces do nothing; they remain quiet bystanders,” said Sara. Swat’s educational institutions are either bedevilled by disruption due to unannounced curfews, shelling and bombing, or the schools have been targeted by militant arsonists. In the last two years over 100 schools, mostly girls’ schools, have been torched, according to pakistani media sources

BANGLADESH: A floating future
“It’s different from other schools – I really love the Bangla boi [book] – it teaches us things we see in our villages, helps us identify the birds, kinds of fishes, and tells us about river erosion.” The boats equipped with computers have opened a new world to at least 90,000 families in the region, “especially for girls and women,” said Fazila Begum, a subsistence farmer. Girls and women are brought up in conservative and protected households in mainly Muslim Bangladesh, and cannot always travel long distances to attend school or even to see a doctor, particularly in rural areas. “Now we don’t even have to step out of the village,” Fazila smiled.

UNICEF boosts funding to help ensure proper nutrition for Kyrgyz children
The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) will provide USD 270,000 in additional funds to help develop a national nutrition strategy in Kyrgyzstan, where more than half of babies and infants are anemic and many young children suffer from stunted growth as a result of nutrient deficiencies. “Giving a child a solid nutritional start in life is critical to physical, mental and social development,” stressed UNICEF chief Ann Veneman during her visit to the Central Asian nation, the first-ever by an Executive Director of the agency. While in the capital, Bishkek, Veneman also visited the Rehabilitation Center for Street Children.

International Conference on the Right to Education in Iraq
The state of education in Iraq, and the threats facing Iraqi children, students and academics is the subject of an international conference “Right to Education in Crisis-Affected Countries: Stop jeopardizing the future of Iraq,” at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris from October 30 to November 1.

UNESCO and Iraqi Ministry of Education launch educational TV channel
Iraqi children who are unable to attend classes due to security concerns will now be able to continue their studies through distance learning thanks to a new educational television channel launched Oct. 21 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the Education Ministry. The Iraqi Educational TV Channel, IRAQI EDU, is designed particularly for primary and secondary school students both within and outside of Iraq, and comes in response to security risks that result in a high rate of absenteeism and the closing of schools.

“The United Nations organization has proclaimed 1979 as the Year of the Child. Are the children to receive the arms race from us as a necessary inheritance?” - Pope John Paul II quotes (Polish Pope. 1920-2005)

No longer is it the end of the ’70s, but since the establishment of the Declaration of the Rights of the Child in 1979, and the shocking words of Pope John Paul II, one thing has not changed…that is the ‘unnecessary inheritance” of the faults of the previous generations.  While the arms race of the Cold War era may have died down, the worlds arms race has never come to a end, it has only changed faces, or brought the distant contender out of the shadows.  The world’s current worn torn status only highlights the never ending arms race, as the quest for nuclear power remains a quest and a fear. 

The Cold War arms race came to an end with the collapse of the Berlin wall in 1989 and the subsequent collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.  However a new arms race followed the 1991 war with Iraq, and then picked up speed after 9/11.  Thus while the arms race has never truly ended, only changing shape and bringing new and old faces alike out of the shadows, it has changed face in many was as now it is no longer one of a mere nuclear race, but also an arms race of chemical and biological proportions.

Will we ever see an end to the arms race?  The sad reality is no, for as long as humans quest power the race will go on.  While the powers may shift and the race may slow down, as long as there are arms, there will be a race to be the world’s leader.   The children of tomorrow are only left to face a new kind of fear, as they truly have inherited the arms race, and the only question that remains is what kind of arms race their children will inherit.

“We will be judged in the future on the actions we take today — on results. On this United Nations Day, let us rededicate ourselves to achieving them.”
- Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General

Today marks the anniversary of the establishment of the United Nations Charter, which was put into force on the 24th of October 1945.  United Nations Day is was established to show people around the world the goals and acomplishments of the United Nations. United Nations Day is part of United Nations Week, which runs from the 20th to the 26th of October.

What has the United Nations and its agencies done in recent years?
-Vaccinated more than 500 million children since 2000, reducing measles deaths by 68%.
-Provided food, shelter, medical aid, and education to more than 25 million people in 2007.
-Deployed over 130,000 troops and personnel to 19 political and peacekeeping missions.

