In Zimbabwe, youth militia camps may close due to poor economic conditions. The camps conditions have been declining, leaving the children in poor living conditions and with an inadequate diet. ‘Washington Katema, national coordinator of the 300,000-strong Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU), told IRIN, “the national youth programme is essentially an extension of the ruling party, and we expect that when next year's budget is announced, before the end of this year [2007], they will receive substantial funding, so that many recruits will be able to be trained before being unleashed on the population just before the elections.”
In Sri Lanka, orphanages are being used as last resort by parents of 19,000 children. “UNICEF says in most cases it is a family member who leaves the child at an orphanage. "In Sri Lanka institutional care has become the sole option for many children because their family unit is destroyed, by such things as parental loss, separation or parental conflict. Another reason may be the war and displacement factors," UNICEF said in a 24 July report entitled, "Out of Sight – Out of Mind." Poverty is also a root cause with the family feeling they cannot afford to adequately provide for the child, according to the UN agency.” Orphanages are feeling the strain, on an already poor infrastructure, with little funding and few beds, children are being left in extremely poor living conditions.
Women, children at increased risk in flood-affected areas, in Pakistan. Poor sanitation and a lack of clean water, are putting children at higher risks for disease. It appears most of the children have developed skin conditions, however other water carried diseases can can cause Protozoal infections, which cause symptoms such as abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea. Jabeen Abbas, a child protection officer with the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), told IRIN. “They have more emerging needs now which are not being met: they are more vulnerable, they need medical help, they live in shelters or camps set up in local schools, they don't have clean drinking water – and the flood-waters in Dadu, for example, are just not receding.”
A 50-year-old grandmother named Minda has lost count of the number of pregnancies she has terminated in the Philippines, where abortion is illegal and strictly taboo, but where about half a million women end their pregnancies every year. Backstreet abortions may become more common as a U.S. government aid program plans to stop distributing contraceptives in the Philippines in 2008. This will leave birth control up to the government which under the influence of Catholic bishops advocates unreliable natural birth control methods rather than the pill and condoms. (Reuters)
School and books necessities not luxuries in Burkina Faso, and the government has shown it's support by providing some 10.5 million have been distributed free of charge to primary school students. The government launched “a pilot project to give no-fee schooling in a push to curb the number of people in the country growing up without even basic education.”
