Blog#13 UGANDA: Women trafficked into sex work

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Blog # 12 “Pakistan takes steps to prevent domestic violence”

In this article I learned that Pakistan women have been victims of domestic violence for years now. The Senate unanimously approved the Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Bill, 2012 for the Islamabad Capital Territory February 20. The bill forbid any act of violence perpetrated privately and aims to protect women, children and other vulnerable people from domestic violence. The NCSW has submitted four drafts of a bill regarding domestic violence to the Ministry of Human Rights. The group has also proposed some amendments to the Pakistani Penal Code. One example is forcing pregnant women to work in the field which should be considered violence.

After reading this article I learned that in this country some cultural factors make women more vulnerable to domestic violence. There is also a misinterpretation of Islamic thoughts and traditions, the common belief that men are superior, the low educational level of many women, and their lack of political clout. According to the article, there are many common precipitating factors that are responsible for domestic violence in Pakistan, like daily conflicts, family-related problems, disagreements between women and men on any decision, preferences, and conflicts of the two genders etc. In addition to this, violence is still a significant problem facing women, men, and families and communities in the United States. Three women die every day at the hands of their husbands or boyfriends. Domestic violence causes two million injuries a year to women and untold amounts of human suffering. I think it’s devastating to know that young women between the ages of 16-24 suffer from the highest rates of dating violence and sexual assault. The article also stated that there should be more awareness programs for couple in Pakistanis. It should be done by using resources like nurses, doctors, and psychologist, working under governmental organization.   

http://centralasiaonline.com/en_GB/articles/caii/features/pakistan/main/2012/03/29/feature-01

Blog # 10 Human trafficking in India tackled by Christians

In this article, I learned that The U. S. Department estimates that as many as 27 million men, women, and children around the world are living as victims of human trafficking. This article discusses slavery and anti-trafficking among the people in India. In India there are approximately 2.8 million people trapped in slavery. Unfortunately, statistics indicate that every year, 70,000 people mainly women and children-go missing in India, with the majority having been trafficked or sold. The victims are mostly those living on less than $1 a day. Many are in desperate situations, needing financial support which leaves them vulnerable to exploitation. There is support in trying to prevent human trafficking from happing. A service called bright service is working to develop a network of churches in India to raise awareness and build strategic partnerships to take action against theses inhumane acts.

Furthermore, situations like these are happening all around the world. Mother and fathers are forced to work in field and factories against their will or in service to debts that can never be repaid. Sons and daughters are sold for sex, abducted as child soldiers, or pressured into involuntary labor. The organization Bright Hope is working with two churches in Uttar Pradesh State in the north. President and CEO CH Dyer explain. He states, their mission is to empower the local church to be the hands and feet of Christ. I learned that they also rehabilitate these young women, provide the kind of counseling to give them, what kind of job training they give them so that they never have to return to that kind of work. This month Bright Hope has launched a three-pronged approach including awareness, rescue, and rehabilitation focused on the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. This is an excellent start to preventing these acts, because there are many underage females that still have not gotten out of this. In the United States Government is not enough to fight this action. The U.S. is committed to eradicating trafficking in persons, and to do so will draw on tools ranging from law enforcement and victim service provision, to public awareness building and discrete pressure.
http://www.mnnonline.org/article/16993

Blog#9 ten arrests in global child porn online network

In this article I learned that ten people have been arrested in France, Italy, Portugal and the United States in an Italian-led inquiry into a child internet operating in 28 countries. 112 people are also being investigated. The suspected head of the network is a 52-year-old Italian man. According to the article, this was a one year investigation which, investigators found photos and videos of children under the age of 11 and even babies. The network had a total of 700 members around the world including in Argentina, Belgium, Chile, Israel, Mexico and Saudi Arabia. However, the network main servers were in the US city of Dallas and Texas. It is ridicules that so many people are invading children privacy.  Investigators stated that they manage to trace the IP addresses of computers from which the pedophile material was being sent and identify the owners.

