Children

Most anyone knows that the first two years in a child’s life key to adult development, and it is the undernourishment of children and pregnant mothers that is the underlying cause of some 3.5 million preventable child deaths each year. After the age of two much of a child’s life is already permanently imprinted upon them, especially their future health. Children who spend their first two years undernourished face irreversible damage, the effects of which linger the remainder of their lives. The effects of undernourishment of children during their first two years of life can lead to irreversible damage, including stunting, shorter adult height, mental retardation, difficulty in school and with concentration, and decreased birth weight in offspring. Children who are malnourished are at high risk for a number of vitamin deficiencies including; rickets, scurvy, anemia, spina bifida, osteoporosis, and a generally weekend immune system which can leave them susceptible to other diseases and illnesses. All of these causes can thus lead to a shorter life span, and, or a decreased ability to in adulthood to preform and thus effect their income.

A series of reports by The Lancet: Maternal and Child Undernutrition, have shown that over 1/3rd of the deaths of child hood deaths, and 11% of diseases worldwide, are directly caused by maternal and children undernutrion. The series was done in 6 parts focuses on; Nutrition has slipped through the gap, Over a third of child deaths and 11% of global disease burden due to maternal and child undernutrition, Poor fetal growth or stunting in first two years of life leads to huge negative consequences in later life, Maternal and child nutrition interventions could prevent a quarter of child deaths in poor communities, 80% of world’s undernourished children live in just 20 countries, and The international nutrition system: fragmented, dysfunctional and desperately in need of reform.

The final paper calls for reform to the system, which is comprised of donor organizations, governments, academia and the private sector. The papers claims that, “The moment is ripe for these reforms. Their implementation would transform the political salience of undernutrition, and offer the chance of a better, more productive life to the 67 million children born each year in the countries most severely afflicted by undernutrition.” Such reforms that the paper calls for include, an increase in funding and funding flexibility, an increase in human resources, sustainable policies, coordination of and increasing interest in the issues.

With 80% of the world’s undernourished children living in just 20 countries and in only four of the worlds regions, Africa, Asia, western Pacific and the Middle East, one would think that targeting this preventable tragedy from befalling millions more children would be easy. However the truth is that we have stood face to face with this preventable killer year after year, and decade after decade. Will 2008 be the year we head the call of millions of children around the world?

In order to end undernourishment in children we must focus heavily on prenatal and postnatal care and nutrition for mothers, as this is the starting point for a lifetime of undernourishment and disease. Country specific plans to educate prevent and treat undernourishment and all malnutrition related issues must be put into place. But the fight to end hunger is not one based merely on food, it is one based on sustainability and nutrition, so we can not just send food aid and think the problem is solved. As I mention in my earlier post, Can we find an end to poverty in 2008?, that ‘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.’ Without peace and economic stability the cycle of poverty and the undernourishment of millions of children looks like it will continue well into the generations to come.

Please these previous posts for more information:
Poverty’s Children…
A Call to Increase the Use of Ready to Use Foods to Fight Malnutrition
Looking to Kenya: Forecasting, preventing and alleviating famine…can we really do it?
Millions of Children Worldwide Die From Malnutrition, but a Few Dollars a Year Can Save Them!
Is Breastfeeding heading for extinction in the Philippines?
Will We Ever See an end to Hunger in Africa?

Guatemala: Alvaro Colom was sworn in yesterday as Guatemala’s new president. Colom pledged to alleviate poverty in the country, where half the people live on an estimated $1 per day.

Afghanistan: Due to an increase in prices, more than 1 million people in rural Afghanistan are at risk of food shortages, says the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) (UN Dispatch).

Sudan: AIDS prevention in Sudan has a long way to go, and efforts to introduction of a prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission (PMTCT) program in August 2007at Port Sudan Hospital, 1,620 pregnant women have received information about HIV and the offer of an HIV test; however only 24 have taken the offer. Mother-to-child HIV infection is almost completely preventable - one dose of the antiretroviral (ARV) drug, nevirapine, can halve the chances of a mother infecting her child during delivery (IRIN).

Afghanistan: Heavy snow and extremely cold weather have killed at least 140, mostly children and elderly people, and injured many others in different parts of Afghanistan in the last two weeks, according to the Afghanistan National Disaster Management Authorities (ANDMA) and provincial authorities (IRIN).

