The fragmented country of Somalia is no stranger to conflict and the last two years of fighting has increasingly taken a toll on the lives of everyone in the country, especially the children. Somalia is quite literally a raging battle ground, as fighting in the country continues, as insurgents exchange fire with the Somali government, Ethiopian troops and African Union peacekeepers.

The spiraling downfall of Somalia began in January 1991, when former President Siad Barre was overthrown, which has since left the country without any form of an operational government. The lawless country has spent the almost two decades locked in endless fighting, between various Islamic insurgent coalitions and government forces, warlords, and the government.

It had seemed like the insurgent attacks against the government were to slowing down in the early part of 2009, however since May the attacks have resumed in the capital, Mogadishu, and other areas.  Last month, on June 18th, a suicide bomber killed Somalia’s Security Minister and at least 30 other people 150 miles to the north of Mogadishu, making it the deadliest suicide bomb attack in the countries history. The recent fighting has culminated in the deaths of hundreds of Somalis and the displacement of hundreds of thousands. In June 2009, some 170,000 were displaced from Mogadishu (an autonomous region, which is part of the Somali republic; however it remains unrecognized by any country or international organization since its inception in 1991). According to local human rights groups, there have been 397 deaths, and some 1,738 injured since 7 May 2007. However the current displacements are not the country’s worst, as in November 2007, the number of refugees hit one million, according to the United Nations. Most of the displaced have fled Somalia, mainly from the capital Mogadishu residing in Somaliland. To see more on the history of the conflict in Somalia see the conflict timeline from 2000 here.

Women and children have been especially vulnerable in the city as looting and rapes are prevalent. The number of orphans continues to rise, and the situation for them and other vulnerable children remains desolate and is increasingly critical with no government support and assistance for them. Additionally aid workers remain targets, and piracy off the country’s coast continues. While addition the naval forces have continued to work to eliminate ship seizures and escort World Food Program and other Aid deliveries, it continues to significantly impact the aid children and families in dire need.

Not only is Somalia a lawless land of conflict, but it is one of the worlds harshest places to live environmentally, and the countries strong culture of pastoralism (nomadic way of life) on increases the impact on a child’s chances of survival.  A Somali child has less chance of living to adulthood than a child in any other part of the world. The high child mortality rates are rooted in a number of causes, mainly due to  primarily preventable diseases, dehydration, malnutrition, lack of safe water, and poor sanitation.  Not only is a child’s future hindered by health, but only one in five children actually receive any form of education.  Many children are left the primary or sole caretakers, and with low literacy rates the future is far from hopeful for most. (UNICEF)

Last November, I brought you the piece, Have We Forgotten Somalia?, and it appears that we have as children continue to live in the country dubbed by UNICEF as ‘the worst place in the world for children’. The country’s future state continues to remain a volatile hotbed for violence, and the future of the countries children remains bleak.

In response to the previous two posts the following is a true story of how one can emerge from tragedy and violence, and teach peace to children in the face of conflict. Teaching peace is more than just teaching about an end to war and armed conflict that has engulfed nations, but also bringing peace to the streets which are so often embattled in a war of their own.

Juveniles are two and a half times more likely to become a victim of violent crime than their adult counter parts. And while violent crime and homicide committed by juveniles has decreased significantly in the past decade, the numbers continue to haunt communities across the country. According to Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 2006 National Report, “8% of 17-year-olds reported ever belonging to a gang, 16% sold drugs, and 16% carried a handgun”.

Senegal is no stranger to the slave trade, as cities such as Saint-Louis prospered due to the sale of human lives. Gorée Island, which lies just less than 2 miles off the coast of Senegal, was one of West Africa's largest slave trading outposts during the Atlantic Slave Trade. The sale of men, women and children were gathered from across the country and then held like animals, until they made their way on to waiting ships and then sold like cattle in the ‘New World’. The small island was made a Unesco World Heritage site in 1978, however unlike the dramatized use of the island and its slave houses to send visitors into shock and dismay, the selling of slaves is far from history, but a modern reality that continues to plague the country.

