Children

The International Day for the Eradication of Poverty , was established in 1993, by UN resolution 47/196, when the United Nations General Assembly designated October 17th to promote awareness of the need to eradicate poverty and destitution in all countries. Particular interest and attention on this day is however focused on developing countries, as the day has been leveraged to raise awareness about the need to eradicate poverty across the globe.

According to UNICEF, 26,500-30,000 children die each day due to poverty. They “die quietly in some of the poorest villages on earth, far removed from the scrutiny and the conscience of the world. Being meek and weak in life makes these dying multitudes even more invisible in death.” (UNICEF)

Around 27-28% of all children in developing countries are estimated to be underweight or stunted. The two regions that account for the bulk of the deficit are South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. If current trends continue, the Millennium Development Goals target of halving the proportion of underweight children will be missed by 30 million children, largely because of slow progress in Southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. (2007 Human Development Report)

In conjunction with the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty and World Food Day, October 16th, groups and communities across the globe are taking a stand. Around the world from October 17-19, over 100 million people in over 2,000 events across more than 100 countries have registered to Stand Up and Take Action against Poverty and for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.

The rising of fuel and food across the globe has left few unscathed and one can easily find themselves feeling the hit at both the pump and in the checkout line, enough to cause one to curtail their spending. Unemployment rates have spiked all time highs and worldwide everyone is tightening their belts. With many families incomes on the decline or remaining stagnate, one is beginning to see a grain of insight into the enormity of the effects on the world’s food shortage.

As food prices have raised an average of 83%, some staple foods such as rice and corn have risen as much as 300%, it has led to a food shortage that is continuing to plagued nations across the globe. It is for this reason that the issue of poverty and hunger has become a priority on the minds of many. Today is a day to bring awareness to the realities of the situation as it is World Food Day, the theme of this year’s Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is, World Food Security: the Challenges of Climate Change and Bioenergy.

“World Food Day provides an occasion to once again highlight the plight of 923 million undernourished people in the world. Most of them live in rural areas where their main source of income is the agricultural sector. Global warming and the biofuel boom are now threatening to push the number of hungry even higher in the decades to come.”

The crisis has left the most vulnerable members of society even more vulnerable, with families spending as much at 3/4th of their household income on food. When families reduce their food consumption it is women and children who suffer the most. According to the 2008 Global Hunger Index, which was just released by the International Food Policy Research Institute, 33 countries around the globe are experiencing “alarming or extremely alarming” levels of child mortality, child malnutrition and other hunger-related health problems.

What are the main causes?
1. Climate change – an increase in natural disasters
2. The increased consumption of biofuels – increased consumption of food and competition for land causing additional price increases.
3. Increased cost of fossil fuels – increased cost of farm inputs.
4. Increased demand for food products such as meat and dairy – increases consumption of grains.
5. Poor investment in small scale farming.

The food crisis is a global crisis and it has left the world in need of major reforms in the agricultural sector, especially in regards to increasing small scale farming and developing climate control policies. The crisis is not new and it was with this growing problem that world leaders from more than 100 nations came together in 2000 at the United Nations and agreed to the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). One of the eight goals was to reduce the number of people in the world who live on $1 a day or less, in half by the year 2015. At the current rate what was set as a goal appears to be more of a dream.

Links:
One Campaign
Action Against Hunger
Oxfam - World must learn lessons from food price crisis
USAID Statement on World Food Day
FAO Statistics

“Welcome to Sierra Leone, one of the world’s worst places to live.” Not really the slogan you want to read on a travel brochure, but what happens when you have no choice and that place is your home?

According to the 2008 Global Hunger Index (GHI), which was released on the 14th, showed Sierra Leone, along with other sub-Saharan African countries, such as Niger, and Liberia, have the world’s highest levels of hunger. While the extreme nature of hunger and starvation in the counties are alarming, they are sadly an improvement from the dire decade of famine in the 1990’s.

Why is Sierra Leone in such a state? Much of the country’s problems stem from the 11 year civil war, which ended in 2002. The long running conflict literally left healthcare and education services at a standstill. According to UN rankings, Sierra Leone was at the bottom of the list of a 177 countries regarding access to health care, education and a living-wage. The low quality of life provided for the average citizen is painfully apparent as not even half of the population as access to education, more than a quarter of the population is illiterate, some 30% of children do not make it past the age of 5 years old, and the average life span is only 40 years old.

The country’s civil war also saw an estimated 10,000 child soldiers, who where led to commit murder and rape, young boys who tortured and amputated the limbs of thousands of victims. These children where part of the Small Boys Unit of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), and since the end of the conflict all have had not only had little access to healthcare and education, but also to physiological assistance and adequate reintegration programs.

Silence about the situation in the country is mostly what one has found in the west, bar that of the Sierra Leonean emerge community, who have become quick to rally support for their brethren back in home. However loud the cry’s it is painfully apparent that the children of Sierra Leone are not being heard loud enough, and that both aid and sustainable programs must be put into place to ensure the future of this generation and generations to come.

In other news, just last week government officials in Sierra Leone drafted a new law that to increase their control over any non-profit organization working in the country. Last month the country passed the Anti-Corruption Act, news of which came in the wake of the 2008 Transparency International (TI) ranking of perceptions of corruption in 180 countries, of which Sierra Leone ranked in the bottom 20.