While it is undisputed the UN agencies have made a huge and much needed positive impact around the world, it is not without it’s faults, nor are its member countries. There fore today is a great time to reevaluate the US’s failure to ratifify of the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

As stated in the post, The United States and The Rights of the Child, on February 16, 1995, the United States did actually sign the Convention; however the treaty has never been submitted to the Senate. The United States has also stated that it does not plan to ratify the convention.

Why dosent the US ratify the Convention? The most probable cause for disagreement and non-ratification of the Convention by the United States is the paradox of the death penalty. The Convention prohibits any child being sentenced to death for any crime occurring before the child turns eighteen. Currently with twenty-two states allowing the executions of juveniles, one can easily see the United States unlikely ratification and clear obstacle to the United States ever ratifying the treaty. During the above mentioned Special Session the United States and Iran alone rejected a proposal to ban the addition of a ban on the death penalty or life without parole for children offenders. For more information on the Convention please see, Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Now is a perfect time to get behing the ratification of the Convention as we near it’s anviersy, as on November 20th 1959 the UN General Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child.  On the same date in 1989 the UN General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child.  Therefore as we near the date, which is also designated as Universal Children’s Day in most countries, one should look into thier own role with in both the UN and the protection of children’s rights across the globe.

What can you do to support a US ratification of the Convention?
SOS Children’s Villages is currently sponsoring a Petition, which will be sent to our next President, McCain or Obama urging them to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. 

 Mugabe’s Zimbabwe is undergoing what many call the county’s worst peace time crisis. Due to a shortage of hard currency Zimbabwe is now weighed down by hyperinflation and constant import shortages, mainly fuel and food stuffs. The current crisis has led to what is almost a complete demise of  Zimbabwe’s education system.  Once was once seen as the best in sub-Saharan Africa finest, it now resembles the shambled state of it’s war-torn counter parts, despite the country’s state of peace.

This year 2008 should go down in history as a year in which the Zimbabwe education system came to its knees. It should be recorded as a no-show year. All the gains that the country accrued after independence are being reversed, and that is sad Samson Chivanga, a secondary school teacher in the capital, Harare (IRIN).

The crisis is only compounded by drought and a growing HIV/AIDS epidemic, as illness and hunger have become added burdens that are keeping children out of school.  Children are not the only ones not attending school in recent years as it is estimated that some 45,000 teachers have quit since 2004.

HIV/AIDS has begun to take its toll on children across the country, not only as victims, but as primary caregivers for their ailling relatives.  Children are forced out of school to care for their sick parents.  Not only are children burdened with picking up the slack for a failing healthcare system, they are often forced to work to support the family by finding work on the streets peddling or taking up other work to supply the household income.

For almost six months now, John Mberi*, 14, from the high-density suburb of Mufakose in Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare, has been taking care of his sick mother… Taking care of his ailing mother has been very difficult for John, and he often misses school when her condition is worse. On days like this he has to wash, cook, clean and bathe his mother in bed using a bucket of water. (PulseNews)

According to the Coalition Against Child Labour and Abuse in Zimbabwe,  in only one year, 2007 to 2008, the number of children working aged 5 to 17 years old, has increase 15%, from 60% to 75%.  HIV/AIDS, which is dubed as the country’s unparalleled economic crisis, has caused the complete brakedown of support networks for suffering families is largely to blame for both the increase of child labor and the decrease of children attending school.   According to UNICEF one in five children children in Zimbabwe have lost a parent due to AIDS.

“The year 2008 clearly shows that child labour is on the increase, not only in Harare, but throughout the country. The use of minors in employment that is detrimental to them has reached saddening proportions,” said CPS information officer Shemiah Nyaude. (IRIN)

How extensive is the crisis?  The Food and Agricultural Organisation and World Food Program, released a report in June 2008, which projected that some 5.1 million Zimbabweans, almost half the country’s population will be victims of food insecurity by early 2009 (IRIN).  Therefore with the extent of children being orphaned, removed from school to care for ill relatives or work on the streets, and the extreme level of the food crisis,  it appears that the future for the children of Zimbabwe is one with a heavy burden to carry down a long and treacherous road. 

Please see my previous posts on children in Zimbabwe here, for more information.

