Children

On July 6 at 8 and 11 PM ET on CNN, the US Fund for UNICEF will air, “The Survival Project: One Child at a Time”. UNICEF is encouraging supporters to not only to watch the broadcast, but to host a viewing party to discuss these important issues of child survival. UNICEF has developed a viewing party guide to help you to easily host a party. The first 100 parties registered will receive a packet of materials including UNICEF signs and buttons. Register your party today!

The broadcast will be hosted by Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Chief Medical Correspondent for CNN, who will highlighting progress and challenges in child survival. In the broadcast CNN will explore why 26,000 children die every day from preventable causes, and what UNICEF doing to save young lives. The show will look at four areas where UNICEF works on-the-ground to save children’s lives:

• Child protection in Iraq
• Water and sanitation in Laos
• HIV/AIDS in Peru
• Child survival interventions in Ethiopia

News of the global food crisis is increasingly inescapable and as the price of food continues to skyrocket around the world, those most effected are women and children. Those children who are already most vulnerable are now placed in even more danger as the food crisis continues without any visible signs of curtailing.

What is the food crisis? Are the figures really so detrimental? Globally, rice prices have more than doubled over the last year and wheat prices have risen more than 130%. Therefore at each food staple percentage point of increase, the number of persons affected by will increase by 16 million, thus leaving some 1.2 billion people chronically hungry by 2025, according to UNICEF.

Malnutrition itself is dangerous as it increases the risk of disease and early death, for example protein-energy malnutrition, is a leading cause in half of all under-five deaths in developing countries according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Severe forms of malnutrition include marasmus (chronic wasting of fat, muscle and other tissues); cretinism and irreversible brain damage due to iodine deficiency; and blindness and increased risk of infection and death from vitamin A deficiency. Malnutrition also increases the likelihood of one acquiring various infectious diseases and result in the inability to recover from such infectious diseases.

Even mild malnutrition, when combined with other diseases, can lead to death. Malnutrition is implicated in more than half of all child deaths worldwide, and thus the pending malnutrition of millions more children must be deemed as a large scale international humanitarian crisis, as the stability of many countries teeters in the balance. While many countries are scampering for new food sources amid the rising prices of rice, it is the children who are suffering most. Children are not just suffering from malnutrition, but also a lack of education, as many families are pulling children from schools, due to the inability to pay for school fees. Other families are keeping children out of school and placing them into the labor market to supplement the families income.

While the food crisis may seem like a distant cry, it is truly an emergency of immense magnitude, so much so that the World Food Program (WFP) is calling it a “silent tsunami.”

Related news:

• U.S. food waste could feed millions - The U.S. throws out the equivalent of one pound of food per person a day even as millions of families around the world are unable to put any food on their tables. U.S. authorities believe recovering even just a small fraction of the waste could feed millions of people every day.

• Global food crisis hits Horn of Africa - Several nations in the Horn of Africa are teetering on the brink of famine, according to a UN adviser. Drought, poor harvests and soaring commodity prices have created chaos in Somalia, Ethiopia and the Sudan. Aid efforts have been compromised by conflict with aid workers, banditry and overall regional instability.
  

• Research funding cuts exacerbate food insecurity for poor - Years of budget cuts to food and crop research institutions in Asia, Africa and Latin America have left scientists with the knowledge of how to protect the integrity of crops, but without the means to achieve it. Despite the growing need, The New York Times reports, budgets continue to be cut.

• UNFAO: Food inflation may be peaking

As we leave 2007 behind in the shadows of our minds and embark on the journey of a new year and new hope, let us not leave our lessons learned behind. While 2007 brought us a great deal of progress in children’s rights and children’s development across the globe, it has also left us with a long list of resolutions for 2008.

There are some 2.2 billion children in the world, 86% of which live in the developing world. A third of all children in the developing world have some level of malnutrition by the age of five, and have little or no access to adequate healthcare. Malnutrition is a leading cause of disease and death among children, and 20%while considerable achievements have been made, much more is left to be done. In the last 25 years the rate of extreme poverty, those living on a dollar or less a day, has fallen some 20%. According to the newly released 2007 Progress for Children Report , 2006 showed us that for the first time the number of children dying before their fifth birthday fell below 10 million, to 9.7 million. So why is this not cause for celebration, well it is and it isn’t. We should celebrate any achievement in development that is giving more and more children a chance at life and a better future, however we cannot get carried away and think we have solved the problem, or are going to fully eradicate poverty in the near future.

