UNFPA: Impoverished women bear brunt of climate change

Sri Lanka camps breeding anger
Ethnic Tamils and human-rights groups are growing increasingly frustrated by the extended government use of internment camps to house Tamil refugees. Six months after the government declared victory over the Tamil Tigers, around 200,000 people remain in the camps. Authorities say they are screening for any remaining rebels, but observers worry the continued detention might stoke ethnic tensions.

Tobacco poison surrounds child workers
In Malawi, villagers, including children, exposed to harmful waste from tobacco processors. The children pick through mountainous piles of waste tobacco and sweep it up with their bare hands into giant bags in the hope of scraping a living. From behind a veil of dust, they stare back at us with bloodshot eyes.
- British American Tobacco announces inquiry; Alliance One says it will build wall to keep children away from waste

More than 2,000 Zimbabweans flee, fearing attacks
Fearing a resurgence of xenophobic attacks, around 2,500 Zimbabwean migrants have taken refuge in government buildings in De Doorns, a farming town about 140km from Cape Town, South Africa, after some of their shacks in an informal settlement were attacked and demolished, said a police official.

AFRICA: “The fewer the children the better the care”
Africa will fail to achieve most UN Millennium Development Goals unless countries adopt effective family planning programmes and control rapid population growth, experts warn.
“Africa has not done well in areas of family planning,” Khama Rogo, World Bank senior adviser, said. “It is not that we cannot do well; we have not committed ourselves… family planning and population growth have a cross-cutting impact.”

AFGHANISTAN: Schools to reopen for exams after H1N1 shutdown
The government has decided to reopen all schools from 23 November to 12 December to allow 7.5 million schoolchildren across Afghanistan to take exams. On 1 November Afghanistan’s National Disasters Management Commission declared an H1N1 health emergency and ordered a shutdown of all schools and universities for three weeks. Up to nine million students and teachers were affected by the decision which was also criticized by some observers as “politically motivated”.

YEMEN: Malnourished children arriving at al-Mazraq IDP camp
Aid workers at al-Mazraq camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Haradh District, Hajjah Governorate, northernYemen, say more and more children are arriving at the camp in a state of moderate or severe malnourishment. Khalid Shaibani from the UNICEF-run therapeutic feeding centre (TFC) at the camp told IRIN the number of malnourished children was increasing by the day as new IDP families arrived.

VIETNAM: Ethnic minorities lose out on maternal healthcare
The birth rate in rapidly developing Vietnam has dropped in recent years while maternal health and antenatal standards have risen - albeit only for the dominant ethnic groups. Ethnic minorities mostly still give birth at home, without a healthcare worker or midwife, specialists say.

The story soon took a shocking turn as video was captured of the young girl being carried into a hotel room by a man.  Soon the darker reality of the case began to emerge, and for many in this military town nothing was more paralyzing as the focus turned to the young girls mother, who was arrested for allegedly selling her own daughter into prostitution.  Shaniya’s mother, Antoinette Nicole Davis, was arrested yesterday on charges related to prostitution and human trafficking and felony child abuse.  Authorities on the case reported that the girls mother;

knowingly provide[d] Shaniya Davis with the intent that she be held in sexual servitude,” and she “permit[ted] an act of prostitution (Huffington Post).

The man in the video, 20 year-old Mario McNeil, was identified and has since been arrested, admitting kidnapping, however has not admitted guilt for any of the other charges.  One other man was also arrested, but has been subsequently released.  Leads and countless searches for the missing girl where tirelessly perused over the next couple of days.  However the frantic search for Shaniya, lead by Fayetteville police and hundreds of volunteers, sadly ended their search today with the discovery of her body in a wooded area off the side of a rural road near Sanford, 30 miles from Fayetteville (MSNBC/AP).

