The children in Kenya are suffering. They are being abused by both the government and the militia of the Sabaot Land Defense Force. And these children are totally innocent. It is their bad luck that they have been caught up in the war between the militia and the army. The militia of Sabaot is fighting for a good cause. Poor farmers who had been tilling the land in the area for a long time were denied the land after the government came up with a land scheme. The land they lost was grabbed by the rich and powerful big farmers.

Though the cause of the Sabaot militia might be just, their means are barbaric. Kenyan children are bearing the brunt of the militia fury. They are being forcibly conscripted at gunpoint, with threats of otherwise killing their near and dear ones.

The attitude of the government is hardly better. The army went into the Sabaot region and promptly rounded up children there, merely on suspicion of them being involved with the rebels. The army does not bother to understand that even kids who are with the militia are there under duress. The kids have received inhuman treatment at the hands of the army.

All this points at the failure of the Kenyan leadership. A strong government in Nairobi would not have allowed the army to go berserk in Sabaot. The issue of the country’s leadership itself is highly unstable today, after the Kikuyu-Lou conflict during the presidential polls. If there is chaos at the centre, one can hardly expect rule of law in the provinces.

Whatever be the political situation in Kenya, innocent children are paying the price for the anarchy.

Source: MSNBC

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International Criminal Court (ICC) will once again fail to deliver justice to gross Child rights and Human rights violation cases in Congo. Armed wing of UPC (Union of Congolese Patriots) in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) allegedly kidnapped and forced children(even ten year olds) to take up arms and fight in ethnic conflicts. They were forced to fight and sometimes even kill their enemies. Those who tried to escape were killed. Due to legal loopholes such lack of document evidence placed by prosecution, the court is instead set to conduct a hearing on possible release of Thomas Lubanga, the militia head and the man behind forcing children to take up arms and fight a battle they hardly understand.

According to Human Rights Watch (HRW) Thomas Lubanga’s UPC was involved in widespread killings, loot, rape, slaughter and torture during ethnic conflicts between UPC’s Hema and their rival Lendu tribe at Ituri province in DRC. This killing is a part of larger ethic conflict which has killed more than 5 million people in last decade in the Congo basin. Even soldiers of Uganda and Rwanda got involved in the conflict. HRW’s documented reports say that these child soldiers were forced to carry out atrocities on a large scale.

Though there is a ceasefire in place yet there are 30,000 child soldiers in DRC. They are still involved in smaller continuing conflicts breaching the ceasefire. Officially denied childhood status (they were claimed to be growth stunted adults),these war children have a very grim future. Their innocent minds scarred permanently by violence.

Save the Children foundation and Human Rights Watch met couple of escaped child soldiers and gave shelter to the kids. A legal case is being put together along with documented evidence to put an end to this brutal assault on children and their childhood in DRC but if Thomas Lubanga does get bailed out due legal loopholes once International Criminal Court will dash all hopes of justice for these child soldiers and all other abused children involved in conflicts all over the world.

Source: Independent

The worst victims of this year’s Ethiopian famine are undoubtedly the country’s children. An estimated 126,000 Ethiopian children urgently need food and medical care according to the U.N. children’s agency. Chronic malnutrition is adversely affecting the physical and mental development of these children who, due to weak immune systems, have become vulnerable to a host of diseases.

Ethiopia’s food insecurity is largely structural caused by nature and the people of the country as well. The annual growth in agriculture at 2.4 percent is behind its burgeoning population growth at 2.8 percent. While there is shortfall in agricultural growth, rising population is aggravating Ethiopia’s food crisis. There has been lack of investment in the food deficit areas while the surplus producing areas have been badly hit by volatile food prices hindering further investment in the regions. With little integration between surplus and deficit areas, poor marketing and transport, urban Ethiopians benefit at the cost of the poor Ethiopians largely living in the rural areas and depending on agriculture for their livelihood.

via: msnbc

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

Liangshan happens to be a remote mountainous village in the southwestern part of China. Recently, it has come to light that children from here and the neighboring villages like Erwu are fast disappearing from their homes and schools. They have been traced to factory sites mainly in the southern Guangdong Province (in the vicinity of Hong Kong), Shandong, Shanxi and other coastal areas. The children are given fake identity cards and are made to work in toy, clothes and electronic products manufacturing factories.

