Child Poverty in Albania

Albania, a small country located in the Balkan, has a harsh and troubling history. From a constructing of half-a-million bunkers due to fear of a foreign invasion to multiple economic crises, corruption and civil unrest, Albania has seen it all. Such disruptions have taken a toll on the Albanian people, especially its children. As the situation in Albania gradually improves, targeting child poverty has become a significant focus of the international community. In the text below, 10 facts about the child poverty in Albania are presented.

10 Facts About Child Poverty in Albania

1. Albania has a total population of 2.8 million. Out of this number, the number of Albanians under the age of 19 is around 1 million, which represents more than a third of the population. This places Albania’s populace in the second place of youngest countries in all of Europe, that creates an ever-increasing urgency to end child poverty and break the cycle of poverty in the country.
2. The United Nations International Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF) outlines the most significant threats to the Albanian children as growing economic disparities, social exclusion and discrimination violence and exploitation, domestic violence, lack of access to health and education services and, finally, malnutrition.
3. In 2012, approximately 17.4 percent of Albanian children lived in absolute poverty while 1.8 percent lived with families who had no income. Furthermore, there is a measurable gap between poverty levels in rural and urban areas. However, this gap has narrowed to a difference of only 1.7 percent of those living in poverty in rural and urban areas.
4. The Albanian government launched the Economic Aid (E.A.) programme in hopes of transferring cash and assistance to the country’s poorest. But by 2008, coverage had fallen to less than 7 percent due to stricter eligibility criteria and results showed only 0.4 percent of people lifted out of poverty.
5. UNICEF attributes one-third of child deaths to malnutrition in Albania and has seen rates directly affected by wealth, geographic location, different residence (urban or rural) and education level of the mother. Child poverty and malnutrition in Albania are especially more prominent in resource-poor rural households and urban neighborhoods with high unemployment rates. According to a 2010 survey, up to 43 percent of these households had difficulties in providing food for their families on a yearly basis.
6. Besides malnutrition, access to health services and other factors greatly hinder young Albanians from living healthy lives. For instance, the mortality rate of children under 5 in Albania is 17 per 1,000 children. In urban areas, the rate drops to 13 children, but more than doubles to 28 in rural parts of the country. On top of these statistics, primary health care and basic health services are severely underfunded and 90 percent of Albanian families cannot pay for their health care.
7. The Romani (or Gypsy) children living in Albania are particularly at risk of poverty due to the discrimination they experience and the lack of institutions that support their cultural and linguistic background. In 2011, UNICEF conducted research on the Romani population and found that 40 percent are illiterate, only 25 percent of Romani children attend pre-school or early education institutions and 75 percent are considered very poor.
8. While drop-out rates are only about 0.37 percent and the percent of children who never attended school is at 1.05 percent, the quality of education is still a challenge for the Albanian government. The vast majority of funding is given to teacher salaries and infrastructure (important parts of the successful educational system), but too little is given to development, services and quality of providing education.
9. Due to the social and cultural attitudes of Albania, physical and phycological violence against children are often tolerated or even encouraged. A UNICEF study in 2006 revealed that most adults think physical or phycological violence has positive effects on children. Moreover, 50 percent of children have absorbed these ideas and believe that violence is needed at home and in school. In addition, children are exploited into forced labor since there basic social services and safety nets are lacking.
10. Despite child poverty in Albania, UNICEF and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) have done tremendous work through humanitarian aid and action. For example, UNICEF has largely focused on lobbying and working with the Albanian government and international community in providing long-term protections for the children in the country. As of 2016, UNICEF and the Albanian government have launched ambitious reforms in the social, economic, health and educational sectors in order to curtail childhood poverty. Furthermore, USAID has contributed nearly $500 million in foreign aid to Albania since 1992 with the goal of strengthening democracy, curtailing corruption, promoting civil society and gender equality and creating a more equitable economy.

Perhaps the biggest organization influencing poverty in Albania is the European Union (EU). While Albania is a candidate for the EU, the organization is requiring that the country progresses on political and economic reforms, improves governance and the rule of law and observes human rights standards.

Albania has shown that it values a future of being an E.U. member, which would be a significant step to building a stronger relationship between the United States and Albania. But in the first place, foreign aid will is needed to create a system capable of protecting every child and ending child poverty in Albania.