Ironically I was just down in Fayetteville the other weekend visiting friends, one of which said that they could use someone like me down there, however not even they were thinking of victims as young as 5, as they were making note of the barrage of strip clubs that litter the county.  It was a friend who broke the news to me that her body was found as she was driving down Highway 87 and saw the search and rescue crews at the site where the body was found. While sitting at a dinner, not far from where Shaniya’s body was found, I was sitting there discussing my anti-trafficking work with some people when the age old topic of “where” trafficking occurs came up. The expected, “not here” slipped quickly from nearly everyone’s mouth as it does in most small towns, and big ones as well.  Of course I was quick to reply with “trafficking happens everywhere, even here”, little did I know that this story would soon break and the reality of my words, and my life’s work, would be so quickly brought to light in the town soon after my departure.  As the story is breaking national media and hitting the anti-trafficking circles, it  goes to really show that human trafficking really is in every town…big or small.  While I never wanted to see the reality of human trafficking play out so vividly and end so tragically for such a young victim, I am sadly not all that shocked.  Stories of people selling there own children are sadly not new, nor are they rare.  Although one tends to think these are stories that come out of Africa or SE Asia, but this little girl is far from alone in the US.

So how and why does human trafficking happen without bounds?  First you want to ask, as we all do, “How can a mother sale her child…sell her for sex?”, and while the desperation of addiction and poverty have a role to play, the other question we fail to ask is “who could buy a 5 year-old…who could buy another person?”  The heartening reality is that it is the second largest black-market industry in the world, just behind arms and capping that of the drug market, and it is fueled by demand. The market for sex young children exists, in fact it thrives, even in rural American towns.

The average age of entry into prostitution in the United States is 11-13 years-old, a reality I have seen all to often, but one that remains in the shadows of our society.  Our city streets and rural towns will continue to see the innocence of so many young girls, and boys, victimized as long as the demand for sex with children continues and continues to remain in the shadows.  We have to wake to the reality that there are buyers of sex with children along the dusty streets of Phnom Penh, the busy streets of our nations capital and the rural roads of our ‘All American’ towns.

Photo: UNICEF

A series of natural disasters has his Asia in recent months leading to increased concern for child malnutrition, as food security rises.  There is no question that optimal infant and young child feeding is essential for optimal growth and development.   Optimal feeding includes; breastfeeding exclusively for six months, and providing appropriate complementary foods with continued breastfeeding for up to two years or beyond.

However in times of natural disasters, conflict and displacement this is often overlooked.  Often breastfeeding and child health is impeded during emergencies, due to unsolicited, or ‘uncontrolled’ donations of breast-milk substitutes.  These donations, according to UNICEF and WHO, undermined child health efforts, as was seen following the 7.9 magnitude earthquake in West Sumatra on 30 September.  “UNICEF Indonesia, worked with the country’s Health Ministry, and contacted local and national radio stations to broadcast requests to stop milk-substitute donations.”

“It’s a huge problem, and the problem lies in the lack of knowledge among the donors on the potential harm,” said Winoto. (IRIN)

Large numbers of infants are suffering serious bouts of diarrhea, and in some cases dying, from infant formula provided in emergency situations.  Formula is often diluted with unsanitary water, which not only decreases the nutritional value of the formula, but also leads to an increase in the number of cases of diarrhea and dehydration. Additionally this puts a strain on emergency healthcare facilities, only exacerbating the situation, as inundated parents line up at clinics which are already overwhelmed with infants who have fallen ill due to being formula fed with unsanitary water. 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 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 various campaigns, as I have previously reported in post such as; Fighting For Infant Health in Indonesia, Breast Feeding Needed to Fight Child Growing Malnutrition, Infants Rights to Nutrition, Is Breastfeeding heading for extinction in the Philippines?

While the battle to see that breastfeeding is made a key element in a child’s early nutritional development, and child malnutrition is decreased, is essential in any climate. In a climate of nothing other than continually rising prices, breast milk is the one staple that is free.

Breastfeeding however continues to be a battle, though one that is increasingly being won, as seen in Mali, where “baby friendly” hospitals have created support groups to increase exclusive breastfeeding, and steer mothers away from feeding infants alternatives such as tea, water, cows milk and formula. 

