Children

UGANDA: Children eke out a living on the streets
The streets in Gulu have more children like Kibwola, their stories often similar. The majority are also orphans, who lost their parents in the two-decade long war in the north that pitted government forces against LRA rebels. Hawking is not the only trade for this these children - child prostitution is also common. Children are also being left behind in some IDP camps, exposing them to various forms of abuse, according to a recent assessment of the Lalogi IDP camp in Gulu. The assessment was conducted by the UN Children’s Fund, the NGO World Vision and the local Gulu Support the Children Organisation.

UGANDA: New centre to boost paediatric HIV care
Children living with HIV in Uganda have been given greater access to treatment with a new paediatric HIV care centre opened at the main referral hospital in the capital, Kampala. More than 20,000 children are infected with HIV every year, and 50 percent of them die before their second birthday.

ETHIOPIA: Can’t eat, won’t learn
Ethiopia’s schools have opened for the new academic year, but severe food insecurity in some regions has kept thousands of children out of class. “This time last year we had already enrolled 2,300 students,” said Solomon Desta, director of Bashiro primary school in Bona district of Sidama zone in the Southern region. “Now we have registered 1,800.”

PAKISTAN: Why is polio spreading?
A multitude of factors including insecurity, parents’ refusals to vaccinate their children and poor service availability are all helping to drive a rise in polio cases in Pakistan, aid agencies say. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the number of polio cases this year as of 5 October was 70, of which half were registered in August and September. In 2007, 32 cases were detected, and 40 in 2006.

TOGO: School year reopens with free primary schools
For the first time in recent years, primary school students started a new school year on 6 October in Togo without paying enrolment fees. The government has waived primary school fees as part of a more than US$80 million investment in the education system. While parents celebrated the savings, administrators taken aback by the surprise announcement worry how they will pay for school operations the fees had helped fund.

JORDAN: Palestinian schoolchildren to get government food aid
Jordanian authorities will start distributing food rations to Palestinian refugee children at schools run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) on 12 October. This is part of a programme to help cushion pupils from soaring food prices.
Africa: Urban Slum Dwellers Worldwide Nearing One Billion - UN
The number of urban slum-dwellers worldwide has broken the one billion mark, making it clear that the urbanization of poverty is arguably one of the biggest challenges facing development today, executive director of UN-Habitat, has said.

Dublin AIDS conference sets strategies to help children affected by HIV
A United Nations-backed forum pushed for social welfare services dealing with the effects of poverty and AIDS on children in the developing world. The Fourth Global Forum on Children Affected by HIV and AIDS, co-hosted in Dublin by UNICEF and Irish Aid, seeks to obtain pledges to bolster health, education and welfare services for the affected children. “For too long children have been the missing face of the aids pandemic,” UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman told some 200 delegates from 42 countries.

Congolese rape survivors break silence at UN-organized event
The event was orgonized by the UN in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where rape has been used as a weapon of war and an estimated 200,000 women and girls have been assaulted over the past 12 years. The day-long program in the eastern city of Goma is part of a joint campaign - “Stop Raping Our Greatest Resource, Power to Women and Girls in DRC” - organized by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and V-Day, a global movement to end violence against women and girls.

In Israel, a first attempt at high school integration
Israel’s first bilingual Jewish-Arab high school, which has admitted its first class of 14 Arab citizens of Israel, faces exceptional challenges as the nation’s first institutional effort to integrate students. The school has not received accreditation from the education ministry, which will make it difficult to receive government funding or administer matriculation exams; the ministry says the school failed to file complete paperwork by the deadline.

The challenge of raising teens in AIDS-ravaged South Africa
South African families find their ability to cope stretched to a breaking point as they struggle to raise children orphaned as a result of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and help them avoid the fate that befell their parents. Officials have launched a countrywide program including education programs to inform children about the dangers, but some wonder if the effects will be felt soon enough to help today’s youngsters.

