Archive for category: Children

Information and stories addressing children.

, ,

10 Facts About Child Soldiers in Sierra Leone

Child Soldiers in Sierra Leone
From 1991 to 2002, Sierra Leone was embroiled in a devastating civil war, fought primarily between the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and Sierra Leone Army (SLA). This civil war garnered international attention for its blatant use of child soldiers and for the skyrocketing of child soldiers in Sierra Leone.

Child soldiers are children (defined under international law as individuals under the age of 18) who are used for any military purpose. In the Sierra Leonean civil war, children made up between 40 and 50 percent of the RUF’s military force and approximately 20 percent of the government’s military force. In total, approximately 10,000 children were exploited and forced to be child soldiers in Sierra Leone. Discussed below are the leading facts about child soldiers in Sierra Leone.

 

Top 10 Facts About Child Soldiers in Sierra Leone

 

  1. The term child soldier does not only include those who carry a gun and fight. Children also served as messengers and porters, and young girls were conscripted into sexual slavery or forcibly married to generals.
  2. Children are chosen to be soldiers because they are easily manipulated. They are more loyal and obedient than adults and they are far less likely to revolt. They also do not require wages, making them a cheap alternative to traditional soldiers.
  3. Children are more likely to become child soldiers if they are poor, living in a combat zone, displaced from their homes, separated from their families or have limited access to education.
  4. The process of reintegrating child soldiers is called Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR). Compounds were created to reintegrate child soldiers in Sierra Leone by providing them with education, food, shelter and psychiatric services.
  5. DDR is not necessarily 100 percent effective. Children may relapse into violence in adolescence and adulthood. Ishmael Beah, a former child soldier in Sierra Leone, said: “One of my greatest fears in Sierra Leone now is, if you have a large number of disgruntled and idle young people who have nothing to do with themselves, you have the possibility of sparking anything.”
  6. DDR camps were also not completely safe. Rebel soldiers would hang around the camps and convince previously demobilized child soldiers to rejoin the army by promising to reunite them with their families or simply threatening to kill everyone else in the camp if they did not comply.
  7. Children were often forced to use drugs (typically marijuana or crack cocaine) to enable them to commit violence. As a result, they had a reputation among civilians for extreme cruelty. Many boys belonged to the infamous Small Boys Unit.
  8. This reputation for violence was one of the key barriers to reintegration. Child soldiers had lost their childhoods and been traumatized, but many could not return home because they were seen as murderers.
  9. In 2013, Lt. Gen. Romeo Dallaire founded a nonprofit called the Child Soldier Initiative (CSI). It designed a mandatory training manual and seminar for police and local armed forces to inform them of children’s rights and how to handle child soldiers in the field. This training has also been used in Sudan, Mali and Cote d’Ivoire, though it is not mandatory there.
  10. The second phase of CSI’s project is to have former child soldiers run the program and train other children on their rights and the alternatives to joining the conflict.

Recent innovations in international human rights law, such as the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict (which has been ratified by more than 110 countries) are a reason to have hope for the future of children in conflict, as are nonprofits like the Child Soldier Initiative.

According to Theresa Betancourt, an expert in the field of child psychology in conflict and child soldiers, “We need to devise lasting systems of care, instead of leaving behind a dust cloud that disappears when the humanitarian actors leave.”

– Olivia Bradley

Photo: Flickr

Interventions Initiated by Save the Children in Sudan

Save the Children in SudanFollowing decades of non-stop armed conflict, Sudan has a horrible human rights record and ranks as one of the most corrupt countries in the world. Violent clashes and subsequent displacement of citizens have particularly hurt the country’s most vulnerable population: children. Save the Children is the world’s leading independent organization for children and is currently engaged in 120 countries, including Sudan. Save the Children has worked to improve the welfare of Sudanese children since 1983.

Sudan has been plagued by a string of violent conflicts. In 2005, the Second Sudanese Civil War (1983-2005) concluded with the signage of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. Subsequently, in 2011 residents of South Sudan overwhelmingly voted to secede from Sudan. The secession of South Sudan resulted in a mass migration as citizens of Sudan relocated to South Sudan and vice-versa.

This mass displacement separated tens of thousands of children from their families. To address this crisis, Save the Children has implemented a family tracing and reunification (FTR) program. FTR is the first initiative that Save the Children launches in conflict zones.

Save the Children partnered with UNICEF and community-based networks to introduce FTR following the creation of the Republic of South Sudan in 2011. The program identifies and registers unaccompanied children, then works to reunite them with their families. Unfortunately, the longer a child remains separated from caregivers, the greater the risk that the child will become a victim of violence and exploitation.