The centre’s midwife, Djeneba Samaké, told IRIN that at baptisms a mothers’ support group talks about breastfeeding. She said economics helps promote breastfeeding: mother’s milk is free. “But even the richest women here who consider powdered milk as a status symbol and sign of progress are now choosing to breastfeed exclusively.” (IRIN).

WHO: World’s women face unequal health care
Unequal health treatment provided to women rooted in gender discrimination is damaging societies across the world, the World Health Organization warns in a report. HIV/AIDS is the No. 1 cause of disease and death in women ages 15 to 44 years old, the report noted.

Government limits discussion of Ethiopia’s growing hunger problems
Drought and hunger are plaguing Ethiopian farmers and their families, threatening a countrywide famine. With elections scheduled for May, the government has instituted strict controls on the release of hunger-related information. Aid agencies that speak about famine can be expelled from the country and organizations are prevented from conducting independent assessments.

Kenya takes aim at cervical cancer
Ignorance and a lack of available preventative treatment leaves HIV-positive women particularly vulnerable to cervical cancer, the most prevalent cancer among Kenyan women. Kenyan authorities are planning an early detection screening and treatment program and a countrywide public-awareness campaign.

Breast cancer rising in the developing world
Breast cancer cases are on the rise across the developing world, where nearly two-thirds of women are not diagnosed before the cancer spreads through their bodies. Stigma, fear and poor diagnosis are contributing to the rise. International cancer specialists are meeting this week to prepare a two-pronged strategy to combat the rise by training midwives and negotiating cheaper prices for chemotherapy treatment.

Italy outraged over rights ruling on classroom crucifixes
There was uproar in Italy today over a ruling by the European court of human rights that the crucifixes that hang in most Italian classrooms are a violation of religious and educational freedoms.  The seven judges, whose decision could prompt a Europe-wide review of the use of religious symbols on public premises, said state schools had to “observe confessional neutrality”.

Ban encourages countries to lift HIV/AIDS travel bans
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is urging other countries to emulate a decision by U.S. President Barack Obama to lift travel restrictions on people with HIV/AIDS. The Obama administration said it soon would lift the ban on entry for HIV-positive foreigners, which has been in place since 1987.

Column: Obstetric fistulas easily reversed
U.S.-based doctor and Worldwide Fistula Fund founder Lewis Wall promotes a simple $300 surgery that easily reverses the effects of obstetric fistulas, returning women to health and to society. Women who develop fistulas during childbirth often are younger mothers. In many African societies, a fistula is a sentence of ostracism for the women who suffer them.

UN launches pneumonia prevention, treatment appeal
An investment of $39 billion to support efforts to prevent and treat pneumonia could save the lives of 5.3 million children in the developing world by 2015, the World Health Organization and United Nations Children’s Fund said. Pneumonia kills about 1.8 million children every year, but relatively few resources are directed toward countering the disease.

Chad pursues vaccination campaign amid confirmed polio cases
A three-day nationwide polio vaccination campaign began on 30 October throughout Chad, including in the east where according to the World Health Organization the rate of routine immunizations is among the weakest nationwide.

Earlier this year the National Center on Family Homelessness published the report, Homeless Children: America’s New Outcasts, the report highlighted America’s hidden shame and showed the devastating numbers of Americas growing problem. In the report, which surveyed 2005-2006, it was found that child homelessness has now capped that of anytime since the Great Depression.

Homeless children are more likely to be sick, go hungry, fall behind in school and twice as likely to have learning disabilities than children who are not homeless.  According to studies our biggest problem is our lack of preparation to address the increasing and serious nature of homelessness in the United States, leaving most states unable to adequately assist those in need and leaving homeless children even more in the dark.

As we continue down the path of the recession the case for child homelessness only looks to deepen, and the issue is one that still rings low on the political radar and wills.  Homelessness effects children in all states, including our own Capital, which only last month had a huge blow for the homeless population thanks to major budget cuts (some $20 million) that is only to result in the closing of more shelters.  Those shelters that will not face closure will be unable to continue serving the numbers they have been currently serving, and all and all it is once again those in need who will be hit the hardest, including the cities children.