Poverty is most often directly or indirectly exacerbated by war and conflict, and these conflicts bring with them corruption and a multitude of other hindrances that work to keep those in poverty, as well as those on the edge of poverty, in poverty. In a world where corruption runs rampant, trade is a necessity of survival, and natural disasters have only grown, escape from poverty has become even more turbulent. Therefore we still have a long, difficult path out of poverty, and as highlighted this recent Financial Times article, aid while necessary is not what developing countries are most in need of.

“The most obvious way in which rich countries could help is by keeping the peace in regions ravaged by war, or at least funding and supporting peacekeeping forces. But that is also the most difficult, risky and contentious way to carry out development policy. Trade policy, too, has a part to play. US efforts to open that country’s markets to African manufacturers have worked well, but they should be broader and other rich countries should be co-ordinating their initiatives.”

Throwing things at a problem has never been a way to solve it, but merely a band-aid over a larger gaping wound, and poverty and food shortages are no different. While food aid is an immediate need, it cannot be the end of the solution if we are to find sustainable ways out of poverty. What developing nations need is peace and stability and this needs to be the number one resolution on the 2008 agenda, if we are going to heal the wound of poverty.

When fighting hunger and famine, there is no easy way to deliver sustainable amounts of food, nor has the fight to see that the suffering receive balanced nutrition come easy. However substancial improvements have been made, and products have been developed to better aid those suffering from malnutrition. Children no longer have to be taken to feeding centers, and parents can tend to their children at home, which would cause many to have to undergo a substantial journey. Thus the fight against hunger has already won the battle of convenience, but convenient it may be, widely used enough it is not.

With some 20 million children around the globe suffering from acute malnutrition, the way we approach their treatment is no small matter. Médecins Sans Frontières, is now calling for a global move in the treatment of child malnutrition, stating that use of therapeutic ready-to-use foods (RUF), such as Plumpy’nut, should be dramatically increased.

Dr Christophe Fournier, the president of MSF’s International Council stated, “It’s not about how much food children get, it’s what’s in the food that counts. Without the right amounts of vitamins and essential nutrients in their diets, young children become vulnerable to diseases that they would normally be able to fight off easily. Given their effectiveness, the use of RUF should not be limited to children with severe acute malnutrition. It should be expanded to address malnutrition in young children before it progresses to a life-threatening stage (MSF urges new approach to malnutrition treatment).”

Fighting malnutrition at early stages is esential in the prevention of many related health issues, not to mention death in many children who are unable to recover by the time they receive care. By working to eliminate mild to moderate malnutrition, we will eventually eradicate severe acute malnutrition, and save millions of children from needless suffering and a million more lives. It is estimated that one million children die each year due to malnutrition, and yet we have the means and strategy to save them.

Ann Veneman, Executive Director of UNICEF, cautioned that the use of Plumpy’nut “cannot be the only strategy to address the issue of severe malnutrition. You’ve got to have an agricultural strategy that provides adequate products for the population,” Veneman also stated the importance of breast-feeding in the fight against malnutrition (Peanut product to combat child malnutrition).

The use of Plumpy’nut has not been as widely used by other aid agencies in the past, as many claimed the high cost hindered the use of the product. However can one put a price on the life of a child? The cost of Plumpy’nut is around $20 per child, per month…it is hardly an extreme expense. While the use of Plumpy’nut and other RUF’s should not be the sole saving grace against malnutrition, their cost should not be a factor.

Additional Links of Interest:
5 facts about starvation that could change the world agenda

The world is always looking for a crystal ball…a window into the future, and the fact that we don’t have one is all too often our scapegoat for not responding quickly to a crisis. “We just didn’t see it coming…We just where not prepared.”, are almost infamous words in the world of international development. The world cannot deny that we miss the signs of crisis time and again, and our failure to act only deepens situations and suffering. Often we do see the impending emergency, and we still turn a blind eye, hopping that when we look back it will all be a dream, or simply just go away. Sadly the world does not just fix it’s self, and mankind depends on their fellow man for assistance in a time of need.

