Children

New polio threat prompts mass vaccination campaign, as seven million children in nine of the 11 provinces in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are being vaccinated against polio, a disease thought to have been eradicated in the vast country. The campaign, which began on 19 June, targets children up to the age of five, the age group worst affected by polio. One in 200 infections leads to irreversible paralysis, according to the WHO.

Condom use not catching on among youth, in spite of massive spending on efforts to counter HIV/AIDS, experts warn that many young Thais are still having unsafe sex. “Many people know HIV is transmitted by having sex,” he said. “We also know we should stand up and give our seat to old people on the bus, but we don’t do it,” Sittichok Chaisupasin, a 16-year-old peer educator.

Typhoon Fengshen death toll rises to 224, as it moved out of the Philippines on 23 June towards China, leaving at least 224 dead, hundreds missing and thousands homeless, according to the Philippine National Red Cross and Office of Civil Defence. Heavy rains and winds of up to 195km an hour caused landslides, flash floods and storm surges.

Landmines impede civilians’ return to volatile Arghandab, as dozens of landmines have been discovered in Arghandab District, in the southern province of Kandahar. It is estimated that some 60 people, many of which are children, are killed each month in the country by landmines. Millions of landmines were dumped across Afghanistan in the 1980s and 1990s, killing and wounding over 70,000 people so far, according to the United Nations Mine Action Centre for Afghanistan (UNMAC). In other news, insecurity, uncertainty stop return of Afghan refugees, from Pakistan. The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has repatriated 3.3 million Afghans since 2002, including 120,000 from Pakistan in 2008, but some two million registered Afghan refugees remain in Pakistan. The number of unregistered refugees is unknown.

US accuses LRA of abuses, calls for a quick peaceful solution. “The United States condemns the recent LRA attacks on Sudanese Peoples’ Liberation Army forces at Nabanga, Sudan, and elsewhere, as well as the LRA’s abductions and other abuses of innocent civilians in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic and Southern Sudan,” said a statement issued on 18 June. Along with four of his commanders Kony is charged by the ICC with carrying out abductions, killings, rape and conscription of Ugandan children as fighters among other war crimes. Some 30,000 children in northern Uganda have been abducted and forcibly inscripttion into the LRA. Government welcomes Kony’s “change of heart” but rules out more talks; “We only hope that he will put his pronouncement into practice. We note, however, that negotiations were concluded and there will not be a re-opening of the negotiations whatsoever,” Capt Chris Magezi, spokesman for the government delegation, said on 23 June.

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has launched the second part of its multi-phase campaign to detect and treat widespread malnutrition in Togolese children. The agency is now targeting dozens of more isolated villages in the Savanes and Kara regions in the north of the West African country and the Maritime region in the far south after earlier reaching bigger population centers, according to a statement released by UNICEF June 15. (UN News Service)

Students and teachers clashed with police in Chile on June 18 to protest an education bill they say doesn’t go far enough to bring equal access to schooling for the poor even with a government flush with copper dollars. About a thousand students marched shoulder to shoulder in the nation’s capital, confronting police with tear gas and water canon in the upscale Providencia neighborhood. In Valparaiso, the port town where the national Congress is debating the controversial legislation, 10,000 teachers marched in peaceful demonstrations. (Reuters)

Chinese police have detained a retired teacher on subversion charges after she decried the state of many schools buildings that toppled during last month’s devastating earthquake, the Information Center for Human Rights said on June 18. The Hong Kong-based human rights group said police in southwest China’s Sichuan province detained Zeng Hongling for “inciting subversion” after she wrote essays arguing that corruption made a mockery of school building standards. The more than 70,000 people killed in the May 12 quake included thousands of children crushed in schools, which often collapsed even as nearby buildings stayed upright. (Reuters)

A Dutch court began hearings June 18 about whether survivors of a 1995 massacre of Muslims in Bosnia, Europe’s worst mass killing since World War II, can sue the UN for failing to prevent the slaughter. Serb forces killed more than 8,000 Muslims in one week in July 1995, overrunning the Srebrenica enclave declared a UN safe zone. Dutch peacekeepers overwhelmed by the Serbs’ superior force watched helplessly as the male victims were led away from their custody for execution. The Mothers of Srebrenica, survivors of the men and boys killed in 1995, are among those seeking compensation from the UN and the Dutch state in the civil lawsuit. (AP/MSNBC)

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said it is scaling up its emergency operation in Iraq to address the basic needs of more than 360,000 vulnerable children inside the strife-torn nation. After five years of conflict, more than 800,000 Iraqi children are unable to go to school and only 40 per cent can access safe water, according to the agency. Through its Immediate Action for Vulnerable Children and Family - or IMPACT program - UNICEF is aiming to assist over 360,000 children this year and ensure they have access to health care and are protected against malnutrition. (UN News Service)

