UN takes up MDGs as 2015 deadline looms
Governments around the world are looking to forge agreement on a strategy for the last five years before the Millennium Development Goals deadline amid projections that none of the poverty, health or education milestones will be reached. “The final five years of the goals are going to require two things: more money to be spent and better policies,” said Peter Yeo, executive director of the Better World Campaign and a vice president of the United Nations Foundation.
Time is right to eradicate polio
Concerted efforts to provide vaccines to young children around the world before 2015 should be a critical element of efforts to meet the 2015 Millennium Development Goals and could finally eradicate polio worldwide, writes Jeff Raikes, CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Polio cases have dropped 99% in the past two decades and the disease remains endemic in only four countries.
Economic divides are costing children’s lives
Children from poor backgrounds receive substandard medical care, which has led to the preventable deaths of 4 million children over the past decade, according to reports from Save the Children and UNICEF. Even as developing countries seek to improve basic health care services to their populations, the poorest and rural communities are often unable to accessing treatment. The two reports were published two weeks ahead of a major United Nations conference on Millennium Development Goals.
UN’s mobile clinics aid flood victims
United Nations agencies have set up more than 1,100 mobile health clinics in the wake of massive monsoon floods and have treated more than 2 million Pakistanis, said officials with the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Malaria, respiratory infections and waterborne conditions have already struck more than a million people in the country.
KENYA: Help HIV-positive children in pain, urges HRW
A new report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) says the Kenyan government needs to do more to provide palliative care for children with chronic illnesses, including cancer and HIV/AIDS. “Many children in Kenya, including those who are suffering from cancer and HIV/AIDS, are undergoing excruciating pain because they have no access to palliative care,” Julianne Kippenberg, HRW’s senior researcher on children’s rights, said at a press conference in the capital, Nairobi. “These children are living and dying in agony.” The report, Needless Pain: Government Failure to Provide Palliative Care for Children in Kenya, notes that while the government has made tremendous progress in rolling out services such as antiretroviral therapy (ART), much more had to be done to alleviate pain.
CAMEROON: Anti-cholera drive targets schoolchildren
As school resumes in Cameroon, some 1.6 million students in the north are receiving cholera-prevention messages via SMS, flyers, stickers and special textbooks, in a public-private effort to stem the country’s worst outbreak in 20 years. “We want to avoid a new explosion as the school year begins,” said Jean Sangola, head of hygiene in the district of Mokolo in the Far North region. Since May at least 4,451 people have been infected in the Far North and North regions, with 331 deaths, and the disease continues to spread, according to the Health Ministry.
SOMALIA: No high school, no hope in Gedo
Primary school is a dead end for many children in Somalia, particularly in the southwestern Gedo region where many end up jobless, joining a militia, or emigrating. Years of civil conflict, following decades of colonial neglect, have produced grim educational statistics: nationally, about one in five children of primary school age actually goes to school, according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Less than half go on to secondary school, an essential step for those wanting to attend university in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, or in the city of Kismayo.
SYRIA: Iraqi refugee children dropping out of school
Iraqi refugee children in Syria are struggling to keep up at school, or are dropping out to seek paid work, according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF). “Education is absolutely central to the future of all children. Having a generation not equipped to participate in the economy of their country serves no one,” said Sherazade Boualia, UNICEF head in Syria. Children often work to bring in extra income for their families. Over the last three years the number of Iraqi refugee children dropping out of school has risen steadily, according to UNICEF. Government figures indicate that 49,132 Iraqi refugees were enrolled in the 2007-2008 school year, but this dropped to 32,425 in 2008-2009. Refugees International said the number had dropped further this year, with 30 percent fewer children enrolled.
INDONESIA: Female genital mutilation persists despite ban
Though the Indonesian government banned female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) four years ago, experts say religious support for the practice is more fervent than ever, particularly in rural communities. A lack of regulation since the ban makes it difficult to monitor, but medical practitioners say FGM/C remains commonplace for women of all ages in this emerging democracy of 240 million – the world?s largest Muslim nation. Although not authorized by the Koran, the practice is growing in popularity.
