There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.Leonard Cohen

April 2014

  • Children Into Schools

    Worldwide, 57 million children are not in school, many are working. That’s why The Emergency Coalition For Global Education Action recently launched a campaign using global leaders, celebrities and officials like UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to ensure that the goal of having these 57 million children in school by the end of 2015 is met. The Countdown Summit was held in Washington, D.C. as a way to pressure the international community to take action on behalf of children everywhere. The effort is to ensure that that Millennium Development Goal is reached. If not, at the current rate, it would take until 2086 before all children who need to be in school are enrolled and learning. The Coalition includes people like singer and songwriter Shakira, actors Jude Law and Goldie Hawn and CNN International anchor Isha Sesay. All are willing to work even harder to accelerate the progress of ensuring all children who need to be are in school by the end of next year.

    Since child labor must end and education has proven to be an anti-poverty tool, success seems a necessity.

  • Child To Child

    The Dadaab refuge camp in north-eastern Kenya is one of the largest refugee camps and has been home to some 400,000 refugees for the last 23 years. They come mainly from Somalia, people who have fled conflict, famine, and drought. The BBC reports  that under the auspices of Care International, the aid agency which provides many of the camps services, the children of Dadaab have written letters of hope to the children of Syrian refugees now in the Refugee Assistance Centre in Amman, Jordan.  As one would expect, they’re touching letters but also reveal the resilience of the children.” Don’t be hopeless, we are with you, and if there’s war in your country, tolerance is necessary,” writes Zahra Dahir Ali. “We are praying for you God gives you better life and with the help of God as soon as possible you will get peace in your country because we are feeling the same way you are feeling,” writes Abashir Hussein. “I am sure 100% that if you practice learning and struggling, you will excel at the end,” Hibo Mahamed Dubow writes, “Last but not least I tell you not to lose hope because you have been refugees for only three years. What do you think of people who are refugees for about two decades?”

    Care International says the letters were well received. The young Syrians are now drafting responses.

  • Small Victory?

    I periodically come across a group of people who make me stop to recognize what they represent. This time it is a group of migrants from Honduras, who take the train through Mexico on the way to the U.S. to find work. They find a way to hop on one of  the freight trains they call La Bestia (the beast) since it has maimed so many.  The group headquartered in Honduras  has 400  to 500 members, all disabled who have lost limbs traveling it. They are as illegal in Mexico as they would be in the U.S. and are then sent back to their countries, and there particularly given their disabilities are unable to work and endure sorrowful and very difficult lives. The wife of one migrant worker who returned without his right leg and right arm just left him. But the men, who feel their lives have become nightmares, also want to fight for the rights of other migrant workers, people who like them seek to escape desperate conditions and hope for something better in the U.S.  Norman Varela, the spokesman for the group who made it to a small city in Mexico, and who when he lost his leg was robbed of all his money by a Mexican policeman, said they wanted a meeting with President Enrique Pena Nieto. He was told by a local official it was impossible. “What’s impossible,” he said,” is re-growing a hand or an arm or a leg. It is not impossible to arrange a meeting with a fellow human being.” Short of meeting the President, the migrants want to deliver letters to him. In future, they want their fellow migrants to be assured safe passage to the United States, instead of being detained or repatriated for being illegals in Mexico.

    Days after their story and their plight were made public, they received word that a representative of Mexico’s national immigration department would receive their letters and would deliver them.

Subscribe and Be Notified of New Posts

* indicates required

Intuit Mailchimp

We will never sell or share your information, we promise.