The work of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is no longer going to be only about delivering food, the former “food aid agency” announced in its new strategy for the next three years (2008-2011); it would now bill itself as a “food assistance agency”. Oxfam’s Mousseau cautioned that while his agency “welcomed” the new range of objectives and activities, “We think this new plan should not necessarily translate into more activities for WFP but rather better quality and effectiveness of WFP’s work. (IRIN)

“We call a child’s mind “small” simply by habit; perhaps it is larger than ours is, for it can take in almost anything without effort” - Christopher Morley

So often we over shadow our children, and fail to hear their thoughts and perspectives. By looking at a child as small minded serves only to underestimate their knowledge and their contribution to the development of our future. Children can truelly take in ‘almost anything without effort’, and thus we must not only work to see that we do not discount their contributions and abilities, but also see that the wealth of knowledge and information that we give children is what will best lead them towards a bright and peaceful future.

“They torched our house, they burnt our livestock, I have nothing left and don’t know where to start.”, said 22 year old Precious, a mother of a six-month-old baby (Telegraph).

According to UNICEF the continued violence is damaging Zimbabwe’s children and the grip it has on the countries children fears to only be tightening. Just last week the government run by President Mugabe’s ordered that all international aid groups and NGOs to stop their field work. On June 4th all aid agencies where ordered to stop all work, as they have been accused of working against Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party. The blocking of aid comes as the country is preparing for the presidential run-off election on June 27th.

Violence in the country arose after the the March 29th presidential elections, when Robert Mugabe was challenged by Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU-PF), lost the majority in parliament for the first time since the country’s independence in 1980.

Children not spared post-election violence, as children and their families have been displaced from their homes, some 10,000 or more according to UNICEF. Children have been forced out of schools and worse children have been wounded and killed amid the violence and ciaos. Many, especially women and children, have fled to South Africa, such as the woman and child pictured to the right (NY Times).

“The net effect is as many as 500,000 children are now not receiving the health care, HIV/AIDS support, education assistance and food that they require. Many of these children are orphans,” UNICEF said in a statement this past week. As concerns about the children of Zimbabwe’s future rise, UNICEF’s Regional Director for Eastern & Southern Africa, Mr. Per Engebak, said:

“This appalling violence damages children, their potential, and Zimbabwe as a whole. It must stop and it must stop now. All authorities have a legal obligation to protect children; and as a signatory to the Convention on the Rights of the Child there is an international obligation.”

However some 400 AIDS service NGOs allowed to resume operations, nonetheless the news has left many weary and many others wondering if international aid will be allowed in. For now the children of Zimbabwe continue to suffer amid the reigning madness of Mugabe’s hold on the country and the violence that continues to show Zimbabwe’s fragility.


Please see my esteemed colleague Derek Catsam’s posts on the FPA Africa blog and his posts on Zimbabwe for more information on the current situation.

Today marks the 2008 World Day Against Child Labour, this years theme is: ‘Education: The right response to child labour’. This year the ILO’s International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) has established the campaign to tackle the right to education for all children to brake the chain of child labour that envelops millions of children worldwide.

According to the International Labour Organization (ILO) there is an estimated 165 million children between the ages of 5 and 14 actively involved in child labour. Children are often forced to work long hours and are often forced to work in harsh and dangerous conditions. Child labour has a direct link to poverty, and provides a substantial barrier to a child’s education…thus enabling a barrier to a child’s education and increasing the literacy gap. Education is often taken for granted in developing nations, however many poor and impoverished families are forced to face the choose to send their child to school or work to help the family…it is that choice that has sent millions of children out of the classroom, often disparagingly girls, to toil in fields, factories, homes and the streets.

This years campaign has three main goals:

• Education for all children at least to the minimum age of employment.
• Education policies that address child labour by provision of properly resourced quality education and skills training.
• Education to promote awareness on the need to tackle child labour.

In order to meet the UN’s Millennium Development Goals by 2015, which has set to see that all children receive and complete a full their primary education, regardless of gender. However if the goals are to be meet then we must work to see that education is free, an issue which many families still struggle to attain funds for or are forced to choose between funds for school or often food for the family. Other issues of major priority include; gender equality in all levels of education, education and awareness about the issues and facts of child labour, and teacher shortages.

Education is not only a human right for all children, but the gateway out of poverty, as education is empowerment and empowerment is the key to brake the cycle of poverty.

For more information and resources on this years campaign see the ILO.