Links:
UNICEF - Seirra Leone
Save the Children - Sierra Leone
SOS Children’s Villages - Sierra Leone
CIA World Factbook - Sierra Leone

October 15th is the first annual UN Global Handwashing Day, set in conjunction with 2008 being the UN International Year of Sanitation, the day is set to both echo and reinforce the UN’s call for improved hygiene practices across the globe. The goal of the week of activities is to encourage people, especially children, to wash their hands using soap in an effort to help curb the spread of disease and thus lower child mortality rates.

Why Focus on Children?
Of the approximately 120 million children born in the developing world each year, half will live in households without access to improved sanitation, at grave risk to their survival and development. Poor hygiene and lack of access to sanitation together contribute to about 88% of deaths from diarrhoeal diseases, accounting for 1.5 million diarrhoea-related under-five deaths each year. Children suffer disproportionately from diarrheal and respiratory diseases and deaths. But research shows that children – the segment of society so often the most energetic, enthusiastic, and open to new ideas – can also be powerful agents of behavioral change.

Millions mark UN hand-washing day , as children worldwide are expected to participate in Global Handwashing Day, October 15th, a UN event designed to impress young minds with the importance of basic hygiene in combating disease. The practice, which can cut diarrheal diseases by more than 40% and respiratory infections by 30%, is being highlighted on radio and television across five continents as part of the UN’s International Year of Sanitation. More than 20 countries are participating in, and promoting the day, in an effort to save the lives of children from easily prevented diseases.

 In Yemen the drive to promote handwashing, to reduce child mortality rates is well underway. According to Kamal Abdullah, health and education programs officer at the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) office in Yemen, diarrhoeal diseases account for 20-25 percent of the 84,000 annual deaths among children under five.

In Bangladesh handwashing saves children’s lives . Across the country more than 16 million children in 73,000 primary and secondary schools will mark the day with a vow to keep themselves free of diarrhoea and pneumoni, the two main causes of childhood diseases, which are spread mainly via dirty hands. “Children are the most powerful agents of change in society,” said Carel de Rooy, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) representative in Bangladesh. “If children learn basic hygiene education and practice from the beginning of their lives, they can work as a catalyst to change the whole society.” In Bangladesh, more than 35,000 children under-five die of diarrhoeal diseases each year, an average of 100 deaths a day, according to UNICEF.

Saving lives really is as simple as soap and water!

As time quickly passes by and our daily lives seem to be one endless “To Do List”, the worlds “To Do List”, the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) still has a lot of things to be checked off. Now that we are more than half way to “D-Day” what begun to weigh heavy on most people’s minds is one of wonderment as to if we are on track to get everything done in order to reach the MDGs.  The truth is most countries are failing to meet all or some of the MDGs.

The ability to successfully meet the MDGs is crucial to children across the globe, especially those in the developing world.  A whole generation’s futures teeters in the balance as countries around the world try to win the race of catch-up, however many seem to be dragging their feet. The race for 2015 is truly a team sport, thus many have then been left to question the international community and if they are doing enough to see that reaching the MDGs are in sight. Such gaps were brought to attention in the Oxfam report, The IMF and the Millennium Goals Failing to deliver for low income countries.

While shortcomings in reaching the MDGs by 2015 are nothing short of obvious, in some cases such as India and China’s rise in child deaths. In others there are successes to be seen, such as in Sir Lanka with the reduction of child deaths since 1990, despite the long civil war, thanks to the placement of a concentrated emphasis on healthcare.

The answer to the question continues to lurk in the grey shadows, and regardless it is painfully apparent that much needs to be done to ensure we have a fighting chance at reaching the MDGs and aiding generations of children.

In posts one may find that I often mention the Millennium Development Goals, and if countries are on track to meet them. Thus I wanted to provide background on the MDGs and how they came to be established, in order to give you a better understanding of what they are and what needs to be done to achieve them.

In September 2000 the leaders of 189 UN member states adopted the Millennium Declaration, committing their countries to a stronger global effort to reduce poverty, improve health and promote peace, human rights and sustainable environment. It was with this declaration that the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were born, and thus established eight specific, measurable, time-bound targets which would bind countries together in an effort to place a higher focus on inadequate incomes, widespread hunger, gender inequality, environmental deterioration and lack of education, healthcare and clean water. All UN nations engaged to work together to achieve the MDGs by 2015 adapting the goals to country specific development level.

Global Millennium Development Goals
1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2: Achieve universal primary education
3: Promote gender equality and empower women
4: Reduce child mortality
5: Improve maternal health
6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
7: Ensure environmental sustainability
8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development

In September 2005 the world leaders reconvened at the 2005 World Summit at the United Nations in New York to reiterate their unambiguous commitment of achieving the MDGs by 2015. The World Summit concluded with the Summit’s Outcome Document, which clearly noted that each country must take primary responsibility for its own development, and for the establishment of appropriate national policies and development strategies.

The halfway mark was reached in July 2007, and a progress report by the United Nations showed that despite some clear progresses in implementing the MGDs, their overall success was nowhere near guaranteed. The progress report clearly showed that the world leaders were in a dire position which needed to be given precedence and that leader’s needed to take stronger action to see that the MGDs are on target.

Please look for part two which will look at the feasibility of meeting the MGDs and if countries and the international community are indeed on track or way off.

Part 1 of 2

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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