 Moreover, apart from the 700 network, thousands viewed the material. Child pornography is a big issue facing the world today. After reading the article, it makes me think that sometimes children are not safe anywhere if we as adults can’t be trusted. In 2010, about 1,800 offenders sentence nationally for child pornography crimes in federal courts received longer average sentences than those convicted of arson, robbery, assault or even manslaughter, according to the U.S. Sentencing Commission. Children privacy needs to be protected, although there are many resources about ways in helping protect children, more need to be done. In addition to this parents should also monitor what their children is watching on the internet and explain to them that’s it’s for their own safety.  Children can be less protected if they are not aware of things like this; they need to be informed about situation like these.

http://www.eubusiness.com/news-eu/italy-child-abuse.flj

Blog #8 Shelters Don't Shelter Haiti's Needy

In this article it discusses the misuse of T-homes given to families in Haitis. It states that 34 of the 84 families who received temporary houses didn’t live in them, and that 11 families got two houses from two different humanitarian organizations. The emergency shelters distributed around the town were not passed out fairly. In the article also states that a farmer, her husband and six children used to live in a four-room concrete home that was destroyed during the earthquake in Haiti, whose epicentre lies about 25 kilometres away. The family is now cramming into a shack made of wood, cloth and plastic. These are not fit for any family let alone a family of six. Making many T-shelters for these families are beneficial but is still not fit to live in. Many shelters in America are not worse than these. There were 300,000 people in need of shelter following the earthquake in Haiti. In order to get a T-shelter families had to prove that they owned land or had a long-term lease. Moreover, over two-thirds of the post-quake refugee families-some 200,000 families were renters, meaning they were not eligible for the structures. 

 On the other hand, the shelters distributed around were not passed out fairly; many families were given homes and were not staying in them. This made it difficult for the families that were turned down when trying to get a home. People that didn’t need shelters still got shelters, which shows us how society put people in groups according to what they have. Many families did not understand the matter of how they could get a home and was not given any information. In addition to this, not knowing the region, the researchers were fooled by people who pretended that abandoned, destroyed homes belonged to them. It was very possible that some people were not honest when signing up for the homes.

http://www.globalissues.org/news/2012/03/15/13026

Blog# 7 Mothers in South Sudan reject polio vaccination

In this artical it discusses how many families in South Sudan are rejecting polio vaccination, even when its given  free of charge. Some mothers told poilo house to house vaccinators that their children had been surviving without vaccination, so there is no need for the excercise. They are blocking out vaccinators from reaching their children. Health providers move from door to door to make sure that all the children under the age of five receive the vaccination. There need to be more awareness in South Sudan about child polio because people still do not understand the imports of the immunization. In the month of January and February there were fifty cases of measles reported which was the cause of Poor Corporation between mothers and vaccinators, which may lead to the same thing if their children are not vaccinated.

Polio is a serious disease, even in the United States years ago; it invades the nervous system and can cause paralysis or even death in a matter of hours. Nigeria has registered more than 13 cases in 2011, Afghanistan 24, Pakistan 4, and India was on the top list but had no cases in the last nine months. Polio free world is working hard to end the infection but more awareness is needed. Polio is the most common cause of disability among children less than 15 years old. Although South Sudan has not had a case of polio in three years families need to be education on the severity of the disease. I think many children can be saved from having to deal with the complications of polio if parents knew more about the dangers of it and how fast it can spread. In addition to this, the Nations International Children Education Fund and World Health Organization in partnership with the National Ministry of Health at the launch of the first polio campaign 2012 have expressed commitment for routine immunization throughout the years.

http://www.africanews.com/site/Mothers_in_South_Sudan_reject_polio_vaccination/list_messages/41212

Blog # 6 MAURITANIA: Ravaged by Drought – the Number of Malnourished Children Rises

There are still children facing malnourishment in certain parts of Africa. Because of many droughts in different place, parents have little or no food to feed their children. According to the article it does not rains at all in these small towns, and there is no way harvest can take place. In the article it discusses a mother who lives in the midst of a parched landscape of sand and rocky soil, deep in the Sahel desert. A drought has destroyed the majority of the harvest in the region and has ravaged the country for months, which caused rural populations to start running out of food in early February. Situations like these are extremely severe for small children, especially if certain region were already at risk of hunger. When a nutritionist places a three-colored plastic band around the child’s upper arm, the strip tightens to the red section. This means that the child is severely malnourishment, which is the case for many children in Mauritania and other counties surrounding it.