One doesn’t have to think long and hard to realize that children who are born into conflict ridden countries are at a disadvantage to those children born into peaceful nations, however the disparity between the two when it comes to education may very well surprise you. Some 500 times more funding goes into the education of children who are born in countries seen as stable and prosperous than that of their counterparts born into a conflict-affected country, according to Save the Children.

For example: The United States spends more than $9,000 per child on primary education annually. In Luxembourg, some $12,000 is spent on each child for primary education a year. These two wealthy and stable nations tower in comparison to conflict countries such as Eritrea or Burundi, who spend less than $24 a year on an individual child’s education.

There are some 37 million children out of school in conflict affected countries, these children are not just denied their individual rights to education, but also denied a chance at a more prosperous future. Children who are denied an education are not given the opportunity to escape the cycle of poverty for not only themselves, but also their families and their communities. Additionally countries in which children are denied access to education have increased difficulty braking the chains of violence and conflict.

Wealthy and stable countries, donor countries, have a crucial role to play to help children in conflict-affected nations gain access to an education. It is for this reason that Save the Children released a new report, “Last in Line, Last in School 2008″,which shows how “donors are failing to protect children in conflict-affected fragile states”. The report focuses on the fact that wealthy nations are literally causing a deterioration to the lives of children as they fail to support education in conflict countries.

So how much is really needed of wealthy nations? Is it too much? No, in reality the report boils it down to some $45 per child, as Save the Children estimates that $5.2 billion should support children living in conflict-affected fragile states, out of some $9 billion in basic education worldwide.

The denial of education is the denial of a future of peace and prosperity!

Introduced in 2003 Kenya’s free secondary education is now plagued by supply problems. The sudden and dramatic increase of students is causing a strain on resources, and the result is a lack of teachers, CONGO: Arrest over abduction of indigenous family’s child
books and adequate facilities, leaving many to question the quality of children’s education. While many improvements and hurdles need to be made, most agree that any education is better that no education.

Aid workers freed after Chad issues pardon French officials on Tuesday freed six aid workers convicted of kidnapping more than 100 Chadian children, following an official pardon from Chad’s President Idriss Deby on Monday. The six had said they wanted only to help place orphans from Darfur, but the children turned out to be from Chad, most of them with still at least one living parent. For more on the story see the following Video ClipSyndicate, BBC , Associated Press

Young and old Tibetans disagree on virtue of nonviolence, as the bloody protests over the past few weeks have shown the widening generation gap. The majority of the elder generation continue to embrace nonviolence, however the younger generations are increasingly moving away from this view and moving towards a more physical approach. “I want peace, but when you are pushed so much, you finally strike back,” said Jigshe Tsering, one of many young activists who say they are tired of not reacting forcefully to China’s abusive ways.

Measles kills 165 children, the outbreak in northern Nigeria’s Katsina state has killed 165 children in the last three months and infected more than 3,000 children, according to health officials.

In the Congo there has been a groundbreaking arrest over abduction of indigenous family’s child. The High Court in southwestern Congo has indicted Omer Gapa, a former local council official on charges of a kidnapping 19 years ago of a child from an indigenous family. Accused of taking a 6 year old girl in 1989 of which her ware abouts have never been discovered.

Education is a vaccine for violence, as it is a vaccine for hunger and disease. The right to education is a basic human right for all children, a right we all too often take for granted. In developed countries we see education as a key to prosperity, to better jobs and economic security. However education for many is a key to life! A key to simply being an adult, to escape the torments of hunger, the pains of disease. Education helps work to brake the cycle of domestic abuse and gender inequality. Sadly some 93 million children are without this precious key to the future, and we must work as a global community to see that all children are given an education, so that we may all revel in prosperity and peace.

Please see my post last Friday, for more information on how lack of education affects children, especially children living in conflict zones.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has welcomed a proposal for outreach centers throughout South-East Asia to promote the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). “The new center, and its local and regional affiliates, will provide continuity for your initiatives,” he said in a video address to a meeting on achieving the MDGs held by the ASEAN in Bangkok. In reaching the MDGs, Ban stated that South-East Asia has made progress in reducing the number of people living in extreme poverty and the number of children who die of preventable causes. The region has also successfully raised primary school enrollment. However, progress remains uneven between countries and across indicators; income disparities have grown, too many young children are underweight and the environment is threatened, he stated.

Human rights groups sue Ghanaian government over detained refugees , for “gross violation” of the rights of Liberian refugees in reaction to the simmering stand-off over repatriations. Some 630 refugees, mostly women and children, are being detained under heavy police guard following their arrest by the Ministry of Interior on March 17. Of these refugees, 16 have already been stripped of their refugee status and deported to Liberia. The refugees were arrested for holding a protest to draw attention to what they said were unfair condition under which they would be repatriated.