– Tanner Helem
Photo: Flickr

Top 10 Facts about Child Soldiers in Syria

During the Syrian conflict, children, even younger than 10, have been recruited into armed groups. These children are inadequately protected by the government and many are recruited into government and terrorist organizations. The majority of them are untrained but are placed in combat situations. Years of violence and despair have plagued the lives of these children. In the text below, the top 10 facts about child soldiers in Syria are presented.

 Top 10 Facts about Child Soldiers in Syria

1. In a survey conducted by Save the Children, 59 percent of adults interviewed in Syria claimed to know children or young adults in Syria that had been recruited into armed groups. As of 2017, 910 children have been killed and 361 have been maimed during the Syrian conflict. Child soldiers in Syria have been used as human shields, suicide bombers, front-line soldiers and as guards at checkpoints.
2. Between 2015 and 2016, the number of armed children in the Syrian civil war verified by the U.N. was 851, more than double from the year before. The incentives used to encourage children into the army are salaries, ideologies and family or community influence. Even girls join these armed groups and seek to escape either abuse or arranged marriages.
3. Child soldiers are encouraged to join armed groups due to poverty or being consistently targeted by specific groups. Some child soldiers in Syria have been reported to receive salaries of up to $400 a month. The families targeted by recruiters are typically poor and recruiters have been known to promise to pay and clothe children for their enlistment.
4. In Syria, ISIS had kidnapped 463 children in 2015. ISIS usually targets ethnic minority groups and women and children in their abductions. In 2015, it was believed that this organization has 3,500 slaves that were made up mostly of women and children.
5. The U.N. verified 29 child soldiers in Syria associated with government forces. Although the government is not supposed to conscript child soldiers, they do sit anyway. The children in Syria have little protection from the government against armed groups recruitment.
6. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have recently issued an order that no one under the age of 18 is allowed to be enlisted into the army. This order requires commanders to verify the ages of soldiers and then take those under the age limit to authorities to end their enlistment. It also calls for punishments for commanders who refuse to comply with this order.
7. Around 60 percent of the United Nation’s verified cases of child soldiers in Syria were associated with the Free Syrian Army. The Free Syrian Army is a rebel group formed by army deserters in Turkey. Several other armed groups across Syria have adopted their banner. A child interviewed by the Human Rights Watch stated that he joined the Free Syrian Army after he was previously tortured by the government forces.
8. Children are actively being detained in Syria due to their perceived alliance with a specific group or organization. The U.N. verified that government forces had arrested 12 boys in 2016. Anti-government forces imprison children that are believed to support the government.
9. There are 292,000 children trapped in besieged areas. The affected areas include Damascus, Idlib, Deir Az Zor and Homs. These areas have been besieged by both rebel and pro-government forces.
10. Recently, the United Nations appealed to the U.S. for $8 billion of aid for Syria. The first part of the proposal aims to help refugees and the second part aims to provide humanitarian aid and protection for the 13.5 million people inside Syria.

These top 10 facts about child soldiers in Syria demonstrate the desperate crisis children in this country face every day. These are children who desperately need support in a fractured world, especially child soldiers that are affected most by the violence.

Investing in the future of this region and its children could have a large impact. Rehabilitation programs for child soldiers could help them reintegrate into society and into a normal life. These children could be placed into care centers or mandatory rehab programs to deal with the psychological and physical damage they have suffered.

Programs like these have worked in other conflicts and war situations and could help Syrian child soldiers find a way out of the violence they face every day and help them re-establish relationships with their families and communities as well.

– Olivia Halliburton

Photo: Flickr

Global Reduction in Child Labor

Child labor is defined as the employment of children who are under the legal working age. Currently, there are about 265 million children engaged in child labor around the world. While this is clearly not ideal, there has been a reduction in child labor across the globe, from 23 percent of children working in 2000 to close to 17 percent in 2012. Many countries whose laws once allowed for child labor now protect their children from such harsh conditions instead.

Where Countries Are Based on Levels of Income

There are four basic income levels. Level 1 is extreme poverty; the family can barely afford to eat and must get water from wells. Level 2 is lower-middle income; the family can afford decent food and shoes. Level 3 is upper-middle income; the family can afford running water and basic appliances. Level 4 is high income; the family can afford a nice house and cars.

The higher a family’s income, the less likely they are to have their children work from a young age. Likewise, the higher a country’s income, the less likely they are to approve of child labor. We can see the likelihood of child labor by looking at the income level of different countries.

Level 4: Ireland

In 18th and 19th century Ireland, children were routinely put to work because they could be paid less than what adult workers were paid, they could operate certain machines that adults could not and it was believed that they would grow up to be harder workers. In many cases, children aged 3 to 7 were outright kidnapped by organized trade rings and forced to do whatever work their masters wanted them to.