Randy Cohen, American writer and humorist once said, “There is a kind of virtue that lies not in extraordinary actions, not in saving poor orphans from burning buildings, but in steadfastly working for a world where orphans are not poor and buildings comply with decent fire codes.”, and it is that reason alone for which I sat down to speak with Mark A. Neidig Chief Development Officer and Lisa Vogt, Director, Internet Marketing at SOS Children’s Villages - USA, who work to not only save the lives of orphans, but work to see that programs are established to prevent and lower the number of orphans worldwide.

All too often as an international community we seek to apply only a band-aid solution to a problem and while band aids are needed, they will not be enough to heal a gaping wound and if one never looks back to see that the wound is healing properly then we can never truly heal and recover from the situation. It is this same band-aid philosophy that is often applied to orphan children and the communities for which they live in, however we cannot just give them food and shelter and expect them to grow and prosper into successful adults, we must see that they are given more if we are to help brake this cycle.

SOS Children’s Villages and their staff are working daily in the fight to see that the world’s orphans receive the love and care that they deserve right now, but they look beyond today and towards tomorrow working to put programs into place that are more than a mere band-aid to growing population of world orphans.

“We don’t just let them go, we sustain them…it’s not just a quick fix…we meet the needs of the child and the community.”

SOS Children’s Villages works in 132 countries around the world, aiding a quarter of a million children on a daily basis. 73,000 living in permanate SOS homes, of which SOS has set as a goal to increase to over 100,000 children in next 7 years. The children in SOS Children’s Villages are given more than food, shelter and education; they are also given individual love and attention, something many have never known before.

“Each child deserves our care, every child deserves to have a loving home.”

SOS shared with me the story of John who was found by village director of SOS Children’s Village Entebbe, Ruth Mutumba, SOS Children’s Village Entebbe. John was only 4 years old and had already been abandoned once by his mother

“He could not talk, he had a very big stomach, and he had jiggers (parasitic insects that lay eggs under the skin) on his feet, hands, penis and mouth. They had really eaten him up and he was shaking like he had a fever. His house was made of mud and was a breeding ground for jiggers. The father didn’t care - he didn’t even know John’s other name. It was as if everyone was waiting for John to die.”>

John didn’t even want to talk when he arrived and no one knew if he really knew how, but after “Auntie Mary” nursed him to health both physically and mentally, John would finally be found starting to interact with the other children. However the road is long and hard, but with the love of everyone in his new family at SOS Children’s Village John has not only hope but a smile on his face and laughter follows him.To learn more about the SOS Children’s Villages in Uganda, click here. You can click on the Entebbe spot on the map to go to more information about the village.

When I asked Mark and Lisa what the biggest struggle they faced was the growing numbers of orphans for which our current world struggles was producing.

“The greatest obstacle we are facing is the rate at which children are losing a parent. …as those numbers increase we cannot move fast enough…we cannot accommodate enough…”.

SOS Children’s Villages office slogan is, “One child at a time”, and it truly does only take one person to look at one child and help them to make a lasting difference. Thanks to organizations like this and all of those working on the ground in the daily struggle children around the world have hope. Remember it is not just one child at a time, but also one person at a time that can make a difference, and we can all be that one person for that one child!

Today concludes World Orphan Week, and while around the world people have taken the opportunity to learn more about the problems that plague millions of children around the globe. The ending of World Orphan Week, however is not too late to particpate in SOS Children’s Video Contest!  The full contest rules and all details can be found at www.WowUs.org.

Remember it’s never too late to make a difference in a child’s life!

Last week, on October 3, 2008, President Bush signed the Child Soldiers Accountability Act into law. The Act “makes it a federal crime to recruit knowingly or to use soldiers under the age of 15 and permits the United States to prosecute any individual on US soil for the offense, even if the children were recruited or served as soldiers outside the United States.”

Introduced on Oct 3, 2007 by Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois, was unanimously adopted by both the US House of Representatives and the US Senate in September 2008. In a statement Senator Durbin said:

“The United States must not be a safe haven for those who exploit children as soldiers. The use of children as combatants is one of the most despicable human rights violations in the world today and affects the lives of hundreds of thousands of boys and girls who are used as combatants, porters, human mine detectors and sex slaves. The power to prosecute and punish those who violate the law will send a clear signal that the U.S. will in no way tolerate this abhorrent practice.”

