Children

“Just because a child’s parents are poor or uneducated is no reason to deprive the child of basic human rights to health care, education and proper nutrition.” - Marian Wright Edelman, American children’s rights activist and president and founder of the Children’s Defense Fund.

Regardless of the reasons, the state, race, religion or social status of a child’s parents, each child should be born into this world with an equal foot and stake in the future. Sadly this is not the reality and millions of children across the globe are marked before birth by the status of their parents. It is this disadvantaged at the beginning of life that leaves many children lost in the grey shadows of an unknown future.

As a child of the 80’s when the word famine is mentioned I can distinctively hear my mother telling me to ear my entire plate of my despised broccoli, because “there are starving children in Ethiopia”. I know wonder if more than 20 years later I will soon find myself uttering those same words at my next meal.

Images of small lifeless children with hallow eyes being weighed in harness scales like the bags of grain they so desperatly need, flood ones mind.   Once again the children of Ethiopia are starving on a grand scale, and the images of the 1980’s haven’t changed, we only see them less.  While they may not be suffering on the immense scale of the 80’s, and be drawing the critical mass cries of support from the international community to bring forth the calls of Live Aid and Band Aid. The famine reached its peak with the drought of 1984, which at its height took more than a million lives. Sadly Ethiopia historically and continually remains one of the world’s most starved nations. The current plight of famine and malnutrition in Ethiopia, which is caused in part by; drought, various natural plagues, a substantial population increase, and the armed conflict in the Somali region; has been compounded by global inflation which has doubled the price of food.

Regardless of the historical famines, the issue today cannot be disregarded as according to UNICEF estimates some 6 million children under five may be at risk of malnutrition in Ethiopia. While Ethiopia became the face of famine for a generation, it is but one country struggling to provide the basic necessities for millions of men, women and children. As sadly the children of Ethiopia are not alone, the exact number of children across the globe who are severely malnourished and undernourished is unknown, however according to the FAO State of Food Insecurity in the World 2006 report, there are some 854 million people around the globe who do not have enough to eat. The fight against famine is global and regardless of what state the crisis is in, millions of children are in critical need of food aid.

According to the Ethiopian government there are 75,000 children suffering from severe malnourishment across the country. At current it is estimated that some 7 million Ethiopians rely on food aid for survival, and while food aid it obviously not new, it is only a band aid to a larger problem. The crisis in Ethiopia, which is significantly affected by the low levels of investment in food deficit areas and skyrocketing food prices, has left an imbalance in the population. As mentioned in Choosing Who to Save, this is causing an uneven balance of the country’s population, leaving urban Ethiopians to benefit at the cost of their rural counterparts. 

What can be done to save the children in Ethiopia from famine? The question still lingers on the tounges of many in the international community, but the answer has yet to be found. 

Some 854 million people around the globe do not have enough to eat, according to the FAO State of Food Insecurity in the World 2006 report. The dilemma on who to save has hit many hard, but as the article, In a time of famine, who should be saved?, illustrates the issue is not just one many families are forced to make, but also governments.

Is the international community spending to much time debating, or wasting aid? Many critics will say “yes” with out skipping a beat, as seen when looking at the US, the number one donor of food aid, as illistrated in U.S. Food Aid: We Pay for Shipping. The Business Week article highlights the effect of sending products over funds, which can significantly add to the detriment of food shortages. Can we afford to take such bureaucratic approach?

The harsh reality is that every five seconds a child dies because she or he is hungry. For many the problem seems distant, but in the wake of the growing food crisis the problem is coming closer and closer to home for many across the globe.  The resources needed to end hunger and malnutrition do exist, however children are still not getting the adequate nutrition they need. While child survival has improved in the last twenty years, the progress remains slow, leaving children to continue to suffer needlessly.  The effects of malnurished mothers are passed onto thier children, as infants are born underweight, under five child mortality rates remain high, and malnurishment and undernurishment are responsible for stunting and mental underdevelopment.

Just this week we saw the World Bank revise poverty figures, to show a substancial increase in the number of people around the world living in extreme poverty, putting the new figure at 1.4 billion.  The Bank’s new numbers come following an adjustment in the deep poverty measure from $1 per day to $1.25 (Times). The World Bank urged the international community to expand the fight against poverty. 