The Protection of Young Persons (Employment) Act of 1996 changed all of that. Under this law, Irish employers cannot make children younger than 16 work full time. Additionally, employers cannot hire anyone under age 14 at all. Children aged 14 to 15 can only do light work during school holiday periods, work in educational programs that are not harmful to their health or cultural enrichment jobs. On top of that, employees aged 18 or younger must receive a minimum of €6.69 per hour, which is 70 percent of the Irish adult minimum wage.

Level 3: Croatia

In Croatia, the legal minimum age for work is 15. From the ages of 15 to 18 years old, children can only work with written permission from their parents, and inspections must show that the labor does not interfere with the child’s health, morality or education. In addition, anyone caught dealing in child prostitution in any way will face a three to 10-month prison sentence.

These laws have not stopped all child labor in Croatia. Roma children are often forced to beg in the streets, and Croatia experiences the active trafficking of young girls for prostitution. That said, the 2006-2012 National Program for the Protection of the Best Interests of Children made great strides in the reduction in child labor, particularly prostitution.

Level 2: Sudan

Of Sudan’s 37.96 million children, 45,600 are currently subject to child labor. Not only are there no laws against child labor, but the government also encourages it by kidnapping children in rural areas during military raids. These children start working at age 5, so they miss out on their educations, which otherwise would be compulsory.

However, Sudan has made strides in decreasing the child labor rate, including signing a Partnership Protocol Agreement with the European Union in 2008 and inspecting working environments to keep children from working in toxic conditions. Unfortunately, little has been done to help rural areas. Families have to migrate to urban areas or to other countries to escape labor and let their children get an education. Although, escape from Sudan is illegal and far from easy, it is still possible.

Level 1: Niger

The child labor rate in Niger is 42.8 percent. The jobs that young children are made to perform include agriculture, mining, caste-based servitude and forced begging. The government has set up a number of programs to reduce child labor, including Centers for Education, Legal, and Preventative Service; The Project to Reduce Child Labor in Agriculture; and The World Bank Country Program. However, these programs have made only moderate advances in stopping child labor.

Child labor continues to be a problem in the world today. Poor and corrupt countries are quick to put children to work because the children do not require high wages. However, laws and legislation all over the world have resulted in a global reduction in child labor. It has not stopped child labor altogether, but a little progress is better than none at all. The fight to end child labor continues.

– Cassie Parvaz
Photo: Flickr

The Children of Syria: Hope for a Better Tomorrow

After 7 years of war, Syria has become the most dangerous country to be a child. Out of a population of 18 million, 5.3 million children require humanitarian aid, 1.2 million live in hard-to-reach areas and 170,000 are currently trapped in besieged zones. Basic services, such as education and health, have collapsed under the strain of violence. In all regards, the conflict has proven disastrous for the children of Syria.

The Situation

Before the Syrian Civil War, school enrollments rates were around 87.5 percent; in 2018, however, 6 million kids need educational support while over 2.1 million are presently not enrolled at all. This standing is largely due to combatants viewing schools and other educational institutions as targets for bombings, killings and abductions. Such targeting then results in the destruction of over a quarter of the schools in Syria.

More than half of the hospitals and clinics in Syria are closed, damaged or lack proper medicine and health professionals (15,000 of the 30,000 Syrian doctors have fled the country). Alongside these statistics, vaccinations have increasingly become less common. An outbreak of polio has affected 80,000 children while another 200,000 have died from chronic diseases.

Lack of access to food and water has become widespread across Syria. As of June 2018, an estimated 11.2 Syrians required emergency food assistance. Conflict, displacement and blocked transportation routes have resulted in an ever-increasing malnutrition rate of 11 percent among the Syrian youth. Furthermore, access to clean drinking water has become a significant issue due to the destruction of infrastructure.

While these numbers are used by some to describe the children of Syria as the “lost generation,” there are plenty of examples of foreign aid groups working to reverse these trends.

The Response

Numerous organizations across the globe have taken up the gauntlet to help this population. The following are three of which who have had quite the widespread, long-lasting impact.