Last month, Save the Children and UNICEF aided 399 unaccompanied Sudanese children. Additionally, the partners have just reunited their 5,000th child with his mother. In total, 16,055 separated children have been traced and documented by all the family reunification organizations in Sudan.

Save the Children in Sudan further supports children by supporting community-based child protection networks. The organization leverages existing community structures to identify and respond to child protection issues. Through these networks, Save the Children aims to raise awareness and spread information to prevent child matriculation into armed forces, to reduce the number of children separated from caregivers and to educate the community about existing resources that combat child abuse.

Additionally, the organization has created child-friendly spaces that help children recover from trauma and re-enter their local communities. Save the Children establishes child-friendly spaces in all conflict zones where it operates. The nonprofit coordinates these spaces with existing local services to expand the care options available.

Save the Children combats major social problems through public information campaigns delivered at schools, child-friendly spaces and community centers. In Sudan, the organization disseminates information about two major safety threats: the recruitment of children by armed forces and the continued presence of landmines and unexplained ordinances. Additionally, Save the Children addresses the root cause of child enrollment into armies by working to improve the economic circumstances of vulnerable children.

Save the Children believes that the existing legislative framework for the protection of Sudanese children is inadequate. Physical discipline is still widely accepted in schools and homes. Therefore, Save the Children helps national civil rights groups campaign for new protective policies and expansion of government bodies that combat physical punishment.

In 2013, Save the Children’s child protection program in Sudan directly impacted 969,000 people, including 551,974 children, and indirectly impacted 5,025670 people, including 3,318,931 children. Its efforts are going a long way to alleviate the issues caused by the ongoing instability in Sudan.

– Katherine Parks

Photo: Flickr

, ,

How to Help Honduras and Keep Its Citizens Safe

How to Help HondurasThe term “refugee crisis” has the implication that a group of individuals is subject to persecution, war and/or systemic violence. In essence, a refugee is someone that is catalyzed by fear to leave his or her homeland. So when a United Nations official surveyed the scope of Honduran migrants outside a shelter in Tapachula, Mexico in 2016 and stated “It’s really a refugee crisis,” he called on the world to answer the question “Why are Hondurans afraid to return home?”

In 2014, the number of unaccompanied Honduran minors apprehended in their attempts to cross the U.S. border increased from 7,000 to 17,500. It might be hard to imagine why children might place themselves in such a vulnerable, dangerous circumstance, but this stark rise in migrants is easier to comprehend given that over 60 percent of Hondurans live below the poverty line. On top of this, unemployment is only increasing—currently resting at 7.4 percent, and projected to rise over the next few years. Families often send their children to find income outside the nation’s borders; statistics show that Honduran immigrants remit 26 percent of their income back to their home countries, second only to Guatemala.

However, youth migration is an issue that extends far beyond average familial income. As of this year, Honduras is recognized as the most violent country in the world, outside of all current war zones. Last year, the murder rate was down to 60 murders per 100,000 people, which—though still the deadliest rate in the world—has dropped drastically since 2012. This is largely due to gang violence that recruits young and influences close to every aspect of Honduran life, from early education onward. As jobs remain inaccessible, gangs and organized crime only expand. So the question we should be asking is how to help Honduras and end this cycle of crime and poverty.

One method for how to help Honduras is by donating and/or serving with Food for the Poor (FFP), an international relief and development organization based in the United States. Since 1999, in the catastrophic aftermath of Hurricane Mitch, FFP has worked to improve the conditions in Honduras in terms of agriculture, community development, housing, enterprise and youth/orphan support. In this time, the growing organization has developed close to 15,000 housing units and 15 schools, mobilizing the Honduran youth to achieve literacy and access primary education.

The largest of their 91 working projects is the La Esperanza Community Development Project, which worked in five phases to build homes and create working communities that thrive off of their capacity to be self-sufficient, with access to their own gardens, water and school/community centers. Essentially, these communities are created as safe spaces for the nation’s desolately underprivileged—preventing the vulnerable from seeking “protection” by way of violence.

One could also find out how to help Honduras by researching HELP Honduras, an organization partnered with Rotary Clubs, The Rotary Foundation and AYO (Alternativas y Opportunidades) to improve the system of education in this Latin American nation.

