YEMEN: Threat to legislation outlawing child marriage
Although Yemen’s parliament has agreed to set the minimum age for marriage at 17, there are concerns the decision may be rescinded as some members of parliament (MPs) say the amendments violate Sharia (Islamic) law.
AFGHANISTAN: Taliban forces students out of schools into madrasas
The closure of schools and continuing attacks on students in the southern Helmand Province forced Abdul Wakil’s parents to send him to a madrasa (Islamic school) in neighbouring Pakistan. “In the madrasa we were taught to sacrifice ourselves for Jihad in Afghanistan and were told to do suicide attacks,” the 14-year-old told IRIN in Lashkargah, centre of Afghanistan’s insurgency-torn Helmand Province.
Kenyan school offers Somali refugees a modern – and moderate – education
Hoping to preserve the peaceful tolerance and pragmatism of the Somali culture, the Fathu Rahman Primary School in Nairobi, Kenya, offers refugee children an alternative to radical Islamist schools. “This is a battle for the minds of Somali children,” said Principal Sheikh Mohammad Moallem Hussein, a moderate Islamic cleric.
Malaria: Spoonful of sugar could save thousands of children
A teaspoon of sugar allowed to dissolve under the tongue works as well as intravenous glucose to save the lives of children suffering from malaria-induced hypoglycemia, a French physician has found. Hubert Barennes tested the treatment in a pediatric department in Africa, where 800,000 children younger than 5 years old die each year of the disease.
SRI LANKA: Children suffering the most in conflict
UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has called on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to guarantee the free movement of hundreds of thousands of civilians – including as many as 75,000 children – out of conflict areas in the north.
ISRAEL: New report highlights child abuse risks
Israel’s National Council for the Child (NCC) published a report on 8 February in which it said 309,141 children had been described by social services as being at risk of abuse.
ZIMBABWE: 94 percent of schools fail to open
About 94 percent of Zimbabwe’s rural schools – where most children are educated – failed to open this year, the UN Children’s Fund said on 10 February 2009. The education system, once viewed as the finest in sub-Saharan Africa, has become a casualty of the country’s economic collapse and political infighting.
BANGLADESH: Report blasts primary school education
Around 70 percent of children in Bangladesh who complete their primary education are unable to read, write or count properly, according to an internal report by the Department of Primary Education (DPE).
