Fix This, Please

This child is only 16 months old, and weighs half of what she should be.

Malnutrition is not unknown in Mali - in the past decade, the country has faced three droughts which all led to major food shortages - this year the country has struggled to cope with a prolonged drought and food crisis that is affecting large areas of the Sahel region of West Africa. The crisis has been made worse by a spreading internal conflict.

Islamist militant groups with ties to Al Qaeda control about two-thirds of Mali after hijacking a secular rebellion by Turaeg nomads in the north at the start of this year and seizing more territory in the wake of a March 22 military coup, which toppled the president based in Bamako.

More than 320,000 Malians have fled the north in search of food or safety, 200,000 of them seeking sanctuary in neighboring Niger, Burkina Faso and Mauritania. The remaining 120,000 are internally displaced.

This boy is suffering from acute malnutrition, something that is very common here in Mali.

Despite the vast need, international aid efforts in Mali have been hampered by political chaos and uncertainty, and in the conflict-ridden north, by Islamic extremists who have prevented outsiders from operating in the region. However, IRC staff members who are natives of the north have managed to deliver vital aid to displaced people.

These intrepid aid workers are distributing water purification kits and conducting hygiene promotion campaigns. Still, many people continue to lack clean water, putting them at high risk of cholera.

The Malian people expressed sadness and disbelief over the severity and rapidity of the humanitarian crisis in a country long viewed as stable.

 

This is actually a fairly common thing that happens here. Not with the same terroist group each time, but the act of taking over ones land and food, and ruining their lives.

http://eatocracy.cnn.com/2012/10/16/world-food-day-mali/?hpt=wo_mid

Make it Safe!

Violence keeps girls out of school. Globally, nearly half of all sexual assaults are committed against girls who are 15 and younger. Fear of this type of violence restricts where girls are allowed to go and when they are allowed to be out of the home. Often, parents do not send their daughters to school for this reason.
Violence in the home can also hold girls captive and out of school. For instance, nearly half the girls in developing countries are married during their teenage years, with many before age 15. They may experience profound violence at the hands of their often much older husbands.

But sadly, school does not equal safety. Even girls who are able to go to school still face violence -- in the classroom, of all places. A girl may walk up to five kilometers between home and school in the company of friends or an older brother to avoid the inevitable harassment by groups of men or boys she passes, only to receive more harassment from a teacher once she finally reaches school.

 In schools around the world, teachers pressure girls for sex in exchange for grades. In Zambia, for example, more than 2,000 cases of teacher rapes were reported in 2010 alone. Of these cases, only 240 teachers were convicted. While these numbers may be shocking, Zambia is not the only country with this problem. Schools should be a safe haven for girls, but instead, they are too often a place of fear and danger.

 However, despite the violence that can happen in schools, going to school tends to increase girls' safety outside school. A recent study in Swaziland found that the risk of childhood sexual violence was greatest among those who were not attending school, suggesting that greater educational opportunities decrease vulnerability to violence. Girls in school have an opportunity to escape early marriage and early motherhood, and to gain skills that give them enhanced economic and social opportunities.

 As part of the global community, we can all do our part to help girls by making school safe and making sure they can get to school.

 The benefits of education for girls are undeniable. But until we can ensure that schools are places of learning, rather than places of danger, girls will be held back. When girls are educated—and safe—they, along with our entire societies, will flourish.

This is always going to be a problem around the world. We can’t save everyone, but we will still try. It is such a shame that people have to do these things just to make themselves happy. The world is full of greedy, disgusting people who need to see the big picture.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/11/opinion/buffett-girls-safety/index.html?iref=allsearch

Bad Water Can Kill

As man and his ex-wife had their three children in Bhopal, India They said they had no choice but to give their children water contaminated by a 1984 gas leak. Two of his children, a 6-year-old girl and a 3-year-old boy, are now healthy, but his other son was diagnosed with a TORCH infection, or a type of infection passed from a mother to her fetus, and lissencephaly, a brain formation disorder that reduces his life expectancy to 10 years.

Photographer Alex Masi met the this man nearly three decades after the world’s worst industrial disaster: a chemical leak from the Union Carbide pesticide plant. Masi photographed the community’s struggles with the fallout from the disaster, specifically water pollution, over a span of three years.