Standing for Health, Education and Literacy Program, HELP Honduras works to supply students with uniforms, books and school supplies in order to support their education and keep withdrawal rates down. Though education is free, the issue in Honduras is not affording school, but affording everything that a student requires. Though one may have access to a classroom, it costs on average $180 for a primary school student to enter that classroom with the essentials necessary to learn. This is out of the price range of many Honduran families, and stands in the way of the next generation becoming educated, independent adults.

On top of this, HELP Honduras sponsors certain students in Tegucigalpa, Santa Barbara and Danli. Each student is granted the necessary elements to attend school, including uniforms, shoes, books and supplies, as well as a tutor to help with any subject in which the student is struggling. This helps keep the child motivated and wanting to return.

Parents of these children are also benefitting from this sponsorship, each obligated to attend parenting courses where they take part in preventive health, vocational and educational programs. One program in particular, Economic Opportunities Training, teaches mothers the basics of market strategy, mobilizing them to become an entrepreneur and/or improve their already existing business. Not only will children feel safe and confident within the confines of their school, they will feel secure at home as well, fostering a cycle of self-confidence that will breed bright and prosperous futures.

Programs like these exist as investments in the future of Latin America and attack the roots of global poverty. Contributing your time or money to aid these programs is a huge help to them and the people of Honduras.

– Briana Fernald

Photo: Flickr

,

The Putting Children First Conference: Fighting Child Poverty

Putting Children First Conference1 billion children worldwide are living in poverty, with 22,000 children reportedly dying each day because of it. The Putting Children First Conference was a 3-day conference from October 23-25, 2017, held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia meant to “engage policymakers, practitioners and researchers in identifying solutions for fighting child poverty and inequality in Africa.”

Africa currently faces extreme poverty. It is estimated that 233 million people in sub-Saharan Africa where undernourished in 2014 to 2016. Forty-seven percent of the population in Africa is living on less than $1.90 a day, which is the current global poverty line.

Organizations around the world recognize the issue of child poverty. As such, the Putting Children First Conference was held and attended by End Child Poverty, The Impact Initiative, U.K. Aid, the Comparative Research Programme on Poverty (CROP), the Economic and Social Research Council, the Ethiopian Research Development Institute, the United Nations and Ethiopia Ministry of Women and Children Affairs.

The objectives of the conference included:

  • Identifying, discussing and advocating for solutions to child poverty
  • Discussing research on who these impoverished children are, where they live, and why they are poor
  • Discussing policy and program changes
  • Networking between different researchers and policymakers
  • Teaching skills that will help move research into action

The speakers at the event included Demitu Hambisa (Minister of the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs), Leila Pakkala (Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa-UNICEF), Agnes Akosua Aidoo (International Board of Trustees-ACPF),  and Jane Kabubo-Mariara (Executive Director-PEP) among others.

The conference resulted in a call to action written collaboratively by the people in attendance. The call to action states six steps that should be taken to benefit children who are the most likely to be living in extreme poverty.

The Six Steps to Eradicate Extreme Child Poverty

  1. Recognize child poverty as a priority issue
  2. Create programs that specifically target poverty elimination for boys and girls at all stages of childhood
  3. Measure child poverty from all angles
  4. Strengthen existing systems to end child poverty
  5. Strengthen research on child poverty
  6. Establish an African Child Poverty Center led by African researchers

This conference allowed people to network and take steps towards creating a better world for children living in poverty.

– Téa Franco

Photo: Google

, , ,

Teachers Key to Improving Education in Samoa

Samoa is an island nation in the central Pacific Ocean. It is said to be the “Cradle of Polynesia” because it is believed that the island of Savai’i is Hawaiki, the Polynesian homeland.

Samoa became independent from New Zealand in 1962, which brought over 100 years of foreign dominance to an end. Internationally, Samoa is thought of as a tropical paradise where the inhabitants are welcoming of tourists, but there are still problems on the small island nation, one of which is education.

The major challenges for education in Samoa include the quality of education and access to early childhood education, according to a 2015 report filed by the government of Samoa. Early childhood education helps get children ready for primary school, but most teachers do not have the skills to fully prepare them. Another concern for early childhood education in Samoa is children’s performance in basic education. A number of children do not gain basic literacy and numeracy skills, which are important for them to further their education.

The quality of teaching poses a problem for early childhood education in Samoa as well. There are some challenges when it comes to qualifications and certifications, but the main problem is the competence of teachers and principals. Many early childhood education teachers are untrained.

Primary and secondary education in Samoa also has problems. Various schools do not achieve the minimum standards for the quality of learning in the classroom. Many primary school teachers do not have the proper training and support, and teachers seldom have the skills to identify and teach special needs students. Teachers often have a lack of commitment to the profession as well. For many teachers in Samoa, teaching is not their career of choice, and they often leave when the opportunity comes up. This makes keeping good teachers a challenge in both the primary and secondary levels. To improve the quality education in Samoa, high quality teachers must be retained.