While slaves no longer flow in and out of the slave houses of Gorée Island, slavery continues to riddle the country. Senegal is source, transit, and destination country for modern slaves. Most of the country's victims of modern slavery remain children who are forced into marriage; trafficked for commercial sex; or trafficked to beg along the country's city streets.

Recently the fight against slavery in Senegal has taken a new turn, as the country's Parliament begins a much contested debate regarding changing the country's rape laws.  Activist and victims are vying for stronger and more stringent laws. Including the parents of one six year-old girl who was recently raped while in the toilets of her school, to the heartbreak and dismay of her parents. The young girl's father stated;

“People who commit such acts should be put in prison for life. This is becoming far too common. There are no guarantees anymore that your child will be safe at school , even primary school. The only way to stop such crimes is to punish the culprits severely. Everyone needs to know that there are consequences for such horrendous actions." (IRIN)

"It is not enough to put rapists in prison and change the laws,” Adama Sow of the Senegalese NGO Action Group Against Child Rape (GRAVE) told IRIN. "That is needed, of course…but we also need to change mentalities. If not we will never overcome this problem." Sow also added that the tradition of early and forced marriage is the leading cause for violence against women and children. Sow cited the recent case of a 12-year-old girl who killed herself to escape her forced marriage. (IRIN)

While the fight against early marriage, sexual violence and trafficking is heating up in the country, there is a great deal of focus which is still needed on Senegal's growing talibe population. According to a report released in February of 2008 by the ILO, the United Nations Children's Fund and the World Bank, there are more than 7,600 child beggars in the capital city of Dakar alone.

As stated in the post, The Freedom of Education, education is the key to freedom however poverty and access are often a huge barrier.  However an additional barrier to accessing education that plagues many children around the globe is disability.  With strains already placed on many educational systems and access to education in many areas is already extremely hindered, access for those children with disabilities.

Discrimination of those with disabilities in many countries is already prevalent; families of those children born with disabilities are often excluded from school for a multitude of reasons, including; public isolation from their families, lack of accessablity to get to school, lack of resources or accessablity in schools, and many children are abused.

Disabled children are often sold into slavery as beggers, thier disablity used first to cast them out by families and then again as a tool to increase their value as a comodity.

As a person who has seen the explotation of the disabled in numerous countries, and has worked with the disabled, as well as has seen a number of friends and family strive and achive in the face of disablity, I have seen the disparity of services and treatment and have counted my blessings that those with disablities in my life lived in the United States, where we are not perfect, nor without faults in our system, but were we look to see the ablity and not the disablity of a person.  Thus over the years we have continued, and continue, to make improvements to our system and change sociteties view of those with all forms of disablity. 

Great strides this year especially as the long awaited Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities received its 20th ratification on 3 April 2008, triggering the entry into force of the Convention and its Optional Protocol 30 days later, on May 12, 2008.  Just this month we celebrated International Day of People with Disabilities.  However many countries around the world place disablity issues on the back burner, it is up to developed nations and aid agencies to enusure that the issue of disablity is brought to the forefront, not only on paper, but in the form of sustainable solutions, and those children with disablites are not left behind.

The fragmented country of Somalia is no stranger to conflict and the last two years of fighting are beginning to take a toll on the lives of the countries children. Somalia is quite literally a raging battle ground, as fighting in the country continues, as insurgents exchange fire with the Somali government, Ethiopian troops and African Union peacekeepers.

While there are no true figures available, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates there are some 75,000 displaced people who have fled Somalia, mainly from the capital Mogadishu residing in Somaliland (an autonomous region, which is part of the Somali republic, however it remains unrecognized by any country or international organization since its inception in 1991).

Currently security forces are investigating three suicide car-bomb attacks on October 29th in Hargeisa, the capital of the self-declared republic of Somaliland, which targeted a UN compound the presidential residence and Ethiopian embassy. In Mogadishu death tolls continue to rise as Ethiopian shelling killed over 80 in recent weeks. Women and young girls have been especially vulnerable in the city as looting and rapes are prevalent. Additionally aid workers remain targets. In response the growing issue of piracy off the country's coast NATO and India are both to send warships in patrol. In addition the naval force will attempt to eliminate ship seizures and escort World Food Program deliveries, which will significantly aid children and families in dire need.