Egypt: Illegal immigration from Egypt to Europe has risen with steady pace over the last 10 years, according to Wagdi Abdel Aziz, director of the South Center for Human Rights in Cairo. The number of illegal migrants is unknown, but it is estimates are at 10,000-20,000, said Abdel Aziz. The number of those who make it to shore is unknown, however the majority are young men, often underage, who take the risky journey to reach what they hope is economic freedom (IRIN).

India: The International Herald Tribune reports that a push by the Indian government is getting more of the country’s children to attend schools, but says school quality has not improved.  “More Indian children are in school than ever before, but the quality of public schools like this one has sunk to spectacularly low levels, as government schools have become reserves of children at the very bottom of India’s social ladder”.

Kenya: A total of 3,704 people have fled the ongoing violence in Kenya, crossing the border into neighboring Uganda according to the Uganda Red Cross. Most of the refugees have sought shelter in schools which are closed for the holidays, their fate and futures remain unknown as the violence in Kenya continutes.

Iraq: According to the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) some 177 million euros is needed in 2008 in order to adequately help Iraqi refugees. The UN estimates some 2.2 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) remain in Iraq, with an estimated additional 2 million Iraqi refugees outside the country, residing mainly in Syria and Jordan.

South Asia: People across South Asia are struggling to cope with a severe shortage of affordable wheat and rice. The BBC reports there have been queues outside Pakistani shops in towns around the country, and flour prices have shot up. Global wheat prices are at record highs. Problems have been compounded by crop failures in the northern hemisphere and an increase in demand from developing countries. Last week Afghanistan appealed for foreign help to combat a wheat shortage while Bangladesh recently warned it faced a crisis over rice supplies.

Illiteracy among the Arab states has dramatically increased to some 99.5 million, 29.7% of the population, according to the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO). ALECSO stated that 75 million of which are between 15 and 45 years old, and that the increase could threaten the social development of all the nations.

Congo: On January 9th a major conference took place to target restoring peace and stability in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) Kivu provinces at the University of the Great Lakes in Goma. Civil war plagued the country between 1996 and 2003 and in North and South Kivu fighting has continued. The minister of social and humanitarian affairs, stated that the conflict led to the deaths of five million people, the internal displacement of six million, and the rape of half a million women.

Sudan:  It was the Justice and Equality Movement, a Sudanese rebel group, and not Sudanese government soldiers who attacked a clearly marked UN/African Union supply convoy in Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region last week, Sudan’s UN ambassador said on Jan. 9. “They were not the government,” Ambassador Abdelmahmoud Abdelhalim Mohamed stated before a meeting of the U.N. Security Council.

Zimbabwe: The flooding across southern Africa has increased, causing more and more destuction of homes and livestock, displacement of families, as well as increased the spread  of disease. In Zimbabwe the foods have caused a high level of potentially fatal illnesses in children and adults, with more cases of acute respiratory infection, bilharzias, diarrhea and skin conditions being reported. According to a World Vision Zimbabwe assessment team, diseases such as malaria and dysentery are on the increase, and fears of cholera are spreading.

United States:  According to One Laptop Per Child‘s, Nicholas Negroponte, Intel has repeatedly destabilized the program by using underhand sales tactics and working to block sales contracts. Intel head Paul Otellini said the accusation was “hogwash.” (BBC)

Cambodia: Dengue fever in Cambodia has killed 407 people, mostly children.  This is the highest death toll of the disease in almost a decade. Efforts to stop the diseases spread are underway; the World Bank, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Red Cross are providing pesticides to kill mosquitoes and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has given some $300,000 for anti-dengue programs.

Spain: A week long strike in has taken place by the private clinics that carry out more than 90% of legal abortions in Spain.   Spanish law requires that a doctor diagnosis that pregnancy poses a  mental health risk to the woman.  The strike was held to call for better legal protection for both women and doctors. The strikes are in reaction to police raids on abortion clinics in Barcelona and Madrid late last year.

The crisis in Darfur has been waging on for five years, and one would think that peace and stability would now be on the horizon, however the the situation appears to be getting worse.  As we enter this new year, hope has begun to fade for many, especially the children. Despite efforts to send AID into the region, which has been repeatedly torn apart over the years by genocidal violence, however the level of child malnutrition in the region has increased over the past year.