School teachers and parents are gravely concerned about the falling number of students in schools. Labor employers, government investigators and local guardians suspect some con men in luring these children or kidnapping them to faraway places under the pretext of employment. They blame immense poverty, drug abuse, local unemployment, inflation, and stringent labor laws for the increased usage of child labor. The misery of not being able to get even a single meal per day has compelled these children to get lured to the greener pastures shown by the child labor brokers. On the other hand, rising inflation and stringent labor laws have made it difficult for the exporters to hire seasonal workers due to which child employment looked a cheap remedy to their problem.

The minimum employable age in China is 16 years. The Chinese government says that it has started taking action and that it has not found any strong evidence of violation of the child labor laws. The officials say that raiding 3000 factories around Dongguan has revealed only 6 to 10 child employees.

On one hand the global community is commenting on the progressive economy of China and talking about the increasing eating potential of its citizens. On the other hand, the penury and poverty of the Yi ethnic group of Liangshan leading to illegal child employment shows a contradictory picture. It will do China good to settle it’s internal crisis first rather than putting efforts in strengthening hostilities with its neighbors.

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via: iht

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.

Nigeria has emerged as a flourishing market for child trafficking. In January this year, the Nigerian police rescued 105 children who were found packed on a lorry and were being trafficked to serve as beggars or servants. Globally, child trafficking is one of the fastest growing organized crime. According to the UNICEF, every year 1.2 million children become victims of child trafficking, of whom 32 percent are Africans. According to a national survey conducted by the International Labour organization in 2003, it is estimated that six million Nigerian children are at a risk of trafficking for domestic and forced labour, prostitution and pornography every year. With majority of the population in the country living on less than $1 per day, human trafficking is becoming wide spread in Nigeria.

Source:Telegraph
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To control paco addiction, the Argentine government had imposed strict import control policies to prevent ingredients that are needed to manufacture paco to cross borders to Argentina. However, drug traffickers have outwitted the Argentine government by moving their laboratories to Argentina. A dose of paco costs between one and two pesos. The kick is short but addiction to the drug is much longer. In the constant need to escape withdrawal symptom, a paco addict needs 50, 60 or even 70 doses of paco every day. In fact, it is seen that the requirement of large number of doses per day make paco addicts spend more money on the cheap drug than a cocaine consumer in an affluent circle would spend. Young addicts, in order to get money for the drug, often turn to drug peddling or even stealing from their own families and neighborhood.

via:Times Online

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.

Jamaican government runs a meal schemes for school going children. The children are given one meal per day, however, in recent times a lot of hurdles have been seen in continuing with the scheme.

This is attributed to the increase in the price of the food all over the world. The schools are shelling out more for meals and may not be able to absorb these costs for a long time. Thus, Yvonne Mathison, principal of the Constitution Hill Primary and Junior High School in St Andrew, suggested that the quota from the government regarding the school meal scheme needs to be increased.

Although as per the government resources, the allocation for this year is already done and any changes in that might not be possible now.

This may not be very encouraging as Jamaica is a country where 4.6 per cent of children are undernourished, 3.6 per cent of them under five years old. Having a decent school meal is one place where they can fight malnutrition to a small extent.

Via: Jamaica Gleaner

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It is pathetic to acknowledge that not only human beings but also animals are being ruthlessly used for experimental purposes. In this case it might be a leprosy serum, but even for testing some products like cosmetics, animals are being targeted. In some countries, stringent human and animal rights laws have been formulated to protect against experimental abuse. These laws are to be incorporated into the legal framework of even the remotest civilizations of the world. It is the responsibility of each and every citizen to raise his/her voice against any violation of these laws. Nobody has the right to play with the life of another.

via: ABC News

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.

The organization has various designated teams that visit the under privileged areas and inspect the living and sanitation conditions there, funding the repairs wherever required. The COV has rebuilt many mud houses into fully cemented ones providing better standard of living to the Vietnamese. Those below the poverty line are also provided with food allowances so that at least basic survival is ensured. The importance of this charitable work can be seen in the eyes of those at the receiving end, which well up with tears with the kind of help they get from the people of the same country which once destroyed all its resources. Funds are raised for the COV through www.childrenscultureconnection.org, a non-profit organization that raises money for 12 children’s charities which includes the Children of Vietnam (COV).