Methyl isocyanate, a chemical used to produce pesticides, escaped in the form of a gas cloud from the Union Carbide plant in December 1984, taking nearly 4,000 lives in the immediate aftermath.

Since then more than 10,000 other deaths have been blamed on illnesses related to the gas leak. In addition, hundreds of thousands of survivors have reported other health effects. There has been a jump in the number of cancer cases, tuberculosis cases and birth deformities in communities near the factory. According to the Bhopal Medical Appeal, 1 in 15 chronically ill survivors were still in desperate need of attention in 2010. Many communities surrounding the abandoned plant get water from plastic tanks refilled by surface pipes or tanker trucks. Many pipes and tanks are broken, and the trucks come irregularly so residents try to build their own wells.

Often the groundwater reached by the handmade pumps is contaminated by coliform bacteria from sewage leaks, and there is still some serious chemical contamination from the disaster.

"A huge proportion of the factory site is full of very toxic waste," "There are parts of the factory where the soil you walk on is 100% toxic waste, and there are areas where you still see pools of mercury on the ground.” Colin Toogood, an author, said.  In response, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan of the Madhya Pradesh state told BBC that the plant area was safe, and tanker trucks supplied clean water to the communities that don’t have safe piped water.

The photographer said how he noticed that the poor received barley any consideration from the government, so basically they are being ignored.

Union Carbide, now a part of of Dow Chemical Co.(DOW) , paid a $470 million settlement to India in 1989, but the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal said survivors have received an average of only $500 each in compensation.

In 2010, an Indian court found Union Carbide and its executives at the time of the accident guilty of negligence causing death, endangering public life and causing hurt. However, U.S. federal court absolved them, Urban Carbide, of liability for soil and water pollution around the factory. And as DOW was juggling its lawsuits, it was honored as a top sponsor of the 2012 London Olympics. Indian aid programs and Indian Olympics officials protested, but the International Olympic Committee insisted Dow was not to blame for the accident. For many living in the city, the accident is something of the past. Most are well-aware of the water contamination and avoid it when they can, Masi said.

He, Masi, hopes to put grants and donations for this and other projects toward helping the victims. Masi’s project won the 2012 FotoEvidence Book Award, which recognizes commitment to a human rights issue. It will be featured in an exhibition at the VII Gallery in Brooklyn, New York. This event will also mark the official release of Masi’s book, “Bhopal: Second Disaster.”

I cannot believe that the United States would do something like this. We are being such hypocrite's towards other countries. We need to help these people after what they have been doing for us. We need to go and help clean up this mess, and not just let this company walk away with thousands of murders basically. I would personally love to go and help these people but i cannot. I wish i could, but i just cant. With all of the deformities in these people and their children, I think my heart would just break into a thousand pieces for each one of these children and human that are hurt.

http://cnnphotos.blogs.cnn.com/2012/10/17/a-toxic-tragedy-in-bhopal/?hpt=hp_c3&hpt=wo_mid

Human Rights Ending in Russia

A woman last week, named Tatyana Lokshina, who is a researcher for Human Rights Watch in Russia, received a lot of threatening text messages involving harm to her and her unborn child. The Human Rights Watch said that this was a response to the “hostile climate” for these activists. There are many other human rights groups’ organizations that are also facing threats to their workers/volunteers. This is all happening because President Vladimir Putin returned to Kremlin a few months ago. Lokshina received messages that included threats to her and her pregnancy, and her private, unlisted home address. Some of the messages stated that she would have an “uneasy birth” and that the senders of the messages were nearby and coming after her.  The messages were implied to make people think about trying to help the Russians and their human rights. The Human Rights Watch organizer Kenneth Roth has called on the Russian authorities to investigate these messages.

President Putin had signed a law in July that stated that all foreign-funded NGO’s as “foreign agents” and that they are not welcomed. The U.S. Agency for International Development was ordered to stop operating in Russia this current month. Many Russians are concerned about what will happen. The Human Rights Watch stated that “The hostile climate in Russia for human rights work is worsening”.