Under the law the criminalization of the recruitment and, or, use of child soldiers allows the US the ability to arrest and prosecute, as well as deny entry into the country, or to deport individuals who are engaged in such activities.  The law, while long over due is a start to putting the much needed pressure on some 30 countries that are now in violation of the act.  However the law while a great step in ending the long running impunity of such crimes against children, is only one step on a long road to end the lingering suffering and instablity that the use of children as weapons of war has caused.  One can only hope that the new US law will now be put into action off the paper and congressional floor. 

Laws are needed, but one cannot fail to miss the needs of the child soldier in this fight.  Saddly programs for child soldiers are too few, and overstreached, thus we must also look to provide sustainable programs which also work for demobilization and to reintergrate former child soldiers. 

This photo-ad by Amnesty International tells the story that words cannot begin to tell on behalf of some 300,000 child soldiers across the globe. The child soldier desires the same as the child who you see playing outside your window…they are merely boys and girls who desire to laugh and play, they dream of nothing more than a childhood!

For more information on child soldiers please see Child Soldiers Links and Related Resources and my previous posts on Child Soldiers here.

Related Links:
In Support of the “The Child Soldiers Accountability Act of 2007″; Hearing in the US House Judiciary Subcommittee
US: Congress Acts to Prosecute Recruiters of Child Soldiers

“Every 2.2 seconds, a child loses a parent due to war, natural disaster, poverty, disease and other causes. Today, there are 133 million children who have lost one or both of their parents, and 15 million are orphaned due to AIDS.”

This week is World Orphan Week (October 5-11, 2008), and in support of the week SOS Children’s Villages-USA has launched a new child welfare centered project. The project is an online video contest, which SOS established to aid in increase the visibility of the issues faced by orphaned children.

The contest runs from September 2 to October 5, 2008, the winner will be announced Tuesday, October 21. The contest winner will recieve $1000, their video will get exposure on the SOS-USA Web site and SOS’ Facebook and MySpace pages, as well as being featured in an announcement on mediabistro.com, the official video contest partner. The full contest rules and all details can be found at www.WowUs.org.

In addition to the video contest, SOS is rallying US citizens to sign a petition to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. This petition will be directly delivered to the next president of the United States.

The worlds orphans often remain voiceless and marganalized, however World Orphan Weeks seeks to bring their faces out of the shaddows.  Take an opportunity this week to use your resources to aid those children in need by using your skills to create a video to bring awareness to the issues that plauge millions of orphans, sponsor a child or orphanage, donate your time and volunteer to work with orphans, or better yet look into adoption and share your love with a child in need.

That time of year is once again here, the time for little fairy princesses, super heroes, goblins, witches and warlocks, to descend upon the streets in search of fun and candy. The Halloween weekend is full of fun and festivities for kids big and small, but we all know that the day quickly fades and we only left with a pile of unwanted candy and a belly ache, so why not turn the hallowed evening into a humanitarian event and host a Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF Halloween Party!

Why not gather all of your friends for a festive costume party and also learn about UNICEF and raise funds for the Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF campaign. You can register your party today at www.unicefusa.org/halloweenparties. If your party is one of the first 100 registered, they will send you a Halloween Party Kit full of goodies, making your party that much easier to host. The Kits include a Halloween Party Guide, stickers, door hangers, our trademark orange boxes, Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF branded cups and plates and door signs.

Halloween is the perfect time to get your kids involved in activism for children’s rights by encouraging them to Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF, or their favorite charity. The fun of Halloween is in the costume and running around the neighborhood, so why not encourage them to help other children around the world who do not have the privilege of dressing up to scourer for candy, but are forced to search for food or water. And dare I say there is no fear that this honorable little Trick-or-Treaters will still return home with a bounty of candy, while still finding joy in helping children across the globe.

UNICEF has partnered with the Association of College Unions International (ACUI) and the George Harrison Fund for UNICEF for a fundraising challenge on campuses from September 5, 2008 to February 28, 2009. Campus Challenge encourages student’s o raise awareness and funds to save children around the world. The campus that raises the most funds postmarked by February 28, 2009 will host a celebrity UNICEF supporter, who will address students on campus. Visit www.unicefusa.org/campuschallenge for more information on the Campus Challenge and how you can get involved.