Conflict, drought force more children onto Hargeisa streets, many of which often spend the day on the streets in an effort to support their families, others spend day and night alone even more susceptible to violence and exploitation.

Saleebaan Ismail Bulale, chairman of Hornwatch, a local human rights group, estimated there were 3,000-5,000 children on the streets of Hargeisa. “There are no exact figures but that is our estimate and numbers seem to be increasing”.

From begging, shoe shinning, washing cars and cleaning, children quite literally run the streets day and night in an effort to survive. With the continued violence and influx of refugees into Hargeisa, the numbers of children on the streets only looks to increase.

UNICEF has given Somalia the not so glorious title as 'the worst place in the world for children’, and estimates that one in seven children under the age of five is acutely malnourished. While peace talks are to take place in Djibouti later this month, the country's future state looks to remain a volatile hotbed for violence.

SOMALIA: Conflict, drought force more children onto Hargeisa streets
Conflict, drought and economic hardships have led to an unprecedented increase in the number of street children in Hargeisa, capital of Somalia's self-declared independent republic of Somaliland, with government and aid agencies calling for urgent steps to stem the increase. Saleebaan Ismail Bulale, chairman of Hornwatch, a local human rights group, estimated there were 3,000-5,000 children on the streets of Hargeisa.

Returning Burundians win university scholarships from UN refugee agency
A group of 40 Burundian students started university classes this week in the capital, Bujumbura, after becoming the first returnees to be granted scholarships by the United Nations refugee agency. The new students at Universite Lumiere in Bujumbura were selected to receive scholarships by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which helps to administer the German-funded DAFI scholarship program. The program - which has been running for 16 years and now supports 1,800 students across 33 States - had previously only been available to refugees living in countries of asylum, UNHCR said.

Charity denies hunger ‘forgery’
Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has rebutted claims that it exaggerated the number of malnourished children in Niger. The charity has appealed to be allowed to resume work in the region of Maradi, where Niger's government ordered it to stop operating in July. MSF said some 8,000 children had since been deprived of treatment. The BBC's Idy Baraou reports from Niger that there are fears of a malnutrition epidemic in coming months. Human rights groups report that government hospitals are not adequately equipped to deal with the challenge, he says.

SOMALIA: Nasir Ahmed - “I feel bad every time I see children my age going to school”
More and more children are missing out on childhood as conflict continues in war-torn Somalia. Families who fled the violence have been separated from their children and, as poverty bites due to drought and hyperinflation, many children have taken to the streets to fend for their families. Nasir Ahmed, 12, is one such child in Hargeisa, the capital of the self-declared republic of Somaliland.

PAKISTAN: Swat Valley violence shatters education hopes
“We saw the school being blown up right in front of our eyes,” said Abu Junaid, Sara's father. “Even the security forces do nothing; they remain quiet bystanders,” said Sara. Swat's educational institutions are either bedevilled by disruption due to unannounced curfews, shelling and bombing, or the schools have been targeted by militant arsonists. In the last two years over 100 schools, mostly girls’ schools, have been torched, according to pakistani media sources

BANGLADESH: A floating future
“It's different from other schools , I really love the Bangla boi [book] , it teaches us things we see in our villages, helps us identify the birds, kinds of fishes, and tells us about river erosion.” The boats equipped with computers have opened a new world to at least 90,000 families in the region, “especially for girls and women,” said Fazila Begum, a subsistence farmer. Girls and women are brought up in conservative and protected households in mainly Muslim Bangladesh, and cannot always travel long distances to attend school or even to see a doctor, particularly in rural areas. “Now we don't even have to step out of the village,” Fazila smiled.

UNICEF boosts funding to help ensure proper nutrition for Kyrgyz children
The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) will provide USD 270,000 in additional funds to help develop a national nutrition strategy in Kyrgyzstan, where more than half of babies and infants are anemic and many young children suffer from stunted growth as a result of nutrient deficiencies. “Giving a child a solid nutritional start in life is critical to physical, mental and social development,” stressed UNICEF chief Ann Veneman during her visit to the Central Asian nation, the first-ever by an Executive Director of the agency. While in the capital, Bishkek, Veneman also visited the Rehabilitation Center for Street Children.