As World Food Day approaches on October 16th, people are left asking what needs to be done and how do we ensure we are on the right road to end hunger for millions of children?  The question remains; Does the International community pick favorites, just as we would when faced with deciding who to help? And if so, how does playing favorites on a global scale affect those waiting for someone to help them? One can only hope that the Committee on World Food Security, which is meeting in connection with World Food Day, from 14 to 17 October 2008, will find answers and solutions to end global hunger.

Part 2 of 2


Links:
Hunger Facts
World Food Program (WFP)
Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
World Food Day
World Food Day USA
Global Crisis in Food Prices Increases Vulnerability of Children - Save the Children

One rarely thinks that Eenie, meenie, minie, mo is a game to be played when looking at the global food crisis, let alone when staring into the eyes of malnourished children. Therefore when you’re faced with immense amounts of people in need, but you can only help a few, who do you, choose to help?

The scale of poverty is global, while the dilemma however is becoming more local and even more personal, as illustrated in the Guardian article today; In a time of famine, who should be saved?. The article illustrates the Ethiopian nations growing disparity and almost seemingly prejuditual food price scale. The questions raised in a time when the food crisis continues to spread across the globe, thus leaves one to ask the very personal question; Could I choose who should be saved?

No one wants to be the savior so to speak, but the reality of it is you cannot save everyone…can you? It brings me back to my first time in Russia in the mid-late 90’s, I was a struggling student I had surely seen people in need and begging on the street, but it was different, I knew they had no other option there was no pension, most I saw were elderly and disabled….and I began to give a bit here and there…all I could think of was how cheap it was (6,000 rubles to a $1, it was less than $3 to get a bottle of good vodka), then one day a friend stopped me and said stop, what are you doing you cant save them all and your going to run out of money over guilt. So I did I stopped, they were right I couldn’t save them all. But if I had begun and had to choose one who would I have chosen? the guy with no legs or arms that marveled me just be the shear fact he managed to get around, the old woman who looked near blind with the small disabled child, the old man who tried to sing sweet songs but was never on key?

Thinking back I am not sure I could have picked and if I had begun that way maybe I would have never even tried to save anyone so to speak. So if I were lined up in front of a bunch of starving children would I be able to choose if I were forced to play favorites?

Part 1 of 2

In despite of numerous, and seemingly successful, efforts to alleviate malnutrition in Sri Lankan children, children continue to be malnurished.  Why are so many children still malnurished, despite numerous health programs in incitives?  Inspite of various successes the country remains in a serious child health crisis, as reported in a newly released survey.  The Demographic and Health Survey 2006/2007, a draft of which was released by the Health and Nutrition Ministry and the Census and Statistics Department, shows that 22% of Sri Lankan children are underweight, 18% are stunted and 15% show signs of wasting.

Increasing food cost and unemployment are only serving to compound the growing problem of malnurishment affecting hundreds of thousands of Sri Lankan children.  Those areas of the country which are feeling the burden most are those regions effected by conflict.  According to Judy Devadawson, an adviser to a Trincomalee-based NGO, the Women and Child Care Organisation (WACCO);

“What is very common now is to see people struggling to buy food because of the high prices of staples like rice and bread.  In some places, we see very thin children with sunken eyes and they seem lethargic.” (IRIN)

In my post earlier this past week, The Thin Balance Between Life and Death, Sri Lanka was not one of the countries of significant mention in regards to infant mortality as they ranked seemingly high in regards to other countries, however the courntry’s infant mortality rate may not rank as high, at #113 with at rate of 19.01.  Nonetheless there is grave concern over the high levels of child undernurshment and malnurishment, which often leads to death in children under 5 years old.

The sacrifice that some children make at such young age is hard for most to imagine, but across the world many young people sacrifice their education and future to support that of their families. War, natural disasters and poverty have left many families and children seeing little options for survival and prosperity, causing many to remove children from school to enter the workforce, or even worse literally selling a child, in order to support the family.

May Thet, a teenager in Myanmar, has become the only hope to earn enough money to provide food for the family and send her younger sister to school. The sacrifice for May Thet is her education, her future;

“I feel like crying when I see my friends going to school, but, I have to console myself. It’s my destiny. There are a lot of us who can’t go to school because we have to help our parents. …Earning the family income is much more important right now than going to school.”

May Thet is lucky in some ways, as her mother has made sure that she stays close to home, despite the lure of additional income by going to work in Yangon (Rangoon), the country’s capital.