UNICEF has established great ways in which you can easily help children this Halloween, but take inspiration and host a party for any cause or organization which is close to your heart and host your own party or Halloween inspired fundraiser and give a treat to children in need!

October is Children’s Health Month, which gives one the opportunity to look at the opportunities we are providing our children to live healthier and safer lives, both within the United States and across the globe. While the month of awareness is generally geared at the general health of US children, it also opens the door to look at the lives of children across the globes that are denied access to basic health care. Additionally Children’s Health Month opens the door for one to look at the effect of HIV/AIDS, preventable diseases, malnutrition and poverty, and preventable illnesses such as malaria, on children around the world.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is celebrating Children’s Health Month with publications and activities highlighting the importance of protecting children from environmental risks. This month the EPA launched the ‘Climate Change and Children’s Health Education Campaign’, which encourages middle school and high school students to take actions to address global climate change and children’s health.

In support of Children’s Health Month 2008, OCHPEE will provide the following:

- 2008 Children’s Environmental Health Report (PDF) (32pp, 1MB), the eighth in an annual series highlighting EPA work to protect children from environmental risks.

- Calendar, with a children’s environmental health tip for every day in October.

In a Press Release, the US Consumer Product and Safety Commission, October is Children’s Health Month: CPSC Chairman Safety-Checks His Own Home, highlights the necessary and sometimes simple steps that parents and caregivers must engage in to ensure their children’s health is safeguarded.

One good source for children to learn more about health related topics is, Kids health for Kids.

Around the world millions up on millions of girls continue to remain marginalized. September 24th, International Girl Child Day, looks to bring light to the issues and awareness to the plight of girls across the globe. The fight for equality is far from new, and while historical battles have been fought and won across the globe, they are far from over. Around the globe the girl-child suffers needlessly, as daily struggles are increased by the relentless hold of history and cultural taboos. These battles for gender equality are compounded by the bureaucratic process of governments and politics.
 

Gender Inequality Facts:
- An estimated 39 million women and girls are “missing” in India alone due to infanticide and sex-selective abortions.
- More than 130 million girls and women alive today have undergone female genital mutilation (FGM), mainly in Africa and some Middle Eastern countries. (Frequently Asked Questions on FGM.)
- Of the estimated 500,000 to 2 million persons trafficked each year, the majority are females.
- 62 million of the 115 million children in the world who are not in school are girls.
*Sources: United Nations Development Fund for Women, “Violence Against Women — Facts and Figures”; UNICEF, “Basic Education and Gender Equality

The fight for the girl-child, is more than a fight for equality, but a fight to brake the chains of poverty, violence, illiteracy, modern slavery…it is the fight to sustainable solutions for the prosperity of all women, men and children. 

 India, the worlds largest democracy, is embattled in a fight for equality and this year Indian based CRY (Child Relief and You) has launched a new effort which will be focused solely on the discrimination against girls.For more information on gender inequality please see my previous posts here.

September is Washington D.C.’s Human Trafficking Awareness Month, the event which was established thanks to the efforts of the DC Task Force on Human Trafficking. The Task Force was established in 2004 with the DC police department and the DC US Attorney’s office. Since the establishment of the Task Force, membership has grown to over 30 diverse government and non-government organizations, which meet on a weekly and monthly basis. Thanks to the efforts of the DC Task Force, there have been more than 35 traffickers prosecuted, over 70 victims of trafficking have been rescued, and successfully advocated for the DC City Council to make September Human Trafficking awareness month.

This month as the city’s activists and abolitionists unite to bring the face of modern slavery and human trafficking to the forefront, the National Human Trafficking Hotline has taken top priority. The hotline was established by the National Human Trafficking Resource Center (NHTRC) is a service funded by the Department of Health and Human Services to provide information and resources to victims of human trafficking, other individuals or organizations seeking information about this phenomenon, and accept tips from individuals wishing to provide information about possible victims. The hotline is administered and run byrun by DC-based Polaris Project.