This is not to say that there are not people and groups who are dedicated and working to prevent crisis, there are, and they doing their best with the limited resources they have. However they cannot win the fight alone, and true crisis prevention must come from a global level. It appears that we are not a society which responds as well to ’signs’, as to antiquated predictions, but a society that needs cutting edge statistical predictions and methodology which are fully backed by the international community, in order to collectively work to prevent a formidable crisis. Therefore the question is, if we know it’s going to happen will we act in a more positive and preventative manner?

In recent news a group of economists in Kenya, say they have developed a model which can forecast severe child malnutrition, leading to famine, some three months prior to the crisis. “Our forecasts are likely to be correct more than 75 percent of the time,” said Andrew Mude, the leading author of the study. However early warning experts are cautious to respond, “The key issue for early warning is that it needs to link to response. Producing information with this new approach without understanding the previous obstacles to improved response will only solve half the problem.”, according to Grainne Moloney, Nutrition Project Manager for the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation’s Food Security Analysis Unit in Somalia. (Model to predict child malnutrition)

Therefore while prediction and forecasting are of the utmost necessity in crisis prevention, they are not to be taken as a saving grace, and will do little good if we are not prepared to act, and ready to act. Thus systems and methodologies for quick action in wake or anticipation of a crisis, must be establish worldwide, and the ability to activate such methodologies therefore must contain the capacity to be easily and quickly initiated.

The ‘cycle of abuse’, we’ve all heard the phrase a million times, yet I often think we forget what it means. It does not only mean the cycle, or stages, in which abuses are carried out. A child who grows up in an abusive home, is sexually abused, is a victim of trafficking, a child soldier…unfortunately the list of grave injustices against children goes on and on, is never able to escape the cycle of abuse. Therefore a child of abuse is at an increased risk to become an abuser, victim of sexual assault, become socially isolated, turn to drugs and alcohol, and various other form of self destructive behavior or susceptible to varying forms of continued abuse. We, as an international community must work to ensure that all children have been given their right to protection, both to prevent such abuses, and to assist the abused in their recovery. Therefore substantial physical and psychological care must be given to victims.

No matter what you say, or what you do, it all leaves a mark on the children around you. A child who witnesses violence and war, is forever scared by what they see. A child who hears nothing but negative, cannot erase the voice that says, “you can’t”. But the child who witnesses peace and love, will carry that with them forever and continue to share hope for the future.

We cannot erase the mistakes of the past, but we can leave a bigger impression on a child with hope, than with despair.

War, drought, heavy flooding, poor health care and education are plaguing many children in Afghanistan. UNICEF appeals for more aid to help women, children as the country has one of the highest child and maternal mortality rates in the world, with 1,600 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, and one in four children die before their fifth birthday, according to the UN. “Seven percent [of children] suffer from acute malnutrition and 54 percent of them are chronically malnourished,” UNICEF said. More than half of primary school age Afghan children, about two million, are deprived of schooling, UNICEF says.

Ethiopia, female circumcision on the decline in the southern region, however NGOs say it could decrease even further if laws and penalties where enforced. Under Ethiopian Penal Code, FGM carries a punishment of imprisonment of no less than three months, or a fine. According to official statistics, FGM has decreased from 80% in 2000 to 74% in 2005.

Election campaign in Sierra Leone focuses on youth With unemployment well over 50%, the countries youth find themselves conflicted with an abundance of time and few options, which could lead to problems as many are former child soldiers. While few observers believe civil war will break out again, the UN Secretary General’s report in May said, high rates of unemployment is a major issue which could threaten the country’s already fragile situation. Sierra Leone’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission recommended that “youth questions be viewed as a national emergency.” ‘Yet five years after war’s end and four years after the creation of government “youth policy,” many rights activists say the issue is largely still ignored, to the country’s peril.’

Nigeria, a land of guns, gangs, drugs feed growing delta violence has been growing recently, as has the gun culture among many youth. “Most of those carrying weapons are youths aged 16-25,” and a study in 2004 commissioned by Royal Dutch Shell, the biggest oil multinational in Nigeria, estimated 1,000 died each year, mostly youth, in violence the between rival militia groups. See the earlier post on kidnappings in Nigeria. “What we are witnessing are some of the worst manifestations of a social crisis that has been festering in the delta and the country as a whole in the past three decades,” said Pius Waritimi, a sculptor and art teacher who runs a government-backed skills training scheme for youth in Port Harcourt.