• UNICEF. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is one of the prime cases of the effort that’s being done in Syria. Through U.N. programs, 956,000 children have been enrolled in formal education, while another 60,000 were placed in non-formal education. UNICEF has vaccinated 2.7 million children under the age of 5 for the polio virus and has provided 2.5 children and women with primary health care professionals. In fact, 1 million youth and pregnant women are reported to be either treated or under active treatment for malnutrition. By establishing emergency facilities and repairing water and sanitation systems, UNICEF has restored 6.5 million Syrians with access to clean drinking water.
• USAID: The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has proven to be an effective asset in foreign aid to Syria. In July of 2018, a joint food assistance program between USAID and the U.N. World Food Program was able to supply more than three million Syrians. During July of 2018, USAID and WHO delivered around 50 metric tons of medical supplies to health officials in Dar’a and As Suwayda’.
• Save the Children: Save the Children Federation, a U.S. non-profit, has shown the strength of individual donations toward helping the children of Syria. The organization has aided 1.7 million Syrian children by delivering services and supplies to refugee camps and besieged areas. Primarily, the group has provided medical supplies and educational items to prevent the stoppage of learning and development.

These agencies and organizations seem to be too large for any one person to make a difference, especially when the number of children being helped totals in the millions. However, many of these groups rely fully or partially on individual funds in order to do what they do.

How Americans Can Help

Making an impact doesn’t require a whole lot of money or time. Every individual act helps turn 1 saved child into 1 million saved children. Here are some ways for Americans and/or any global citizen to make a difference in the children of Syria’s lives:

• The Borgen Project. The Borgen Project focuses on getting U.S. leaders to support, and utilize resources, for global poverty reduction efforts.
• UNICEF. UNICEF has helped millions of children throughout Syria, but struggles to meet targeted goals due to insufficient funding (44% under requested budget for 2018).
• Save the Children Foundation. Save the Children relies entirely on donations for helping supply children with medical and educational support in at-risk areas.
• USAID. Although USAID does not accept donations, there is a list of approved organizations that do in regards to Syria.

Individualized effort can create powerful change, and the ways individuals across the globe and in various organizations are aiding the children of Syria have the potential to save, rather than lose, a generation.

– Tanner Helem
Photo: Flickr

Hopeful Future of Decreasing Child Labor in Mexico

Mexico has a population of 116 million, and half of the population lives below the poverty line. These impoverished conditions make the people of Mexico desperate for work, including young children, and such a struggle creates a significant amount of child labor in Mexico.  

Child Labor and Exploitation

Children are exploited on a daily basis in Mexico and are put in danger doing their jobs. In an interview with Aljazeera, a 16-year-old boy named Albino, who has been out of school since he was 12, stated: “You just devote yourself to your work and you’re proud that you no longer play with small children.”

Albino says he only gets to see his family every 20 days and he gives them half of all the money he makes. He does regret leaving school, but he is glad he can help his parents with money.

Albino’s story is not unusual; actually, his tale is very typical for child laborers in Mexico. Young children often have to provide for themselves or help provide for their families, which causes many of them to go into dangerous work for very low pay. About 3.5 million children in Mexico work carrying wood or cement, or as servants.

Typical Child Laborer Jobs and Risks

It’s estimated that of the children that work in Mexico, 40 percent are not old enough to work legally and 60 percent are working in conditions considered dangerous to their mental and physical health, and safety.

These children are working jobs in fields, on the streets, in dangerous factories and around many other unsafe places with horrible working conditions. Children go up and down the streets just to sell various objects to anyone willing to buy, and such a sale will barely provide food for that specific day in Mexico. Children working in the fields work sunrise to sunset (or even longer), and 1 out of 4 workers is 13 years old or younger.

Influential Allies

The government has tried to help combat the issue of child labor in Mexico. In 1997, a program called Prospera started and it offers “conditional cash transfers” to Mexican citizens. This stipend is supposed to be an incentive for Mexican families to keep their children in formal education while attending workshops on things like sex education and family planning.

Another program that offers “conditional cash transfers” is a program called Oportunidades. Much like ‘Prospera,’ participating families will get money from the government provided that the children stay in school, all family members get regular medical check-ups and mothers attend health workshops.

Although child labor in Mexico is prevalent, it has dramatically decreased over the past decade. This can be attributed to parents having a better education and to government programs like Prospera and Oportunidades intervening in difficult situations.

Improvement on the Rise

There are 40 percent fewer children aged 12-14 years in the labor force compared to just ten years ago, and there’s also been a dramatic increase in the number of children remaining in school. In addition, 93 percent of children from 12-14 years old are attending school.

These numbers will continue to grow if new generations continue to acquire an education, allies provide needed support and Mexican citizens do not enter the workforce at such young ages.

– Ronni Winter
Photo: Flickr