Twelve million people will soon suffer server food insecurity and hunger in many regions if the problem persists. This is too many people going through the same situation and should create a voice. Many regions in Africa is lack the natural resources they need in order to stay healthy, which is causing families to suffer every day.  Mothers are struggling because they have no food as well as milk to feed their babies. In a normal year half of all the children under five suffer chronic malnutrition in the Sahel. Acute malnutrition among children is consistently above the ten percent threshold that for UNICEF defines an emergency. The majority of people have to go many more months in these circumstances. Moreover, It seem as if they are waiting to die but still fighting for survival. There is completely no help, and there has been no intervention to help solve the problem when crops are being destroyed by drought and many people dying.

http://www.ips.org/africa/2012/02/mauritania-ravaged-by-drought-the-number-of-malnourished-children-rises/

Blog # 5 Indonesia faces ‘serious’ population problem

This article is about Indonesia family problems and their large population. They continue to be unable to control population increases, and now are facing serious social and economic problems due to over population. This article states that Indonesia has approximate 4.2 million babies being born every year. The country’s total population reached 240 million in the year of 2009. The country is being urged to family planning seriously by the National Populations and Family Planning Board, established by the 2009 Law on population growth and family development. According to the article 9.1 percent of fertile couple, which the board main target segment, did not have access to family planning in 2009, compared to 8.6 percent in 2008.

Furthermore, not having adequate access to family planning may be a cause to the population growth. The root cause of the population boom is also the lack of knowledge about family planning. Being that Indonesia does continue to have a high population growth, their quality of life is also getting shorter. I think it is a big concern that many problems can expand because of a country being overpopulated. The new law that was established in 2009 will encourage the government and the House of Representative to consider the population and family planning issue a serious problem. There are also other problems that over population growth can cause, like dealing with food security and poverty; population expert believe Indonesia problem are rooted in poor urban and the centralization of almost all economic activities. The number of people living below that poverty line should be reduced. I learned that many people think that having more than 2 children is their right; moreover, lower income families cannot afford to perchance contraception. By introducing planning control program family can focus on the idea that a family with more than two children is a liability, not an asset.  With the new law, boards will initiate a new cooperation between government bodies and related organization to achieve a target fertility rate of one child per mother in 2015 from 2.3 children per mother currently.

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/04/16/indonesia-faces-%E2%80%98serious%E2%80%99-population-problem.html

Blog #4 South Sudan's vicious mental health cycle

This article discussed the disturbing acts associated with the mental health cycle in South Sudan Africa. In Juba Sudan, mental illness is considered a disease attributed to witchcraft, which the mental ill is often ostracized as being wild and a dangerous threat to society. According to the article communities often view mentally challenged people as misfits with families neglecting and abandoning their sickly kin. Moreover, because of families neglecting their mentally ill kin they are forced on the streets. Many of these people loiter, at times totally naked, scavenging for food to survive. Mostly in rural and remote areas people suffering from mental health problems are sometimes treated so harshly and is pushed until their homes become the bushes and forests. These mentally ill patients are more than likely thrown in jail, which may be secure, but unfit to even harbor human beings.