International Conference on the Right to Education in Iraq
The state of education in Iraq, and the threats facing Iraqi children, students and academics is the subject of an international conference "Right to Education in Crisis-Affected Countries: Stop jeopardizing the future of Iraq," at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris from October 30 to November 1.

UNESCO and Iraqi Ministry of Education launch educational TV channel
Iraqi children who are unable to attend classes due to security concerns will now be able to continue their studies through distance learning thanks to a new educational television channel launched Oct. 21 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the Education Ministry. The Iraqi Educational TV Channel, IRAQI EDU, is designed particularly for primary and secondary school students both within and outside of Iraq, and comes in response to security risks that result in a high rate of absenteeism and the closing of schools.

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.

“I have come to realize more and more that the greatest disease and the greatest suffering is to be unwanted, unloved, uncared for, to be shunned by everybody, to be just nobody (to no one).”
-Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997)

To think of any child being unwanted or unloved is heartbreaking, but a sad reality for millions (estimates range as high as 200 million) of children across the globe. These are children who have never known any other life than that of an orphan, children who have survived tragedy and the loss of their entire family, and the children of war and AIDS.

The causes that have left the world with so many orphans are endless, however regardless of the causes that have led children to become orphans; the true tragedy is that these children continue to be victimized. As it is World Orphan Week, I encourage all of you too look deeper into the plight of child orphans across the globe. We must look deeper into the roots of the problem to see a solution for the disease and suffering that is plaguing millions of children, to strive for an end to poverty, gender discrimination and then we will begin to see a light at the end of the tunnel. For it is truly the world's greatest disease to be unwanted and unloved.

“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.

NEPAL: Stronger child protection needed for flood-displaced
As the numbers of people displaced by floods living in camps in eastern Nepal grow, aid workers are calling for stronger child protection measures. More than 60,000 people are displaced after the Koshi River , Nepal's largest , burst its banks last month, flooding the Sunsari and Saptari districts. Of these, an estimated 20,000 are children younger than 18.

NAMIBIA: Government steps up birth registrations
Hundreds of thousands of undocumented Namibian children may be deprived of social service benefits, but a new government initiative launched at one of the country's busiest hospitals hopes to change all that. According to Namibia's latest Demographic and Health Survey in 2006, about 40 percent of Namibian children do not possess birth certificates - a prerequisite for applying for any social grants

PAKISTAN: Return of “lost” boys highlights the plight of street children
Asif, 16, was among 53 “lost” boys, aged between eight and 16, who boarded the bus on the morning of 16 August to return to his parents’ house. Social workers say Pakistan has a large population of runaway or lost kids, estimating their number at more than 70,000. Navaid Hasan Khan of Azad Foundation, an organisation working with street children, estimates there are between 13,000 and 15,000 in Karachi alone and the number is increasing. The UN Children's Fund, UNICEF, estimates there are 10,000 in Karachi.

AFGHANISTAN: Attacks deprive 300,000 students of education
Afghanistan has made impressive progress in primary and secondary education since the downfall of the Taliban regime in late 2001. However, resurgent Taliban and worsening security have put the country's hard-won educational achievements at serious risk. More than 600 primary, secondary and high schools are closed, mostly in the volatile southern provinces, because of prevalent insecurity and attacks on formal education, the MoE said.

Netherlands: Dutch schools to track girls forced into marriage
Dutch Integration Minister Ella Vogelaar has announced the creation of an emergency line where schools can raise the alarm if immigrant girls do not return from a holiday. Schools have found that immigrant girls are sometimes left behind in their countries of origin to be forced into an arranged marriage. According to the minister, this happens mostly in Turkish, Moroccan and Pakistani families. She will also study whether it's possible to make such cases punishable by law. The move comes after pressure from the Labour Party.

United Kingdom: UNICEF welcomes British recognition of migrant children's rights
The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) applauded the decision by the British Government to grant children seeking asylum, migrant children and those trafficked into the country the same rights as British children, including their right to education, health care and social services. "The decision paves the way for vulnerable children who are subject to immigration control to enjoy the fundamental human rights spelled out in the Convention [on the Rights of the Child] for every child,” UNICEF said in a press release.