According to the Community Partnership for the Prevention of Homelessness, who does estimated monthly counts, there were more than 6,000 homeless persons in DC during the month of August. The group says that the figures include approximately 703 families which includes some 1,400 children.   At current DC only has 164 city-funded beds set aside for families, leaving the waiting list numbers rising to inconceivable numbers.  And DC is not alone!

Do you live in DC?  Do you want to learn more about the problems in your city and what you can do?  Come hear from local community and government leaders as we discuss the impact of youth homelessness in the District and what you can do to support local efforts to address youth homelessness.
Join FAIR Fund and the DC Alliance of Youth Advocates, with Cosponsors Councilmember Tommy Wells and Councilmember Michael A. Brown for “inVISIBLE: Shining a light on DC’s homeless youth”.

Location:
The True Reformer Building
(1200 U Street, NW)

Date: Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Time: 10:00 a.m. to 1:00p.m.

Please rsvp to  ife at dc-aya.org

Its official we have entered the holiday season, the Halloween costumes are safely tucked away until next years hauntings and the streets are quickly beginning to come to life with glittering lights.  For most of us the lists are beginning as time of gift giving is quickly approaching.   But as you begin your holiday shopping and find yourself in a daze of lights and glitter, don’t forget to take a moment to remember the needs of so many that plague children across the world. While we can not single handily bring peace to the world, end poverty or save all the children from suffering, we can all reach out to at least one.

So as you compose your lists here are a few things you may want to add:
Free a child from slavery
Give a child an education
Provide water to a village of children
Provide a child with the gift of sight
Give a child a month of nutritious meals
Provide a sick child with a life saving operation
Vaccinate a child against diseases like Polio
Buy a family a goat
Adopt a family in need and see that the kids get gifts this year

Oxfam Unwrapped
FARM-Africa Presents
Save the Children “Wish List”
Present Aid
UNICEF Shop
Practical Presents
CAFOD World Gifts
ActionAid - Gifts in Action
Angel Wish
The Dream Factory
The Ronald McDonald House
Save the Children Wish List
Free the Slaves
Save the Children
Children in Need
UNICEF
Sight Savers
Give the Gift of Sight
Heifer International
World Vision
BBC Children in Need
Mercy Corps
Toys for Tots
Red Cross
My Two Font Teeth
Salvation Army International
Water Aid
Big Brothers and Sisters International
Give Kids the World
Make a Child Smile
Samaritans Purse - Operation Christmas Smile
World Vision

Just Give - 50 Ways to Help Children
Global Girlfriend “Gifts that Do More”

This list is only a small list of charities and organizations that will help you to directly help a child in need, but remember the child in need may be closer than you think. You do not have to have money to make a child’s wish come true, time is a wonderful gift. Remember the child down the street who lives with only an elderly grandparent, the children in need of foster care, the boy down the street who is desperately trying to learn a sport but his single mother doesn’t know how to teach him, the family who this year hasn’t enough to buy presents for their children, etc… The list of possibilities goes on and on, and so do the children in need.

Products which are often made by the hands of child slave labor include; cotton, tea, silk, coca, sugar, steal, carpets, diamonds, etc.  Products like cocoa/chocolate have been known to be produced with the efforts of child slaves, many who have been trafficked in Western Africa.  In the report, Combating Child Labor in Cocoa Growing, conducted by the ILO (International Labor Organization), they estimate 200,000 children work on cocoa farms in the Ivory Coast.

Some current campaigns against child labor are being done by the International Labor Rights Forum.  See the following links to learn more, and for updates and ways to take action on these campaigns:

• Chocolate: Child labor in West Africa’s cocoa farms
• Cotton : Forced child labor in Uzbekistan’s cotton fields
• Dole : Invest in worker rights, not exploitation!

Don’t forget its not too late to take a stand this Halloween, there is still time for Fair Trade Trick-or-Treating!  Please also see my previous posts on Child Labor and Fair Trade and Slave Free Links .

