More vaccinations would save 6.4 million poor children
Boosting childhood immunization rates over the next decade in 72 of the world’s most impoverished countries would save some 6.4 million lives, and result in long-term gains in productivity valued at between $151 billion and $231 billion, according to two studies by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “Together, these two studies … show why foundations and governments everywhere should make investments in vaccination a top priority,” said Orin Levine, director of the university’s International Vaccine Access Center.
UN urges education for West Bengal girls
A report by the UN children’s agency encourages greater school enrollment for girls, as well as vocational training for girls who drop out of school, in order to reduce the staggering 53.9% rate of child marriage across the Indian state of West Bengal. “Evidence shows that educated girls grow into agents of change for their families, communities and societies as a whole,” said Lori Calvo, head of the UNICEF field office there.
Campaign inspires American “Philanthro-Teens”
Adolescent girls in the U.S. are being inspired to become Philanthro-Teens — by helping girls in developing countries grow up healthy, safe, educated and free from violence and childhood marriage — by a program of the United Nations Foundation. “The Girl Up campaign is driven by the ingenuity and enthusiasm of American girls, who are not only changing conditions on the ground in countries like Liberia and Guatemala, but they are changing their own lives in the process by learning critical organizational and leadership skills,” Tamsin Smith writes in her blog.
Trafficked Nepali children face abuse in Indian circuses
Indian circuses have emerged as a major trafficking destination for Nepalese children. Aid groups are working to recover hundreds of children as young as five from the physical and sexual abuse that often characterizes the youngsters’ time in India.
Sri Lanka’s war widows struggle to rebuild
Sri Lanka must do more to help tens of thousands of women widowed during the country’s battle with the Tamil Tigers, local women’s rights advocates say. Widowed women in the former conflict zone are tasked with rebuilding and providing income for their families, in addition to traditional child care and household responsibilities.
Peacekeepers evaluate role in Haiti
The future of the UN mission in Haiti was slated to be discussed today by representatives of Latin American countries that have deployed more than 12,000 peacekeepers to the country in light of the alleged sexual assault of a teenage boy, apparently captured on cellphone video, by Uruguayan sailors. A string of sex scandals involving peacekeeping missions from Haiti, to Bosnia, to the Democratic Republic of Congo has forced the world body to change the way it handles accusations of trafficking, rape and related crimes.