Action Against Hunger’s nutritional surveys indicate alarming rates of malnutrition in Liberia’s capital of Monrovia: more than 12,500 children under five years of age are at risk of severe acute malnutrition. AAH, whose teams run and support nutritional activities in Monrovia, has launched an appeal for funding. AAH/ Action Contre la Faim’s (ACF) latest round of nutritional surveys shows extremely disturbing results that indicate a significant nutritional crisis in Grand Monrovia: of the 800 children weighed, measured, and examined, 17.6% (Z-score) were suffering of acute malnutrition, above the 15% threshold that defines a nutritional crisis. The data indicate that some 12,500 children under 5 years of age are in danger.

Namibian flood victims need more than $1 million of assistance, where floods falling recent above-average rainfall have displaced tens of thousands of people and sparked fears of a surge in infectious diseases. More than 65,000 people could eventually be displaced by the floods, UNICEF said in an update issued this week. UNICEF said it was particularly concerned about the risks faced by orphans and other vulnerable children given that northern Namibia is one of the country’s most densely populated area’s and its HIV rates range from 20 to 40 per cent.

‘Slaves’ saved from Italian circus, two teenage Bulgarian sisters have been rescued by Italian police from a circus in which one of them is said to have been forced to swim with piranhas. Police say that while the 19-year-old sister had to swim in a transparent tank, the 16-year-old had snakes draped across her body and suffered bites. Four members of the family have been freed from what has been described as a “circus of horrors” south of Naples. Three men have been arrested and charged with holding them in slavery.

10,000 health workers stop polio in one of most dangerous places on earth, according to the WHO. Polio appears to have been wiped out from Somalia, the World Health Organization and its partners in the fight against the paralyzing disease said Monday. The “landmark victory” was the result of thousands of health workers and volunteers vaccinating more than 1.8 million Somali children under five years old, said the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, which also includes UNICEF, Rotary International and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

103 children from Abéché return to their families, four and a half months after the French charity, Zoe’s Ark was accused of child trafficking. Eighty-three of the 81 boys and 22 girls left the Abéché orphanage in Eastern Chad where they had been put up by UNICEF and the Ministry of Social Action since 26 October 2007.

UNICEF sends emergency education supplies to Zambia, as part of its emergency response to assist flood affected schools. UNICEF, has flown in 58 schools-in-a-box, each box contains enough supplies for 100 children.

Nasser Ishtayeh Associated Press
“The Way to School” A Palestinian schoolgirl walks carefully past an Israeli tank during clashes near her school in the West Bank town of Nablus, April 19, 2003.

The right to education is all to often taken for granted, while we often complain about our child’s curriculum and the lack of resources in school, we seldom worry about our child walking through a true war zone on the way to school. Yet every day children around the globe are left to literally fight their way to school, risking their safety and lives for an education…for a chance at a future. Schools, students and teachers are increasingly under attack leaving children even more vulnerable to the effects of war. Low literacy rates heavily impact development and poverty, while also leaving children at increased risk of violence.

According to UNICEF, the 52nd session of the Commission on the Status of Women, which took place last month, approximately 93 million school-age children are not receiving an education, most of which are girls. The majority of the worlds children out of school are children living in conflict zones. According to the UNESCO special report issued in November 2007, Education Under Attack , 40% of the estimated 77 million children not in school are from conflict ridden countries. The worst-affected countries in the survey period from 1997 to 2007 were Afghanistan, Colombia, Iraq, Nepal, the Palestinian Territory, Thailand and Zimbabwe, according to data based on incidents reported by the media and ministries of education worldwide. Education is also directly related to empowerment, and more than half of those children out of school in conflict zones are girls.

According to UNESCO in the report 2008 Education for All Global Monitoring Report: Education for All by 2015. Will We Make It?, the number of children in school has increased in the last decade. The report refers to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, and additionally the Education for All Declaration. According to the report primary school enrollment rose from 647 million to 688 million worldwide between 1999 and 2005. However the report also stated that the “gender parity goal has been missed”, and that “gender equality remains elusive”.

One should also note that adult literacy rates dramatically impact the lives of children in multiple ways, including placing children and families at increased risk for human trafficking and enslavement. A mothers education and literacy has a direct impact on a child’s education and literacy, thus it is essential that when looking into education and literacy we do not fail to see that adults as well as children are included in development programs. According to UNESCO , 774 million adults lack basic literacy skills worldwide, and some 64% of which are women.

It is clear that there is much that needs to be done to ensure that all of the worlds children receive a basic education, and that considerable attention needs to be placed on those children in conflict zones. While much progress has been made in recent years, it is still unacceptable that some 93 million children are without access to an education. If we are to see progress and hope for this and future generations of children, than we must place education for all as a top priority as it is the gateway to peace and prosperity.