Despite this, the graduation rate among high school seniors continues to be above 90 percent, according to the Samoa Observer. Between 2011 and 2014, the graduation rate was 98 percent, but it fell to 96 percent in the 2014-2015 academic year. The CIA reported that the literacy rate among adults was 99 percent, but the country ranks 48th in education spending.

Although education in Samoa has made significant progress, it still faces problems with quality. In order to improve on this, they must they must prepare children for further schooling in their early life. Public awareness of the importance of early childhood education must be raised as well.

For primary and secondary education, marketing for teachers must be more aggressive in order to attract teachers and keep them committed to the profession. Teachers should be encouraged to find creative ways to deliver a lesson in order to keep students engaged.

– Fernando Vazquez

Photo: Flickr

, ,

Children’s Human Rights in Saint Helena

Human Rights in Saint HelenaSaint Helena is a tiny tropical island in the South Atlantic Ocean and remains one of the few countries part of the British Overseas Territory. Besides being well-known as Napoleon Bonaparte’s home in his last years, the island is generally not in the news. Still, different stories detailing possible child abuse yield concerns about the status of human rights in Saint Helena.

Recently, Saint Helena has been under scrutiny for possible child abuse on its shores. In 2014, the Daily Mail published a series of three articles about the “culture of sexual abuse of children” in Saint Helena. Needless to say, these articles shocked the public. The articles detailed the brutality of the abuses. More importantly, the articles suggested that authorities needed to review the policing on the island.

The articles criticized the authorities in great detail, particularly the Foreign Commonwealth Office, the local government of Saint Helena and the Department for International Development. Other occurrences suggest that child abuse is ongoing on the island, creating a grave concern for human rights in Saint Helena.

Claire Gannon and Martin Warsama, social workers from Britain, were working with island residents. Gannon and Warsama reported the abuse; later, both alleged they were threatened and forced to leave the island in retaliation for reporting such abuse.

Later, the FCO withdrew its initial report in front of the United Nations. The FCO apologized for its “erroneous report” that denied the allegations of child abuse. Gannon and Warsama were furious. In return, the social workers sued the FCO and the United Kingdom Department for International Development.

The FCO was faced with a public outcry. As result, it commissioned a report by a children’s charity, the Lucy Faithfull Foundation. The foundation kept its report confidential. However, the contents were leaked to a website the social workers had created to help drum up support for their lawsuit. The report noted that there was a culture on the island of abusing teenage girls through “violent and brutal attacks.”

The reports generated by the FCO indicate that there is, at a minimum, some ongoing child abuse on the island. One of the reasons such abuse could potentially take place is because of the small population: there are just over 4,000 permanent residents of the island. It is well-established that abusers often become close to their victims.

The government of Saint Helena has begun taking an active interest in the welfare of children as a whole. In 2010, the Welfare of Children Regulations formed the Safeguarding Children’s and Young People’s Board. To avoid undue political influence as much as possible, the board is chaired independently, though it does report to the governor of Saint Helena. Other members of the board include those who work with children regularly: representatives from the different sectors of health, social services, education and nongovernmental organizations.

The board is a sincere effort from the government to protect children’s interests; it meets every six weeks and when there is an urgent matter. The board also strives to harmonize different elements of the government, so that various agencies can work for the betterment of children’s interests.

– Smriti Krishnan

Photo: Google

, , , ,

Hunger in Malaysia on the Decline

Hunger in MalaysiaMalaysia has shown remarkable economic progress over the past several decades, with poverty falling from 49.3 percent in 1970 to 23 percent in 1989 and 1.7 percent in 2012. One of the key aspects of the New Economic Policy adopted by Malaysia was creating a “Pro-Poor” policy. According to the World Bank, “the NEP contributed to poverty reduction and helped provide opportunities to poor households.”

However, Malaysia’s Poverty Line Income differs from the standard $1 USD per day (purchasing power parity) poverty line. When converting to international standards, it results in Malaysia having a higher poverty rate.

There has never been a problem of chronic hunger in Malaysia. Many nutrition programs have been incorporated into the rural development programs and have proved successful. According to the World Health Organization, consumption of fewer than 1,960 calories a day is a mark of food poverty. A great indicator of successful eradication of hunger in Malaysia lies in the fact that its daily per capita intake of calories has been consistently above the standard mark. The average was 2,969 in 1999.