According to a UN report issued at the close of 2007, the rate of child malnutrition in the region was considerably higher, even with an increased presence of aid workers in the past year. The current aid operation in Darfur is currently the worlds largest, comprised of 13 United Nations agencies and around 80 private aid agencies. The cost of aid in Darfur in 2007 was some one billion US dollars, yet the effects of the relief effort appear to be falling short for Darfur’s children who once again are left to suffer and subcome to the elements derived from the continued violence.

The UN’s report showed 16.1% of children affected by the conflict suffer from acute malnutrition, in comparison to 12.9% a year earlier. This is the first time malnutrition rates have soured above the World Health Organization’s malnutrition “emergency threshold”, which is set at 15%, since 2004, a year following the beginning of the conflict, when it ran at 21.8%. (Child Malnutrition on Rise in Darfur).

“There is a psychological effect here,” said one aid official in Sudan who did not want to be identified because he feared reprisals from the Sudanese government. “These people have been in these camps for years now, and the energy that was around a few years ago and the hopes that this situation might be over soon and people could go home — all that’s gone now. He said that depression could affect how mothers care for their children, and that the overall malaise in the camps would make poor health conditions worse.” (Malnutrition Up in Darfur Despite Aid).

A lack of security, new tribal violence, constant displacement, fear, and attacks on aid workers are just to name a few factors which are adding to the increase in child malnutrition. While there are many reasons that may be hindering the effectiveness of aid, and compounding the situation for children and adults alike.  Nonetheless the fact remains that the people of Darfur can not continue to slip further and further away for our eyes, and therefore increased security and new planning must be made to ensure that people receive their basic human rights. However all of this will continue to fail if the International community does not take stronger action against the government of Sudan and work to find a sustainable solution to bring peace to Darfur, and the entire country of Sudan.

Here are some of the headlines from the last few weeks of December:

According to a report entitled, Education Watch 2006, much needs to be done to close the gap between the rich and the poor in the primary educational level. “About 50 percent of primary and 80 percent of secondary level students drop out of school in Bangladesh, according to a report released on 17 December by the Campaign for Popular Education (CAMPE) , a Bangladeshi non-governmental organization (NGO)” (High rate of school dropouts). The report also highlights that the country is not at all on track to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) set for 2015.

The level of malnutrition in West Africa was marginally lower in 2007, and therefore the total aid requests for 2008 are also lower. However concern is not to be put aside as food security remains at an issue of grave concern. “There is less of a malnutrition crisis this year but [structural] problems of food security are still a serious concern,” Hervé Ludovic de Lys the regional head of the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs told IRIN at the launch of the 2008 CAP which called on donors to provide funds for projects costing a total of US$312 million. The good news is that improving food security is cheaper than treating malnutrition,” he said (Slight drop in malnutrition but food remains scarce).

The Ebola out brake that took hold of the Congo appears to be under control, but many worry it will not last long. Health official Sam Okware, stated that a task force was set up to raise awareness and work to end the use of traditional circumcision rituals in the affected areas, until the epidemic has cleared. Okware also stated that those infected who have been discharged from hospital are being informed about the risks of sex, and the spreading of the disease through semen, thus they are advised to abstain for three months (Ebola under control but experts fear re-emergence in Congo).

In mid December a measles outbreak left at least 200 children in Nigeria dead and hundreds more infected, according to the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (“Hundreds” dead in measles outbreak). Measles can cause death, and is also one of the major causes of child blindness in Africa. Measles can also lead to brain damage, which can cause deafness and paralysis.

On December 12th the United States Senate unanimously passed the Sudan Accountability and Divestment Act (SADA). The SADA will be sent to the House of Representatives for consideration. In August, the House passed a similar bill, the Darfur Accountability and Divestment Act.

In the 16 days leading up to International Human Rights Day, December 10th, organizations around the globe assisted the the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), raising awareness against gender-based violence (GBV) (Awareness-raising key to tackling gender violence).

Disabilities are always a hindrance to anyone, but in Afghanistan children are being cut by a double edge sword. There is an estimated 24.5 million disabled persons with a disability in Afghanistan, with half under the age of 19. “Over 72 percent of all disabled people over six have not received any education, Afghanistan’s National Disability Survey (NDS) said in 2005. ” (Disabled people have tough time, lack education, jobs). With schools lacking resources and facilities to accommodate those children with a disability, the situation for disabled children looks to remain unchanged until more resources and systems are put into place.

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.