U.S. might accept spousal abuse asylum claims

Global health efforts failing on top child killers
Diarrhea and pneumonia remain the largest killers of young children across the world but fail to get as much attention and funding as HIV/AIDS, malaria and measles. Much more remains to be done to fight diseases such as HIV/AIDS, but health and development experts decry the lack of focus on diseases that can be cured quickly and inexpensively.

Health ministers meet in Ethiopia to discuss maternal injuries
A lack of resources and gender inequality contribute to fistula and other preventable maternal injuries in Ethiopia, according to the UN Population Fund. Health ministers assembled in Ethiopia to discuss midwives, prevention efforts and simple surgeries that could decrease incidence of fistula.

World’s falling fertility rates approach a break-even point
Global fertility levels soon will drop to a point where half the world’s population is producing only enough children to replace itself. The trend eventually could address issues associated with overpopulation and food security.

DRC refugees protest lack of food in Ugandan camp
Refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo barricaded roads into a camp in Uganda to protest the deaths of several children because of a lack of food aid. Authorities say supply chain disruptions and a lack of funds resulted in the distribution of half-rations, but they deny any claims of deaths

Security fears keep Mindanao refugees camps
Despite awful living conditions in Mindanao refugee camps, many internally displaced residents in Philippines are refusing to return home, citing security concerns. As many as 250,000 of the 750,000 people displaced by fighting between government forces and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front are choosing to remain in refugee camps despite malnutrition and poor water and sanitation.
WFP tests mobile delivery of food aid vouchers
The World Food Programme is testing a plan to deliver food aid vouchers to refugees via cell phone. The program, serving 130,000 Iraqi refugees in Syria, is designed to eliminate bottlenecks at distribution centers and allow users to select their own food at local markets. The program is designed to work in urban areas, where food is available in markets.

UN: Developing world needs better broadband access
A lack of broadband infrastructure leaves developing countries unable to take advantage of Internet technology to promote development, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development warns. Broadband access is a critical component for offshore industries such as call centers and can help people make more use of their cell telephones to access services.

Supreme Court to hear case on juvenile life sentences
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear a case that will decide whether a juvenile can be given a life sentence — a followup to a difficult, divided 2005 decision in which the Court determined that executing a juvenile constituted cruel and unusual punishment. The defense for the case 13-year-old boy convicted of rape and sentenced by a lower court to life rests on the argument that a life sentence is in essence a death penalty and that extreme juvenile punishments are practiced virtually nowhere else in the industrial world.

Report: Ivory Coast violates UN diamonds, weapons embargo
A report by the UN Security Council reveals government and former rebel forces in Ivory Coast are violating the UN-mandated weapons embargo. The report suggested Burkina Faso investigate arms smuggling, which might be linked to the cocoa trade. Ivory Coast, the world’s largest producer of cocoa, also has exported diamonds in violation of the UN embargo.

Tanzania struggles to reach HIV/AIDS treatment goal
Tanzanian government officials say they have an adequate supply of anti-retroviral drug. Yet the country might fail to achieve its goal of universal access to treatment for all HIV-positive Tanzanians by 2010 because patients must contend with transportation and supplementary food costs as well as fear of stigma associated with the disease. An estimated 190,000 HIV-positive Tanzanians are not using the treatment.

Philippines struggle to cope with aftermath of typhoons
Homelessness and disease are preying upon tens of thousands of survivors of recent typhoons in the Philippines, raising fears of widespread disease outbreaks. Relocation efforts have been slow as government efforts fail to address survivors’ fears of being uprooted from their communities and being left with no way to survive economically.

According to the American Obesity Association, obesity among children and teens is beginning to reach epidemic levels, as some 30% of children and teens are overweight and 15% are obese.   The frightening facts about child obesity is that it most often is not something that children ‘grow out of’, as those children who are overweight, with at least one overweight parent, are 80% more likely to be overweight as adults according to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

Childhood obesity affects children on a multitude of levels, both emotionally and physically.  Children who are obese are often plagued low self-esteem and a poor self-image, they are also at a greater risk for asthma, Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, sleep apnea, and bone and cartilage damage.  However while these risks are of grave concern in the overall welfare of the child, are they the result of abuse or neglect?   The thought of childhood obesity as a form of neglect and abuse has my mind boggled in many ways, one where is the line to be drawn?