“My mother said no [to my going to Yangon to look for work as a housemaid], because she was afraid I would be sexually assaulted or trafficked into the sex industry. I’m also afraid of being sold or raped. But my mother told me I cannot go there. I have to listen to my mother’s orders.” (IRIN)

Almost three years after an earthquake devastated the communities in Pakistan, many stories mirror that of May Thet’s, as child labor on the rise in quake-hit north. The issue of child labor in Pakistan is nothing new, however following the earthquakes devastation a substantial rise in the number of children out of school and forced to work has caused grave concern to NGO’s and local authorities. NGO’s estimate that some 30% of children in the region are working and the last known estimate of child labor in Pakistan in 1996 put some 3.3 million children in the labor force, while now those in the field say the problem has only increased.

Endless cycles of debt bondage, one of the widest used forms of modern slavery, leave children forced to work towards the families debt, such as in Afghanistan’s brick factories. A local NGO in Sorkhrod District of the Nangarhar Province, estimated that some 2,298 children, mostly under the ages of 15, work in the 38 brick-making factories, 90% of which are not in school (IRIN).

However child labor and low school attendance levels are not the only concern for many countries, as abuse, violence and trafficking are also at the heart of the problem. As seen after a shocking case of abuse emerged from Pakistan last month as a father of 6, clubbed 4 of his children to death. Abdul Salam, an out of work laborer, stated that he had killed the children who ranged in age from 18 months to 11 years old , as he could no longer feed them. Salam had attempted to kill all 6 of the children; however 2 of the children survived the vicious attacks. Salam told the local press that he had killed the children because he was “unemployed for 10 days and could not meet their demands”, and that there was insufficient food in the house and when he killed them they had gone to sleep hungry, he said (Lack of food prompting extreme actions by parents).

The stories of children denied an education and a future are endless, they cover the globe and while the names may change, the stories themselves remain much the same. The issue of child labor only bringing a global magnifying glass to a local issue, uncovering the root causes for the worlds some 27 million slaves. Looking through the glass one can see that sustainable solutions must be immediately put into place in communities hit by disaster to ensure that children are able to remain in school while the families are able to rebuild and recover, as well as to those communities which continue to struggle with poverty and economic hardship. Education and awareness must also be brought to both the short and long-term effects of child labor and debt bondage, in order to begin to break the cycle and see a development of sustainable and viable solutions in each community.

This week, 1-7 August 2008, is World Breastfeeding Week

In conjunction with the Olympics next August, WBW 2008 calls for greater support for mothers in achieving the gold standard of infant feeding: breastfeeding exclusively for six months, and providing appropriate complementary foods with continued breastfeeding for up to two years or beyond.

As every country sends its best athletes to compete at these global games, it is important to remind ourselves that, in a similar fashion, a healthy young athlete can only emerge from a healthy start on life. There is no question that optimal infant and young child feeding is essential for optimal growth and development.

Supporting Mother = Supporting Her to Provide the Golden Start For Every Child !

In the wake of rising food prices and soaring malnutrition the need to promote breast feeding has never been greater. While the health benefits of breastfeeding have long since been getting the spotlight in campaigns, a new ali in the battle to see that breastfeeding is key in a child’s early nutritional development is increasing malnutrition and growing food prices. First of all in a climate of nothing other than continually rising prices, breast milk is the one staple that is free.

Large numbers of infants are suffering serious bouts of diarrhea, and in some cases dying, from infant formula provided in emergency situations. Therefore all UN agencies, aid groups, and governments are being urged to ensure women are not automatically given infant formula during emergency situations, and are encouraged to breast-feed.

In recent news the plight of malnourished children across the globe have been highlighted in an effort to increase the participation of women in breastfeeding, as one of the main weapons in the fight against hunger and malnutrition.

In Ethiopia Soaring malnutrition hits children hardest, as there are an some 126,000 children in need of urgent treatment for severe malnutrition, mostly of which are in the impoverished, drought-prone districts of the country.

Breast is best, even for mothers with HIV, as antiretroviral treatments (ART) grately reduced the transmition of the HIV virus from mother to child from breastfeeding.

“HIV-positive mothers on ART lower the risk of transmission through breastfeeding from 20 [percent] to five percent,” said Linda Beyer, an official in charge of Nutrition and HIV/AIDS at the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

In Indonesia Child malnutrition aggravated by food, oil price rises, however Anne Vincent, head of the UN Children’s Fund’s (UNICEF’s) health and nutrition section in Indonesia, said she was”appalled” by eating habits in Indonesia.