SYRIA: UNHCR urges more Iraqi refugees to attend schools UNHCR launched a “Back to School’ campaign aimed at getting more Iraqi children in Syria into local schools. Currently there are only 35,000 out of an estimated 250,000 school-aged Iraqi children enrolled in Syrian schools, despite the government’s offer of free education for all Iraqi children. Many Iraqi refugees believe education for their children will cost money, or jeopardize their residency in Syria. “It is not possible to find a school,” said Mohammed Taha, There is no place in the schools in Syria and they are too expensive.” UNICEF, UNHCR and the Syrian Ministry of Education launched the media campaign to raise awareness of the free schooling available to Iraqi refugees, as well as to strengthen the facilities on offer. Education programs are essential as there are an estimated 1.5 million Iraqis already in Syria and another 30,000 arriving each month.

“I cannot sleep at night now, I cannot eat, I am just afraid”
said Rania Hamed, an eight-year-old Palestinian refugee,
who fled the Nahr al Bared camp on foot with her family in May
(Fleeing Palestinian children speak of horrors).

In armed conflict, children always pay the heaviest price from the fighting, displacement, lack of infrastructure and resources.  Therefore Palestinian children seem unable to escape the violence and hardship that has plagued them their entire lives. Fighting has recently broke out in Lebanon between the army and the radical Islamic group Fatah al-Islam. The fighting has now been going on for two months, leaving a strain on resources and preventing the adequate protection of refugee children. Lack of food, safe drinking water, medicine, heath care, suitable housing, education and security, are placing children at even heavier risk. Unfortunately the fighting has made an already grave situation, even more dire, providing basic resources is difficult for aid agencies, let alone providing basic education to children. ‘Although UNRWA is required to provide Palestinian children with elementary and preparatory education, about 60 percent of the young adults have not completed basic education at least in part because of the poor learning environment in the camps (Children Still Caught in Crossfire at Refugee Camp in Lebanon)’.

According to Amnesty International Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon’s biggest problem in accessing education is that, ‘Non-ID’ refugee children have no access to formal education, and though they could can pay for private school, a cost many cannot afford, as obtaining work is also limited as refugees cannot do so legally. Even if an ‘Non-ID’ child is able to go to school, they are unable to take state exams to obtain the intermediate school certificate, therefore are unable to finish school, and even if manage to it is unrecognized.

What can be done to ensure that child refugee’s fundamental human rights are fulfilled and protected?

“Human Rights Watch believes the right to asylum is a matter of life and death and cannot be compromised. Human Rights Watch calls on the United Nations and on governments everywhere to uphold their obligations to protect refugees and to respect their rights - regardless of where they are from or where they seek refuge.”(Human Rights Watch)

Refuge rights, which are guaranteed under the UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, include; protection against discrimination, freedom of religion, right to identity and travel documents, work, protection against penalties for illegal entry, right to housing, education and relief, protection against penalties for illegal entry, and freedom of movement.

Amnesty International has made a number of recommendations for the compliance of the Convention on the Rights of the Child by the Lebanese government. Recommendations in the report included; the right to an adequate standard of living, right to education, right to be registered, right to a name, and the right to social security.

The Lebanese government, as with all governments that host refugees, should ensure that the fundamental rights of the child are met. Governments and aid agencies must work to see that the best interests of the child are met, regardless of the political or social situation. It is therefore essential that refugee children in Lebanon, both ID and ‘Non-ID’, receive a basic education, health care, nutrition and they are protected from violence to the best of the government’s ability. Therefore even in times of violence, the government and aid agencies, must ensure the adequate food and water supplies are delivered to the camps, children a permitted to receive an education, and if the situation is hazardous then children and their families must be moved to safer locations.

As an international community we must look to establish, and follow, a system to ensure the rights of refugees are safeguarded, especially that of the child’s. Children regardless or race, religion or citizenship, are our future, our leaders, and our hope for peace.

Links:
Refugees have rights - Questions & Answers
The Palestine Center -Refugee Rights
International Refugee Rights Initiative
Human Rights First
Human Rights Watch
UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees

Pastorial Child in Tanzania (Photo by VetAid)

Pastoralism is a form of farming, or ranching, where one raises and tends to herd animals, including camels, goats, cattle, yaks, llamas and sheep. Pastoralism, especially in Africa is very nomadic, as one needs to move their herds in search of grazing land and water. Pastoralist, such as the Maasai, an indigenous African ethnic group of semi-nomadic people located in Kenya and northern Tanzania, have been roaming Africa for more than ten thousand years. While pastoralism has been an effective way to use marginalized land, which would be implausible for farming use, urban migration, increasing environmental issues, armed conflict, and poverty have been severely hindering this ancient way of life.