Via: Cannonfalls

Image credit: Picasa

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.

Cannabis houses have spread to nearly every part of UK. Out of 43 police forces in England and Wales, 41 have found large-scale cannabis cultivation. Five Scottish police forces have found cannabis cultivations in their jurisdictions. Prime Minister Gordon Brown had ordered the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs last July to review the harmful effects of cannabis, particularly the strong skunk variety. The skunk cannabis has been associated with violent behavior and criminal activity. A large number of cannabis users are being hospitalized and fewer traders of the product have been prosecuted. The new cannabis variety is not as harmless as the variety available few decades ago.

Despite of campaigns by the anti-drug lobbies, the police chiefs and opposition MPs, it has emerged that the Prime Ministers advisors would tell him not to reclassify the drug and keep it in the Class C category instead of moving it to the more serious Class B category from which it was downgraded in 2004. The verdict of the committee is based on a single piece of evidence, an unpublished study by a Keele University academic who has found no link between rising use of cannabis and rise in schizophrenia.

However, the anti-drugs campaigners have urged Gordon Brown to overrule the verdict of his drug experts and reclassify cannabis as a more dangerous drug. Declassifying cannabis was intended to allow police officers to concentrate on tackling on harder drugs. Anti-drug groups say that there are strong evidences to support that use of cannabis leads to crippling mental diseases.

Via: Daily Mail
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None heeds my pet peeve. Even though I have the likes of Jonathan Swift endorsing me. I have maintained that there are too many kids on this earth. Look wherever you will, there are just too many children swamping the place. They just will not leave us in peace. We have tried every imaginable torture on them but yet they won’t finish themselves off. We routinely abuse them, rape and sodomise them, make them work in sweatshops for hours, betray and beat them. Yet they refuse to die. Like Swift, I am a firm believer in cooking and eating them all up. That will sort out the hunger-issues faced by the poor and at least bring some calm to the world. Are we not tired of the incessant noise that kids make? IAfrica.com reports a clichéd issue is the blandest manner possible. Children in Mogadishu in Somalia are having a hard time — they are living off the streets, are being beating mercilessly; in short: they are being exploited. Well, there are two aspects to the issue. The street-kids in Mogadishu are not having it any worse than the street-kids in say, Cambodia or even in India. This, notwithstanding Somalia’s being in civil war for sometime. Human nature is the same everywhere and at all times. Children are the most vulnerable in our society. Thus it is natural that they be exploited; they cannot protest. The other crucial point we have to bear in mind when we read any report of child-abuse: since adults by their own admissions know everything better than children, why should anyone complain about kids being tortured? The adults involved in the torture always know better and if they choose to be cruel, should anyone cry foul at all?

This brings us to the question why on earth would then news agencies cry hoarse over kids falling foul of adults? The answer is simple: we want to assuage our guilt for having allowed these appalling conditions to persist. While we sit at our laptops, reading with moist eyes the unspeakable horrors of the Somalian children; we continue to use child labor at our homes, to buy sweatshop products, to abuse in the shadows some poor kid who trust us. Thus all these reports about children in Mogadishu starving or being raped are just soporifics and escape routes for our glutted imaginations. News and tragedies of the powerless innocent are just fodder for our consumption and satiety. Sadly, nothing will change the lot of children anymore anywhere. They are just there for us to exploit.

Source: IAfrica

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.

With more than a million people who have no where to go in their own country, seeking refuge in camps the children are the worst effected. Some are too young to even let the details out, for others the shock of separation has had its toll. Stories of children witnessing their own family members, neighbours getting killed in front of them, their schools, neighbourhoods being destroyed, queuing up for food and looking haplessly for their parents, all of this will have a lasting effect. They have disturbed sleep and can’t remember details. In the six weeks that Kenya has been at war, it has taken their childhood away, and it will have a lasting effect. It could result in a possible humanitarian disaster.