WEST AFRICA : Cross-border FGM on the rise
According to the UN, spurring the need to impose a region-wide law banning the practice, say experts. A study sponsored by UNIFEM to be released in late October 2008 said circumcisers or girls who undergo circumcision are increasingly crossing borders to perform or undergo the procedure to operate in countries with weaker FGM/C laws, and border police can do little to stop the flow.

In Sierra Leone, Every Pregnancy Is a ‘Chance of Dying’
In Sierra Leone, where even the largest city lacks electricity and running water, the risks associated with pregnancy are grave — and further complicated by dependency on a corps of poorly trained midwives and lack of access to the few trained doctors operating in the nation. Despite the introduction of 54 new clinics throughout the country, 1 in 8 women dies as a result of complications related to pregnancy.  See also; A Mother’s Final Look at Life: In Impoverished Sierra Leone, Childbirth Carries Deadly Odds

AFGHANISTAN: WFP urges development of new nutritional foods
New kinds of nutritional food, preferably made from local produce, should be developed to reduce malnutrition among young children, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said in Kabul on World Food Day. “Foods which have been fortified for maximum nutritional impact can radically change children’s lives,” Josette Sheeran, WFP’s executive director, said in a statement. WFP has thrown down a challenge to its offices in 80 countries around the world where people are food-insecure, to develop and produce new micronutrient-rich food items to help tackle child malnutrition.

MYANMAR: Every village should have one midwife - UNFPA official
Pregnant women in the hard-to-reach cyclone-hit area are among the most vulnerable of survivors of the category four storm that left 140,000 people either dead or missing and 2.4 million badly affected. “Ideally, every village should have one midwife who is government trained for 18 months but one midwife has to cover five to 10 or more villages on average throughout the country,” Thwe Thwe Win, the UN Population Fund’s (UNFPA) national programme officer, told IRIN. “The Ministry of Health seeks to fill the gap with Auxiliary Midwives [volunteers trained for six months],” she explained.

GABON: Negotiations underway to resolve teacher strike
More than 11,000 school teachers are demanding better work conditions and more pay as they continue a nationwide strike in Gabon that started on 6 October, according to Marcel Libama, the secretary general of the National Education Union (SENA). Two out of every five people in Gabon are under the age of 15, according to a government census 10 years ago. Though 96-percent of school-aged children are enrolled in primary school, 30-percent of them must repeat school years, according to 2008 UN data.

LEBANON: Migrant workers’ children face marginalisation, racism
Many of the estimated 200,000 migrant domestics living in Lebanon - most of them women from the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Ethiopia - have no legal status in the country. Their children born in Lebanon thus have no official identity, and no statistics on their numbers exist.

GUINEA-BISSAU-SENEGAL: Child trafficking on the decline say local authorities
Child trafficking from Guinea-Bissau to Senegal is on the decline, partly due to better collaboration among local residents, civil society groups and government, local authorities said. Government officials and aid workers say more and more sectors are on the watch for suspicious movement of children. “Now a whole new set of actors are involved who weren’t in the past – border police, governors, even truck-drivers unions, and we receive information from surveillance committees every two to three weeks about what is going on,” Karyna Gomes, UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) spokesperson in Bissau, told IRIN.

AFRICA: ‘Sexually-transmitted grades’ kills quality education
Sexual exploitation in African schools has become so widespread that children have come up with their own terms to refer to sexual relations with their teachers. From ‘Sexually Transmitted Grades’ to ‘BF’, or bordel fatigue, which refers to exhaustion from multiple sexual activities with teachers, this slang hints at the prevalence of exploitation in Africa’s learning environments. The lexis of abuse was discovered during research for Plan International’s (PI) latest report, ‘Learn Without Fear,’ part of the organisation’s global campaign to end violence in schools.

Are you an eco-friendly or green type, are you a human activist, or organic minded? Have you wandered the isles of the supermarkets aimlessly looking for a better choice for your Halloween sugary and chocolaty treats? Why not participate in Fair Trade Trick or Treating this year!

