Stolen Childhood

If cocaine is for rich man’s addiction, paco is the poor man’s narcotic drug. Made from the chemicals discarded after the production of cocaine, paco smoking has assumed epidemic proportions in Argentine slums and in other parts of South America. Sulphuric acid, kerosene, rat poison and crushed glass are some of the ingredients of paco. To make matters worse, the children living in the Argentine slums are fast becoming addicted to the drug that doctors claim could cause brain damage within six months. According to conservative estimates, there are 85,000 paco addicts in Argentina. The United Nation says that paco addiction has tripled over the past two years.

Child marriages are still a tradition in Ethiopia. Young brides, even below 10 years of age, are married off to adolescent boys and thus the cycle of ignorance, poverty, health hazards continue. Even in the modern globalised world there are remote corners where people are uneducated and are not equipped with even a little education and knowledge to break a tradition which brings miseries to scores of little girls in their land.

Ninety percent of Ethiopian population lives in far flung remote areas where Ethiopian Orthodox Church has a great influence over the community. Though the church approves 18 years as age of marriage, the local priests conduct these marriages as tradition dictates. The age old logic being that of marrying girls while they are virgins and do not have any risk of being raped. So, instead of schools, brides and grooms enter churches to take vows that they are not even aware of. Early marriages lead to early motherhood. In remote Amhara region of Ethiopia, girls as young as 10 or 12 become pregnant. There are no medical facilities to help these children. They suffer from all kinds of post pregnancy complications. Most children born to these young girls are stillborn. Many girls don’t even survive their first pregnancy. Some who do survive lack post-pregnancy care and they don’t get proper nutrition either. Thus ill-health gets carried on to next generation. The children of these young mothers in turn suffer from poor growth and mal-nutrition. Thus tales of ignorance and suffering continue.

The government is trying to stamp out child marriages and has increased penalty for those arranging such marriages. UK-based charity, Safe Hands for Young Mothers, has been working with UN Population Fund to create awareness. But it is difficult to fight a tradition that gets blessings from local church. The tradition becomes a religious belief. Only proper education, which includes sex and health education, can help fight such battles.

It is a modern reality. With much advances in modern communication, there is total lack of communication in regions such as Ethiopia. Their stark naked reality will continue to stare at us through heart rending tales and photo essays. Till they are taken along, humanity will never be able to take total pride in its achievements.

Source: timesonline

If you thought that slave trade was only a nineteenth century tyranny by the white masters of Africa then you are mistaken because slave trade continues even these days, but the perpetrators of the crime have changed. The 21st century slave trade focuses mainly on children from impoverished and illiterate African families and the traders are their African brethren who sell these children to African families in U.K.

Parents in Nigeria are cajoled to sell their children to families in U.K, convincing better lives for the children in the country. Poverty and illiteracy make parents in African countries such as Nigeria to sell children for ₤2,000 to ₤5,000 each. Many pregnant teenage girls even sell their babies before they are born for less than ₤1,000. International traffickers often earn as much as ₤6,000 every week trafficking children from Africa to Europe. Once these children are brought to Britain, fraudulent means are used to obtain illicit housing and other welfare benefits. They are sold to African homes or to criminal gangs where they are made to work for up to 18 hours a day and are subjected to physical and sexual abuses. Once these children grow older and are no longer entitled to any benefit, they are thrown out on to the streets with no papers to prove their identity.

A member of the Stolen Generations says that Australian Aboriginal children have been used as experimental specimens for testing the effects of new medicines. The tests proved to be life threatening for the meek Aborigines who feel shameful even speaking about it. If this incident were true, it is not the victimized Aborigines who should be shameful about the entire incident, but all those so-called ‘highly educated people’ who are using them for experimental purposes. It is understood that they are conducting these experiments on a sample population to benefit a larger population with the invented medications. But is it right to sacrifice innocent lives for the benefit of others? Nowadays, with the advancement in simulation technology, it is possible to predict the outcomes of a particular drug without actually trying the drugs out on any life form.