Many children do go through chubby phases, many parents keep houses full of nothing but healthy foods but the kids sneak it anyway.  I have an overweight brother and he has been that way since he was a kid. In actuality he was underweight for the first few years and I remember when he was 9 months old we took the outfit off a stuff bear (boots included) to dress him up for Halloween. I helped raise him and I can guarantee that while we were not the organic family, we were average and he was monitored, but he grew chubby nonetheless. Now he is overweight and as a teen when it got more serious we tried to curb him but he would sneak the snacks in anyway, and often more if we got on him.  So did we abuse him? I read the stories and I see we could have easily been accused of abuse, but I know we didn’t abuse him and the fight to keep him slim wasn’t as clear cut, as in many cases.  See he has some learning and physical disabilities and some of the cases I have read about other children have also had disabilities, or parents with limited income, no health insurance…where do we start and stop calling it abuse?

Yet the parents’ share of responsibility in weight gain isn’t always easy to judge. “It’s unfair to blame solely the parents, when there’s a myriad of other factors influencing a child’s weight,” says Dr. Dana Rofey of the University of Pittsburgh, whose weight-management clinic is regularly called on during custody battles in which one divorced parent blames the other for making a child obese. She says contributing factors include not just genetic predisposition and socioeconomic status but also environmental factors, like whether children have access to parks and playgrounds. Rofey also sees children of all ages sneaking extra food behind their parents’ backs.

In South Carolina one mother found herself on charges of criminal neglect as her 14 year-old son hit a shocking 555 pounds (USA Today).  The case of obesity and abuse is not only an American issue, but taking global strides as seen in the case of a six year old boy who was removed from his parents care in the United Kingdom .  However one family in the UK had made headlines multiple times, most shockingly when they had their newborn taken only 28 hours after birth, three of their seven children had already been removed prior due to obesity abuse and neglect charges (Daily Mail).  The family from Scotland has come to media attention once again and the issue of obesity as abuse and neglect had reached headlines as Time has recently run a piece, Should Parents of Obese Kids Lose Custody?.

Several other cases in recent years — in California, New Mexico, Texas and New York, as well as Canada — have garnered attention because a child’s obesity resulted in loss of custody. “It’s happening more than the public is aware of, but because these cases are usually kept quiet [as a result of child-privacy laws], we have no record,” says Dr. Matt Capehorn, who sits on the board of the U.K.’s National Obesity Forum.

The hype over obesity has me once again thinking back to my childhood and the fact that children just seemed more social and active…and while there was always some chubby or overweight kids, everyone seemed more active and healthy. One seemed to have less toys and more friends waiting impatiently outside to play games conjured up by their little imaginations. There were days spent in endless search for frogs, digging up worms, catching lightning bugs, riding my bikes all day long until forced inside by restless parents trying to serve a hot meal.  In a day and age where obesity in children is of grave concern, lets put the toys away a bit more and encourage our children to get outside and play, join a sports team, ride their bike, and just have some good clean old fashioned fun.

Obviously this is not a simple solution as we as a society are increasing in size and if parents do not eat healthy and live healthy lifestyles, nor if they do not have access to resources in which to do so the fight is more difficult.  My last thought is that one starting point is to go back to recess and PE, as it seems to have fallen out of most of our schools!

The true key to preventing childhood obesity is a balanced and healthy diet and exercise, and it seems that the latter is what is most often missed the most. Children today spend less time exercising, simply playing outside, than any other generation. Time outside has been quickly replaced by TV’s, gaming systems, and computers, all of which leave children sitting idle and at more risk for obesity.   It all brings me back to a piece I did last year, Are children playing enough?, I think the answer is in the statistics!