The Cocoa industry often traffics children to work as slaves, according to UNICEF (The United Nation’s Children’s Fund), 200,000 children in West Africa alone, are living in conditions of forced labor and slavery on cocoa farms. By supporting companies who do not profit from labor servitude you not only ensure that you are purchasing free and fair goods, but are one step closer to helping to end modern slavery. Fair Trade Trick or Treating will allow you to not only do the ‘right thing’, but also give you an opportunity to educate others, especially children, about human rights issues, such as child labor and modern slavery.

Passing out Fair Trade treats to all the little witches and goblins is not the only way to bring light to a worthy and just cause this Halloween, you, and/or your kids, can also participate in the Ran initiative of Global Exchange reverse Trick-or-Treating campaign. This is a great activity do with groups young and old; why not start it on your campus, with your class, church group, social club, or even with your sporting group. The chocolate is attached to a card with information about social and environmental justice issues in the cocoa industry and how buying Fair Trade certified chocolate provides a solution. There is no reason not to as Reverse Trick-or-Treating kits are free, thanks to the generous donations of Fair Trade chocolate companies; Equal Exchange, Alter Eco, Theo Chocolates, and La Siembra (in Canada), all you have to do is pay the cost of postage. This is a great way to raise awareness about the importance of fair trade with little upfront costs. And if you cannot get a kit, then why not make your own, or just pass out a flyer as you trick-or-treat your way around town.

By promoting and purchasing Fair Trade this Halloween you will be helping to:
END poverty among cocoa farmers
END abusive child labor in the cocoa industry
PROMOTE Fair Trade
PROTECT the environment

Here are a few options to obtain Fair Trade chocolates in mini sizes this Halloween, if you cannot find them in your local stores:

The Equal Exchange minis that have been attached to the Reverse Trick-or-Treating kits are available in various quantities, such as; 12 oz bags or 8.82 lb. case.

Dagoba, and SERRV International also offer smaller-sized chocolates that may be appropriate for trick-or-treaters.

Divine chocolate is having a SALE on their milk chocolate foils (3 bags for $15!)

Global Exchange Fair Trade Online Store

Pure Fun Confections offers a variety of products including; cotton candy, candy canes, pinwheels, and lolly pops.

Sencha Naturals has great green tea mints and bars.

The Candy Blog also listed additional fairtrade items and a few stores in California.

For other companies that sell full-sized Fair Trade Certified™ bars, baking chocolates, cocoa mix, and more, check the National Green Pages™.

If you are in the DC Metro area you can also visit either of the Ten Thousand Villages shops:
- 915 King Street in Old Town, Alexandria, Virginia (nearby King Street Metro) - (703) 684-1435
- 4959 Elm Street, Bethesda, Maryland (nearby Bethesda Metro) - (301) 718-3465

“Poverty is the worst form of violence.” - Mahatma Gandhi

Poverty is the worst form of violence, and it is the most common form of violence which is committed daily against on quarter of the world’s children. Over a billion people across the globe live on less than a dollar a day, placing them in extreme poverty. Moderate poverty is defined as those living, on $1 to $2 a day, leaving a total of some 2.8 billion people, almost half the world’s population, living in poverty. We live in a society that claims it will not tolerate violence, but we let this injustice continue to plague and haunt the most vulnerable…it is time we took a stand and fought for the victims, that we invested in and worked to protect our future.

The International Day for the Eradication of Poverty , was established in 1993, by UN resolution 47/196, when the United Nations General Assembly designated October 17th to promote awareness of the need to eradicate poverty and destitution in all countries. Particular interest and attention on this day is however focused on developing countries, as the day has been leveraged to raise awareness about the need to eradicate poverty across the globe.

According to UNICEF, 26,500-30,000 children die each day due to poverty. They “die quietly in some of the poorest villages on earth, far removed from the scrutiny and the conscience of the world. Being meek and weak in life makes these dying multitudes even more invisible in death.” (UNICEF)

Around 27-28% of all children in developing countries are estimated to be underweight or stunted. The two regions that account for the bulk of the deficit are South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. If current trends continue, the Millennium Development Goals target of halving the proportion of underweight children will be missed by 30 million children, largely because of slow progress in Southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. (2007 Human Development Report)

In conjunction with the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty and World Food Day, October 16th, groups and communities across the globe are taking a stand. Around the world from October 17-19, over 100 million people in over 2,000 events across more than 100 countries have registered to Stand Up and Take Action against Poverty and for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.