Once considered to be the most politically secure society, the aftermath of a blamable election in Kenya has done more harm than just a fight between two ethnic groups; it has ignited the long hidden ethnic tensions, resulting in violence that has made hundreds of children homeless, orphan or separated from their parents. Children who otherwise stood a full chance to a bright and equal childhood compared to any child in the world, making their own country a prison with least hope for peace. The number of bright young eyes in Nairobi, that quiver at the sound of workers coming hoping for some news of their parents or loved ones. Red Cross estimates over 500 children separated from their parents in the chaos, and the figure could be much higher in a nation wide count. With thought of normalcy far as peace talks are concerned, show no respite, the only good news is that more than 300 children have already been successfully reunited with their parents, thanks to tremendous efforts put in by the social workers.

The country of Vietnam is perhaps best known for its wars which left its people shattered and economy terribly weak. One of the under developed nations in Southern Asia, Vietnam is still struggling to rebuilt itself even after 33 years since its war with the US ended. The future of a country is its children and this rings true even for the country of Vietnam where the only hope left is from the children. However, the pathetic conditions that the children here live in moved a retired person from the United States who decided to do something for them.

Bored with the monotony of life and blessed with a philanthropic soul with the wish of doing his bit for the society, Ben Wilson decided to start an organization called the Children of Vietnam (COV). When the organization was started ten years ago, Ben Wilson, then 65 had never thought of the big response it will fetch and the kind of difference it will make to millions in Vietnam.

The country has very poor health care, residential and educational facilities and is too poor to afford any thing better. The economy of the country is so weak that it can hardly provide its citizens with aids required for survival. Even those seeking medical help often die as they cannot afford the prescribed medicines. The COV has made it their mission to not let any child die for the lack of medical help and fund medical operations of anyone who seeks their help. The organization has funded many orphanages and kindergartens in the country which also house children with deformities, thus educating and feeding them for their future lives. The money required for these funds are raised in the US by Ben Wilson, who couldn’t have a busier retired life.

Haitian underage girls are now paying for taking help from the UN. They have been sexually exploited by Sri Lankan UN peace-keepers for less than $1. Haitian feminists have now woken up to the problem and are demanding inquires by the UN. Olga Benoit of Haitian Women’s Solidarity recalls another case involving two Pakistani soldiers about two years ago. These men in uniform had raped a mentally challenged woman whom they were supposed to protect.

Poor girls in this horribly impoverished nation are just cattle for both Haitian men and their foreign protectors. Excessively patriarchal Haiti chooses to look the other way when girls are exploited. After all, a dollar is better than no money at all.

Underlying this human tragedy is not only the perversion of some depraved men but also the machinations of richer nations who would rather wink than help out. The US and UK who regularly publicize their good intentions for all the poorer nations of this wretched earth, never mention Haiti.

Food is becoming more expensive not only in our local market but the impact is seen all over the world. Severely affected are the Jamaicans. The researchers and the education officials claim that the current condition of Jamaican children is something that really needs to be taken care of. Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) Director General Dr Wesley Hughes recently brought the matter to the world’s notice while speaking at one of the functions for Children.

Child trafficking, one of the modern evils includes recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring of children for the purpose of exploiting them. Child trafficking almost always is synonymous with child sexual exploitation. Child trafficking is also synonymous with developing and under-developed countries in Latin America, Asia and Africa. What is astonishing is the recent report that British-born children have been victims of trafficking and sexual exploitation. In the heartland of Europe, where people assume the safety of children, traffickers and pimps have been using young children for the purposes of prostitution, drug trafficking and crimes as well.

A recent government report talks about an ‘emerging issue’ of British children being trafficked within the U.K. Children in Britain, as many as 18,000 may have been victims of child sexploitation. Shockingly, most venues for these exploitations take place in ‘very, very, ordinary’ places such as lower middle class and middle class neighborhoods and most neighbors don’t suspect anything to be wrong either. Out of the 800 or more premises that were raided, about 600 of them were residential, 157 were massage parlors, saunas, nail bars and the like which are more likely to turn out to be brothels.

Smoking cannabis was common among the Flower Power generation. In fact smoking cannabis were once associated with youthful indulgence, rebellious behavior and artistic excellence. Cannabis was considered harmless. However, smoking cannabis in the current time has been linked to poverty, parental deprivation and school dropout and above all rise in criminal activities among teenagers and youths. In a national survey in UK, two-thirds of Youth Offending Teams claimed that they have seen cannabis use soaring among youth offenders. In some areas of England, nine out of ten young offenders are cannabis users.