If you are a victim of trafficking, know a victim of trafficking, or suspect a case of trafficking please contact the Resource Center, call 1-888-373-7888, or email nhtrc@polarisproject.org.  The toll-free hotline operates year round, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

DC Trafficking Facts:

• The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) considers Washington, DC one of the top 14 sites in the country for sex trafficking of American children. (FBI, 2005)
• The Department of Justice (DOJ) Task Force members maintain that hundreds of sex and labor trafficking cases in the Washington, DC area remain undiscovered each year.

Anyone can become a victim; there isn’t one face to human trafficking and modern slavery. How do you know if you have come across a victim? Trafficking can take place in any environment and any location. Some Red Flags to look for include:

• Restricted freedom of movement
• Is under 18 and is providing commercial sex acts
• Signs of physical abuse
• Fear or depression
• Not speaking on own behalf
• No passport or other forms of identification

While our nation’s capital is taking a great step in the fight against modern slavery, there is still much that needs to be done to end the trade of human flesh. Take the first step today and open your eyes…“See it, Report it!”


Links and Resources:
Fact Sheets - in Multiple Languages for Download
Order Free Posters and Materials to distribute and post
DC Stop Modern Slavery - DC Based Citizen Activist Group

This month Free the Slaves, the United States oldest anti-slavery/abolitionist organization launched the Freedom Awards, honoring those who have struggled for freedom and won, those who fight in the name of those who have been silenced by the chains of slavery, those who never look back and face hardship as if it were only a small stone in the road…Free the Slaves honored heroes and fighters.

I had the pleasure to attend the Freedom Awards reception in DC, where I had distinct honor to sit down one on one with some of the awards recipients’. All of the recipients’ are inspirational and amazing; however two in particular struck personal cords with me. Ricky Richard, who won the Harriet Tubman Reintegration Award with his organization, Friends of Orphans. One look into the eyes of Ricky and you are beyond moved and inspired by his story of bravery, courage and triumph…you are energized into action. From across the room one notices the pride and ambition of James Kofi Annan, who with his organization Challenging Heights, was awarded the Frederick Douglass Award. James smile alone is enough to incite one into action.

Both men, spent their childhoods enslaved, Ricky as a child soldier, James as a child laborer in the fishing industry, both escaped the shackles of modern slavery and neither one could turn their backs on the countless children just like them. Both Rickey and James are powerful heroes who have used their struggles to establish organizations which not only work for freedom, but work sustainably to brake the chains of slavery by addressing the root issues, especially focusing on education, which fuel the modern slave trade.

If people like the Freedom Award winners can work to give the gift of freedom to so many others, than we as an international community have no excuses, or reason, as to why we cannot each make our own dent in the fight to end slavery worldwide. What these heroes have taught us is that regardless of where you live and what you have had to overcome, you can make a lasting difference in your own community. Slavery exists in every corner of the globe; regardless of whether we walk with our eyes open or choose to keep them closed we are all affected by the effects of modern slavery.

Please go to the Freedom Awards on the Free the Slaves website, to watch the Freedom awards ceremony that was held in LA. On the site you can also learn more about all of the awards and the stories behind those heroes honored and the impact they are bringing to their communities.

Please stay tuned for upcoming in-depth interviews and articles with this years Freedom Award winners.

Today, September 21st, marks International Day of Peace, as per a resolution declared by the The United Nations in 1981 to coincide with opening of its General Assembly. In 2001, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a new resolution that declared 21 September of each year as the International Day of Peace

“…International Day of Peace shall henceforth be observed as a day of global ceasefire and non-violence, an invitation to all nations and people to honour a cessation of hostilities for the duration of the Day . . .”

On this day the “Peace Bell”, which is made from coins donated by children from across the globe, at UN Headquarters is rang.  The bell, which was a gift from the government of Japan, and its ring are thought to be a unified symbol of solidarity, is referred to as “a reminder of the human cost of war.  The Peace Bell is inscribed with:

“Long live absolute world peace.”

Look for events in your town, school, or set one up of your own, but regardless use this day to work towards peace in your life and share it with those around you…peace is contagious!