UNICEF has issued a report which puts the plight of today’s uprooted children as a global crisis in stark perspective. I’ve been reading about children as victims of war, and refugees, and the consequences of the number in several publications I follow. An article by Alexandra Zavis in the 9/19/16 LA Times put it in a way that makes quoting from it readable. The report says 50 million have fled from wars, persecution and poverty.
About half of the 50 million children driven from their homes is due to conflicts and persecution, the other half is in search of a better life. Continue reading “Refugee Children”
Category: Poverty
The Women of South Sudan
We all know that women are not treated well in many of the world’s countries, but I found this story about the status of women in South Sudan so poignant I have to share it. Women there as you might surmise are married as early as possible The government passed a law 8 years ago outlawing marriage before the age of 18, but the law is not enforced and in rural areas, it makes no sense to villagers. Wealth in measured in cows, and women bring cows as bride price. A woman is usually worth 20 to 40 cows, and an attractive woman who is seen as fertile, can bring up to 200 cows. There is no escape from this fate, only 7% of girls finish elementary school, 2% finish high school. As easily deduced education is Continue reading “The Women of South Sudan”
Global Education: 124 Millions Without
In the US we have problems with schools, asking if they are educating our kids or if they are as good as they ought to be. We do not ask whether schools should exist or whether kids should attend. That’s a key reason our problems with schools set us apart from those in a number of countries in East Asia, the Middle East, Africa, where almost 124 million children and adolescents, mostly between the ages of 6 and 15, are not able to go to school. The figures come from a recent Human Rights Watch report which was compiled using UNESCO Institute statistics and is based on HRW studies of 40 countries for some 20 years. The report Continue reading “Global Education: 124 Millions Without”
Trafficked Children and “The Ugly Truth”
Several days ago I read a couple of details in a story on the traficking of children in India that stayed with me. One was how unaware the realities of trafficking are is to most people in India, and the one that haunts me that young girls who were stolen as children to be trafficked were given hormone shots such as Oxytocin to makes them mature more quickly. That one detail evoked the horrors of that trade and I keep wondering about the effects of those Continue reading “Trafficked Children and “The Ugly Truth””