The streets in Gulu have more children like Kibwola, their stories often similar. The majority are also orphans, who lost their parents in the two-decade long war in the north that pitted government forces against LRA rebels. Hawking is not the only trade for this these children – child prostitution is also common. Children are also being left behind in some IDP camps, exposing them to various forms of abuse, according to a recent assessment of the Lalogi IDP camp in Gulu. The assessment was conducted by the UN Children's Fund, the NGO World Vision and the local Gulu Support the Children Organisation.
UGANDA: New centre to boost paediatric HIV care
Children living with HIV in Uganda have been given greater access to treatment with a new paediatric HIV care centre opened at the main referral hospital in the capital, Kampala. More than 20,000 children are infected with HIV every year, and 50 percent of them die before their second birthday.
ETHIOPIA: Can't eat, won't learn
Ethiopia's schools have opened for the new academic year, but severe food insecurity in some regions has kept thousands of children out of class. “This time last year we had already enrolled 2,300 students,” said Solomon Desta, director of Bashiro primary school in Bona district of Sidama zone in the Southern region. “Now we have registered 1,800.”
PAKISTAN: Why is polio spreading?
A multitude of factors including insecurity, parents’ refusals to vaccinate their children and poor service availability are all helping to drive a rise in polio cases in Pakistan, aid agencies say. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the number of polio cases this year as of 5 October was 70, of which half were registered in August and September. In 2007, 32 cases were detected, and 40 in 2006.
TOGO: School year reopens with free primary schools
For the first time in recent years, primary school students started a new school year on 6 October in Togo without paying enrolment fees. The government has waived primary school fees as part of a more than US$80 million investment in the education system. While parents celebrated the savings, administrators taken aback by the surprise announcement worry how they will pay for school operations the fees had helped fund.
JORDAN: Palestinian schoolchildren to get government food aid
Jordanian authorities will start distributing food rations to Palestinian refugee children at schools run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) on 12 October. This is part of a programme to help cushion pupils from soaring food prices.
Africa: Urban Slum Dwellers Worldwide Nearing One Billion – UN
The number of urban slum-dwellers worldwide has broken the one billion mark, making it clear that the urbanization of poverty is arguably one of the biggest challenges facing development today, executive director of UN-Habitat, has said.
Dublin AIDS conference sets strategies to help children affected by HIV
A United Nations-backed forum pushed for social welfare services dealing with the effects of poverty and AIDS on children in the developing world. The Fourth Global Forum on Children Affected by HIV and AIDS, co-hosted in Dublin by UNICEF and Irish Aid, seeks to obtain pledges to bolster health, education and welfare services for the affected children. "For too long children have been the missing face of the aids pandemic,” UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman told some 200 delegates from 42 countries.
Congolese rape survivors break silence at UN-organized event
The event was orgonized by the UN in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where rape has been used as a weapon of war and an estimated 200,000 women and girls have been assaulted over the past 12 years. The day-long program in the eastern city of Goma is part of a joint campaign – "Stop Raping Our Greatest Resource, Power to Women and Girls in DRC” – organized by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and V-Day, a global movement to end violence against women and girls.
In Israel, a first attempt at high school integration
Israel's first bilingual Jewish-Arab high school, which has admitted its first class of 14 Arab citizens of Israel, faces exceptional challenges as the nation's first institutional effort to integrate students. The school has not received accreditation from the education ministry, which will make it difficult to receive government funding or administer matriculation exams; the ministry says the school failed to file complete paperwork by the deadline.
The challenge of raising teens in AIDS-ravaged South Africa
South African families find their ability to cope stretched to a breaking point as they struggle to raise children orphaned as a result of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and help them avoid the fate that befell their parents. Officials have launched a countrywide program including education programs to inform children about the dangers, but some wonder if the effects will be felt soon enough to help today's youngsters.