It is was devastating to learn that some people think that mentally ill people are a threat to society and should maintains their placement in prison. On the other hand they need a secure place where they can be stable and obtain treatment. After reading the article I understood that mental health professionals claim that although there was a high level of post-traumatic stress disorders after years of civil war, South Sudan lack mental health legislation. Psychotropic drugs are not common even in the country’s specialized hospital in the capital Juba teaching hospital where patients are expected to find for their own food. With no health care or psychological treatment these patients will not be able to have a more suitable life. I think this is a serious problem in Sudan that is being swept under the rug. These mentally ill patients are being taking advantage because of their condition and because they are handicapped. In addition to this, they also have feelings which the article did not discuss.

http://www.theafricareport.com/index.php/east-horn-africa/south-sudan-s-vicious-mental-health-cycle-50181258.html

Blog # 3 ZAMBIA: Chinese Underage Sex Scandal Sparks Emotive Debate

 

In Zambia, prosecutors has charged four Chinese men Zhang Daliu,46, a carpenter, Hung Pin Liu,46, a carpenter, Yang Gang Qiang,36, a welder, and Zhu Xiang, 51, a bricklayer with rape. The four men are facing possible life imprisonment if they be convicted of indecent assault and sex with a minor. Charges were brought against them by prosecutors in Luanshaya which is a mineral-rich copper belt province. Each of the four men charges carries a minimal jail term of 15 years with hard labor, with a maximum of life sentence. They were accused of having sex with girls under the age of 16, which is the legal age of consent in Zambia, for exchange of money. Moreover this started a heated debate, many people in Zambia has accused the young girls of bringing shame to families and Zambians. On the other hand many people feel that problems of poverty and desperation prevalent in Luanshaya forced the young girls into prostitution. The article states that Zambia is home to more than 80,000 Chinese of an estimated population of 925,000 Chinese now living and working on Africa, the majority of whom are men working in various jobs in urban and rural area. Chinese here became seen as the only ones with money to spend based on the economy.

Furthermore, many people understood why the young girls offered themselves as prostitutes. Many families in this country are poor and go weeks without meals. It fell under receivership and more than 6,000 miners lost their jobs. This caused massive poverty and hardship in Luanshya, and for the next six years few could afford to feed themselves and their families. I think this is a painful problem in other places besides Zambia that many poverty stricken women and  young girls prostitute themselves for men who have money. The rape of minors has increased from 1,676 in 2009 to 2,028 in 2010. It it’s interesting to find out that there may be a ways to help solve this solution. The increased number of cases has led the umbrella grouping for gender activists in Zambia, the Non-Governmental Organization Coordinating Council (NGOCC), to call for a national consultative meeting later this year.

http://www.ips.org/africa/2012/01/zambia-chinese-underage-sex-scandal-sparks-emotive-debate/

Blog #2 Pakistan: Violence, Death Stalk Child Domestic Help

This article is about and 11 year old boy who died in Pakistan while working in a wealthy home.  San Ali worked as a child domestic worker in posh locality in the national capital, Islamabad. On January, 5 he was strangle by Atiya Al Hussian, which was his employer.  Although she and her husband told the police that the child committed suicide, his autopsy suggested that he was strangled. Moreover, the mother then told the police that the child was neglecting her seven month old son while she was resting, in a fit of anger she strangled 11 year old San Ali. There seem to be problems throughout the country like this; in 2003, UNICEF reported that eight million children under the age of 14 were engaged as laborers, in brick kilns, carpet weaving units, agriculture, small industries, and in homes. Many households employ children, some as young as six, which is not prohibited by law in Pakistan. Many children are beaten by their employer for example, a six year old girl body was found in a deserted place, she was beaten to death by employers for urinating on the floor. To date not one has been found guilty. The prosecutors usually buy off the poor parents in out-of courts settlements.

I was amazed by the statement in the article that states in Pakistan culture it was once considered an act of charity to employ poor children. This shows me that our society as a whole need to do better when it comes to providing food, safely and shelter for families well-being. I don’t think its health physically or mentally for children to engage in child labor and hazardous conditions. Although it may be a means to bring more income in the home to poor families, children need to be protected. The article also stated that many times the child is the only worker in the homes which shows that children in this country is left to fend for themselves. Furthermore, the article stated that over the years, Pakistani media have been consistently reporting on the abuse and violence that child domestic labour often suffer at the hands of their employers. As disturbing as it seem there not enough voices speaking up about issues like these. The county has ratified the United Nations Convention on the rights of child but there is no legal validity for it in the country.

 http://www.globalissues.org/news/2012/01/26/12542