A data on the Unicef website has left me word less. If reading about the children in Kenya didn’t catch much of your attention, then this surely will shake your soul.
In nearly 50 countries, witnessing conflicts, more than 2 million children have died as a direct result of armed conflict over the last decade. More than three times that number, at least 6 million children, have been permanently disabled or seriously injured. More than 1 million have been orphaned or separated from their families. Between 8,000 and 10,000 children are killed or maimed by landmines every year. An estimated 300,000 child soldiers - boys and girls under the age of 18 - are involved in more than 30 conflicts worldwide. Child soldiers are used as combatants, messengers, porters, cooks and to provide sexual services. Some are forcibly recruited or abducted, others are driven to join by poverty, abuse and discrimination, or to seek revenge for violence enacted against themselves and their families.

Garca Machel who worked on the UN study on children in war believes that a child is particularly susceptible to the rampages of war, she explains

The physical, sexual and emotional violence to which they [children] are exposed shatters their world. War undermines the very foundations of children’s lives, destroying their homes, splintering their communities and breaking down their trust in adults.

Quite much like Pablo Neruda, who has starkly said in his poem, I Explain A Few Things,

in the streets the blood of the children / ran simply, like the blood of children.

After all, even winning a war is as disastrous as losing one.

Via: MSNBC

As the number of reported cases of children soldiers in countries wrought by armed conflict increases, the U.N. Council recently warned of setting stricter measures against military organizations that encourage such activities. But the announcement was quite strange since the U.N. has no firm pledge on what possible sanctions may be imposed to the violators.

Secretary General Ban Ki-moon should somehow lay down the cards on how to protect children getting recruited in nations experiencing armed conflict or the practice will continue killing ill-prepared young children and wasting their lives in the war. In a recent report, Ban cited 58 groups in 13 countries participating in armed conflict. Most of them are in Asia and Africa, whose soldiers are children and are allowed to join in live encounter. Such government armies included Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Myanmar, Somalia and Sudan, including rebel groups.

Ban said as things get worse, more children are being abused in warfare and the Security Council must have an iron fist in stopping such activities that victimize the innocent minds of the adolescents.

He added the armies and other military groups deploying children fighters should be penalized by banning ammunitions and other military assistance. Other financial assistance may also be restricted if they will not stop using children as their warriors.

The Council already expressed the desire to review the former provisions regarding children being involved in armed conflict and what measures can be done.

In the latest records of Unicef, there were some 250,000 children soldiers worldwide. But critics were saying this number may not be the total population since many were left unrecorded.

As debates progress on the issue of children soldiers in the Council, many provisions have yet to be discussed as to how the implementation of the sanctions will be and if all nations affected by armed conflict are willing to cooperate.

This is indeed an issue of importance that should be given immediate plan of action.

Source: Reuters

Based on the polls, only a fraction of about 2.5 percent of 100,000 abused children cases in Israel was reported to the police. Such percentage was too small to consider the issue as a national concern if we would only rely on statistics. Some may even think of them as isolated cases.

Such findings were presented at the National Council for the Child conference in Be’er Sheva, where around 500 parents joined the polls. In addition, the poll showed that only 5 percent of the parents alerted the authorities that their kids were sexually harassed. A quarter of the parents had never told their children to avoid entertaining strangers.

Yuli Tamir, Education Minister, presented the data from the Central Bureau Statistics. He said for the last three years, there has been a decreasing dropout of 25 percent in high school. Last year, there were about 22,000 or 4 percent of the population of Israeli children who stopped studying. But Tamir said the Education Ministry is currently adopting a program to augment the declining dropout rates.

In relation to this, Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch, urged the participants to help alleviate the conditions of the children residing in Sderot and other communities bordering Gaza. Reports claimed that many of the children in the Gaza Strip are suffering from poor amenities like reduced electricity supply and other basic assistance.

Beinisch addressed the growing juvenile delinquency in the area and the possible results of this occurrence. He said adequate resources must be supplied for the Israeli’s survival in the Strip.

The chief justice added the poor state of the people in Gaza, particularly the children, resulted in a society that is ill-protected from sufferings and harm. Children can never be provided with sufficient resources if there are severe shortages of the basic needs. Few parole officers, who would safeguard them, and less treatments necessary for juvenile delinquents are the main problems.

He emphasized that as things continue to get worse, such cases of abuse can only be remedied when resources are provided to protect the children.

Source: Haaretz.com