“Sometimes they give their children only rice with water. Kids don’t grow on that.”

These ‘bad habits, mixed with a large decline in breastfeeding has lead to the main cause of the country’s high mortality rate, according to Vincent.  Please also see, Diarrhoea takes deadly toll on toddlers consuming infant formula, on how substituting breast milk has often lead to disastrous consequences.

“The lives of 30,000 children could be saved [annually] if mothers breastfed their babies exclusively for the first six months.”

In Yemen a breastfeeding campaign urgently needed according to UNICEF. Nassem Ur-Rehman, chief communications and information officer at UNICEF’s Sanaa office, said nearly half of Yemen’s under-fives were malnourished:

“The health of small children is bad and getting worse. A breastfeeding campaign is urgently needed.”

Ur-Rehman stated that some 84,000 infants die from diseases such as diarrhea, which is the leading cause of death and pneumonia, each year, and that breastfeeding could help reduce such hid mortality rates. Dhekra Annuzaili, UNICEF’s nutrition programme officer, said that “exclusive breastfeeding” has decreased and claimed that both Doctors and the media were not doing enough to promote breastfeeding.

It is apparent that around the globe awareness on the benefits to the long-term health of a child through breastfeeding out way most risks and the preconceived inconveniences, especially as food prices and malnutrition soar, the the economic benefits are becoming almost as necessary as the health benefits. It is blatantly obvious that campaigns to promote and educate families on the benefits of breastfeeding must be put into place by both government and non-government bodies alike.


See other related posts including;
New Hope For Decreasing Mother to Child Transmission of HIV/AIDS
The first 2 years of life are vital for children, but For 3.5 million it has been a miss
Is Breastfeeding heading for extinction in the Philippines?
Millions of Children Needlessly Dying from Preventable Disease
Infant’s Rights to Nutrition

In April in the post, Girls In Yemen Forced to Marry Too Young, an introduction to the abuses committed against girls who are forced into marriage too early, including highlighting the hindrance that child marriage is placing on the country’s development. According to a recent study by Sana University, researchers found the average age of marriage in rural Yemen to be 12 to 13. According to a report issued in 2007 by the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW), 48.4% of Yemeni women under the age of 18 were married. Why are girls married off so young? Poverty and economic hardship are the root cause of the problem, which ironically has only led it to develop into a cycle of poverty. Girls are pulled from school for marriage leaving most illiterate.  Child marriages also lead to higher instances of domestic violence and early pregnancies, which leave girls at high risk for death in childbirth, complications, and low birth weights.

Last month The New York Times article, Tiny Voices Defy Child Marriage in Yemen, brought to light the harsh reality of child marriage in Yemen, after two young brides, only 8 and 10 have come forward to escape from their abusive husbands.  In April 8 year old (10 according to some later articles) Nujood Ali was granted a divorce from her husband after walking herself into court and relentlessly stating her case.  Arwa Abdu Muhammad, who was 9 when she ran a way seeking help at a local hospital after her husband raped and abused her.  Nujood and Arwa, have used their voices to spark a new movement in the country against child marriages. The National Women’s Committee (NWC), a government body, has recently called for an end to child marriage, proposing that the minimum age for marriage be set at 18 (IRIN). Additionally the NWC proposed punishments be given to all who participate in the establishment of a child marriage, with a one-year jail sentence or a $ 500 fine.

In 1979 the minimum legal age of marriage 16 for women and 18 for men according to Yemeni law, then in 1992 the minimum legal age was dropped to 15, however in in 1998 Parliament revised the law to allow girls to be married earlier if they did not live with their husbands before they reached sexual maturity. The loose revision of the law leaves reckless room for the abuse of countless girls, and only highlights the backwards steps the country has been making in regards to gender equality and the rights of the child.

However as the Times article points out, that while support is growing to ban child marriage the fight is far from easy as; “Hard-line Islamic conservatives, whose influence has grown enormously in the past two decades, defend it, pointing to the Prophet Muhammad’s marriage to a 9-year-old. Child marriage is deeply rooted in local custom here, and even enshrined in an old tribal expression: “Give me a girl of 8, and I can give you a guarantee” for a good marriage.”

Sadly the plight of young girls in Yemen is not an isolated case as child marriages continue in many countries around the globe, and poverty and economic hardships are causing in increase in the practice in many other countries, such as Afghanistan. Please see other posts on Child Marriage for more information.

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

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)