The government introduced the Applied Food and Nutrition Programme in 1972 to improve nutrition and alleviate hunger in Malaysia. It aimed to increase the production of nutritious foods and promote supplementary feeding of pregnant and lactating mothers as well as infants and school-going children.

The Nutrition Rehabilitation Programme started in 1989, focusing on malnourished children. Food baskets containing nutritional supplements are distributed to such children on a monthly basis.

The results have been very positive. Only 1 percent of Malaysia’s children under the age of five are severely underweight, while the proportion of moderate underweight malnutrition has declined from 25 percent in the early 1990s to 12 percent in 2001.

Malaysia has overcome poverty through an inclusive approach to growth and equity. But there are still vulnerable groups, like single female-headed households and the elderly. Also, many Orang Asli still face extreme poverty. To move forward, a new consensus has to be built around a poverty line that is more balanced in line with international standards, as was suggested by the UNDP.

– Tripti Sinha

Photo: Flickr

, , , ,

Child Vision: Glasses for Children in Impoverished Countries

Child Vision: Glasses for Children in Impoverished CountriesThere are 100 million young people in the world that have poor vision, and about 60 percent of them lack access to corrective glasses. Glasses are considered a luxury in these parts of the world. This has a big impact on kids in school, as they cannot see the blackboard clearly and lose about half a year of schooling as a result. Child Vision glasses are a cheap alternative to normal prescription glasses for children in impoverished countries.

Child Vision glasses are different from conventional glasses because they are adjustable. Each lens is actually two lenses with space in the middle. After taking a simple eye chart test, kids put on the Child Vision glasses and they can adjust it themselves. They cover one eye and turn a knob that will adjust the glasses.

The knob adjusts the liquid that is inside the lenses. The liquid causes the lenses to expand or contract, thus adjusting the prescription of the glasses. Kids turn the knob until they can see clearly. Once they can see clearly, they take off the adjustors to seal the prescription. Unfortunately, that means that kids only have one opportunity to correct their vision, but it seems that the success rate is high.

Out of all the users of adjustable glasses, 92 percent of them were able to correct their vision. One of the main reasons why glasses are considered a luxury is because of their price. The average price for glasses is about $196. The creators of Child Vision recognized this problem and worked to make the adjustable glasses affordable for those in the developing world. The average cost for Child Vision glasses is €16, or about $19.

One of the best things about these glasses is that they do not need an optometrist to correct their vision. Anyone with basic training can administer an eye chart exam to help kids learn if they need glasses.

Thanks to Child Vision, glasses for children in impoverished countries are now available. These low-cost adjustable glasses are easy to adjust and give to kids. Child Vision is giving kids the glasses they need so they can better participate in school and make the most of their education.

– Daniel Borjas

Photo: Flickr

, ,

Education in Austria is One of the Best in Europe

Education in Austria

Education is always essential regarding the success of the social and economic future of a country, and education in Austria is no exception. The Republic of Austria has a free and public school system, and nine years of education are mandatory throughout the nation from the ages of six to fifteen, or first to ninth grade.

In Austria, there are multiple levels of education for citizens of all ages. When it comes to children ranging from the ages of zero to six, these students are taken care of in nurseries called Kinderkrippen. Kindergarteners range from the ages of three to six years old, and very young children that are usually around the age of two are looked after in small groups by day parents called Tagesmütter, and are found mostly in smaller towns and rural areas.

The first four years of schooling is completed at primary schools called Volksschule or Grundschule. From the age of ten, children are able to attend a junior high school or a secondary school called Hauptschule or Cooperative Mittelschule. Once children have entered into ninth grade at the ages of 14 or 15, they will be schooled at a polytechinical school called a Polytechnische Schule, which will ultimately prepare students for vocational orientation, an apprenticeship or even for more schooling.

Education in Austria does not stop at grade nine, however. There are many apprenticeships that students can pursue, and about 250 apprenticeship training courses exist that last between three and four years. Their occupation is learned on the job and at the school simultaneously. These students will then go on to take a final exam and become either a skilled technician or craftsman.

There are also Austrian universities and colleges that a citizen can attend, including adults. The Matura is a graduation examination that is a prerequisite for higher education in the nation.

While the standard of education in Austria may not exactly be on par with that of the United Kingdom or the United States, those considering relocating to Austria can still expect for their children to receive a sound education. Overall, the quality of education in Austria is quite good, as state schools provide a schooling that is very high in comparison to other educational systems within Europe.

– Sara Venusti

Photo: Google