“The most marginalized people, pastoralist and to a lesser extent, agro-pastoralist communities, have become locked into a cycle of poverty and debt. Every day is a struggle for survival; so people here are extremely vulnerable to any change in their economic or physical environment,” Oxfam says. (Reuters)

“Pastoralism needs to be recognized as a way of life that is viable and contributes to the economy. Our livestock is our way of life but we need access to an organized market so we can be sustainable,” said Borena elder Nura Dida of Ethiopia in 2006. (UN)

Pastoralists’ number in the millions, accounting for a substantial part of many African nations. Across Africa pastoralists’ account for the use of approximately 40% of the land. Children in pastorial communities, play a vital role in the daily life of the family and community. Children as young as 8 assist in household chores, fetching water, and herding animals, therefore it is vital, that not only is their cultural way of life preserved, but that their rights are ensured and protected.

Earlier this month a three day workshop on pastoralist policy was conducted in Kenya by the African Union’s Department of Rural Economy and Agriculture, the AU’s Inter-African Bureau for Animal Resources (IBAR), and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs-Pastoralist Communication Initiative (OCHA-PCI). For those attending it was clear that education tops pastoralists’ concerns , as it was stated that it was key understand pastoralism, and it was key that the educational curriculum was correctly established to suit that pastoralist lifestyle.

Ali Wario, Kenya’s assistant minister for special programs in the office of the president, said “children in Kenya’s pastoralist areas not only lacked access to education but, when available, the curriculum often did not suit pastoral lifestyles. “We must have mobile schools in pastoralist areas if children are to gain from the education system.”

Children in pastorial communities often do not receive adequate education, and while a child’s educational needs must all the children regardless of where they grow up or what type of community they live. Children have a right to receive a basic education, and this must be ensured jointly by the families, community and the government. “Alternative Basic Education is enabling the emergence of a new generation of educated pastoralists in Ethiopia,” “If we are to succeed in providing primary education to all Ethiopian children, including all girls, then the systems we provide must be able to accommodate the lifestyles of the hardest to reach children.” said UNICEF Representative in Ethiopia (Alternative Basic Education keeps pastoral children’s dreams alive).

Following the conference on pastoralist policy, the debate continues, Can pastoralism survive in the 21st century? The reaction is mixed, some claim that it will survive as the need for products derived from livestock will increase with urbanization, while others argue that desertification and globalization will put an end to the pastorial way of life. Millions of pastoralists live across the wide expanses of the African continent, and according to statistical data from 2005 of the ‘314 million poor people…in Africa, half were highly dependent upon livestock for their livelihoods, 80 percent of whom were in pastoral areas’ (IRIN).

Governments in Africa need to work to support, encourage and preserve the pastoral way of life, while also looking to correct misconceptions about the pastorial way of life. Most importantly the needs of pastoral food security need to be addressed, including, providing training in new techniques and alternative sources of income, education and ensuring that pastorialist’s benefit from the free trade of their goods. If a unified Pastoral policy can be archived by the governments of Africa, than the future of pastoral children will look better, however with increasing droughts, armed conflict, and food crisis’s plaguing much of Africa, pastoralist look to continue down the road of marginalization. According to the UN, “We must look beyond the immediate emergency response and into medium- and long-term solutions. The ad-hoc response of the past is not enough,” Ahunna Eziakonwa, chief of UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) African section stated. (UN demands welfare of African pastoralists)

“We want peace to be a reality in Sudan. Often, conflict in most parts of the country boils down to conflict between pastoralists and agriculturalists; if peace were achieved, pastoralists would not be as marginalized as they are now.” - Sudanese pastoralist (IRIN)

One can only hope that a clear and sustainable pastoral policy is established and that the millions of pastoral children, and future children, will endure less poverty and marginalization.

Links:
VetAid
Farm Africa
Pastoral Civil Society Newsletter
CSIRO Center for Arid Zone Research
Save the Children
UNICEF