-Ray L. Wilbur, third president of Stanford University © UNICEF/Giacomo Pirozzi All children are born into this world full of endless possibility, sadly many will face hardship and struggle for the entire duration of their childhood. The majority of children's struggles are preventable, disease, poor education, hunger, lack of proper sanitation and clean drinking water. […]
In a statement issued by UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon's message on World Water Day targeted a lack of political will as the main reason for failure to achieve basic sanitation. However with today is marked to bring awareness to the plight of some 2.6 billion people world wide who are without proper sanitation facilities and […]
“Today 2.6 billion people, including almost one billion children, live without even basic sanitation. Every 20 seconds, a child dies as a result of poor sanitation. That's 1.5 million preventable deaths each year.” Children around the globe continue to endure needless suffering due to diseases brought on by a lack of access to clean drinking […]
Internally displaced persons (IDPs) at the Jamhuri grounds, Nairobi, Kenya. January 2008 © Julius Mwelu/IRIN The battle for a peaceful Kenya is far from over as a semblance of everyday life remains a distant dream for most Kenyans. While this month saw the signing of a power-sharing deal, the fight for peace and stability in […]
On this day around the world people drink, dance and celebrate the Irish, their culture and spirit. While the holiday has lost much of its meaning and the non-Irish join in the festivities often far more than do many Irish at times. I want to remind you that the day for the Irish is a […]
In speaking with friends who are all parents about teaching young children about the world and the world issues, we then ended up talking about books. While there is undoubtedly a plethora of books availible for children, its actually almost daunting how many books there are, and while most are good books few seem to […]
HIV major factor in rising child deaths in South Africa as “every year 20,000 babies are stillborn and another 22,000 die within the first month of their lives. In total, at least 75,000 children die before their fifth birthday, while 1,600 mothers die due to pregnancy or childbirth complications, according to a report on infant, […]
The words of Martin Luther King, Jr., ring as true today as they did they did then. It is our silence that allows suffering to continue. As a society we cannot remain silent about the injustices that plague our world, the injustices that children face daily, for if we speak then we can hear not […]
As spring peeked its sleep head though the last days of winter, the sun shown on the steps of the Senate Building as a group converged to demand that America fight to end slavery in its fields. Today Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin from Illinois, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John […]
America is many things, as are Americans, and our culture is as diverse as they come and when one thinks of America and our modern culture one of the things that pops into your mind is inevitably fast food. We are all touched by the reach of the fast food industry. While for some of […]
Despite international rumors and reports in the last month China's controversial one-child-per-couple law will remain in effect for at least the next decade, government officials said Monday. The Chinese governments statement ended weeks of speculation regarding the abandonment of the program to pave the way for more babies despite the largely aging population. Zhang Weiqing, […]
Tonight I had the privilege of attending a special screening of the documentary film Traffic, which is part of the MTV EXIT (End Exploitation and Trafficking) campaign. MTV EXIT, which is produced by the 2003 established MTV Europe Foundation, was designed to raise awareness and increase prevention of human trafficking among the MTV demographic. […]
Officials from the United Nations, the European Union and other institutions, as well as several ministers and other leaders have urged that women should be given a bigger voice in helping the world overcome conflicts and poverty. The call came at a conference in Brussels last week. The conference, which included some 50 international delegates, […]
Today, March 8th is International Women's Day, a day that was established to commemorate the struggle women and girls across the globe have endured in order to obtain their ‘full’ human rights. Sadly while I sit here and enjoy my ‘full’ rights, millions of women and young girls worldwide are still being denied. Millions of […]
Children are our most valuable natural resource, yet we do not prize them and treasure them as we should, but treat them as disposable items. Children across the globe daily are abuse physically, mentally, and sexually; forced to work in harsh and unbearable conditions; faced to bare witness to violence and war; suffer from preventable […]