 

I honestly had no idea that the United states was even involved in Russia. I know that Russia is having a hard time, but I did not know that we had human rights activists there trying to help. It is a very weird and cruel thing to threaten a women who is with child. Isn't it illegal to harm women AND children? that's basically life in jail. Then, you throw in all of the other people they threatened, and your just screwed over for eternity. Why would President Putin even come back? didn't no one like him? i just wish everything could go back to "normal" where everyone just wants to help each other become better people.

http://news.yahoo.com/pregnant-human-rights-worker-gets-text-threats-russia-172228924.html

Living in Fear

Haiti's terror didn't end when the ground stopped shaking. Reports of rape and sexual violence have been very popular after the January 2010 earthquake, that killed more than 220,000 people and displaced almost 25% of the entire country. In the days following the disaster, camps were set up to provide shelter for more than a million displaced Haitians. But these "tent cities" have been far from ideal. Children in Nepal live in prisons with their parents.



Nearly 370,000 people remain in displacement camps, according to the U.N. And gruesome reports of violence, inadequate health care and substandard living conditions have painted a picture of horror and hopelessness. In one study, published in January by the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice , 14% of households reported that at least one member of the household had been a victim of sexual violence since the earthquake. And 70% of households surveyed said they were now more worried about sexual violence.


Residents have cited lack of lighting, long walks to the bathroom, and flimsy tents as some of the issues putting females at risk of attack. Many females also are on their own for the first time. Women and girls were left to fend for themselves in camps. People lost that sense of community protection.



High numbers of adolescent girls are engaging in what they call "transactional sex" for shelter and food. Many of those interviewed claimed they had never sold sex before, but the earthquake had left them no option. In many of those women, as well as those who have been raped, are becoming pregnant, raising fears about rising maternal health issues. Before the earth quake, Haiti was the most dangerous place to be pregnant in the Western Hemisphere: the lifetime risk of dying during childbirth there is 1 in 47.



Nearly 370,000 people remain in Haiti displacement camps, according to the U.N.


KOFAVIVand other groups are working to help young girls and women, giving them safety, support and training so they can make money and not have to sell themselves. Better lighting has been installed in some displacement camps. More than 10,000 military and police personnel are now helping to provide security throughout the country, and hundreds of U.N. peacekeepers have been assigned to specifically work with the Haitian National Police.


In the last two years, there has been a change in the way rape is prosecuted. More women are reporting the crimes, and more rapists are being prosecuted.


In the first two years after the quake, sources in Haiti had estimated there were few, if any, rape convictions. But this year there have already been more than 60 convictions for sex crimes in Haiti, according to the National Human Rights Defense Network.



http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/18/world/americas/cnnheroes-haiti-rape/index.html?hpt=wo_t5

Be Strong!

http://dawn.com/2012/10/10/malala-yousufzai-sok-daa/

Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar of Islamabad, Pakistan, spoke to CNN's Christiane Amanpour two days after Malala Yousufzai, 14, was gunned down as she headed home from school in Pakistan's conservative Swat Valley. The girl was in critical condition Thursday at a military hospital outside Islamabad after surgeons removed a bullet lodged in her neck. Malala is suffering from severe cerebral edema, or swelling of the brain

Pakistani authorities offered additional protection prior to the shooting, but Malala's family had turned it down.

When Taliban gunmen stopped the van carrying Malala and two other girls Tuesday, they asked which one was Malala Yousufzai. When the girls pointed her out, the men fired, striking all three girls. The two others were not seriously injured in the attack.

A day later, police took the van driver and another person into custody for questioning. They said they had identified the culprits, but had been arrested.

The Taliban have claimed responsibility for targeting Malala, who enraged the militant group by writing about her daily battle with extremists who used fear and intimidation to force girls to stay at home instead of going to school. Malala's online writing earned her Pakistan's first National Peace Prize in November. The Taliban have vowed to kill the teenager if she survives.
"That's absolutely wrong, and propaganda of media," the group said. "Malala is targeted because of her pioneer role in preaching secularism and so-called enlightened moderation."

The Taliban accused Malala of "playing a vital role in bucking up" the Pakistani government and "inviting Muslims to hate mujahedeen."

The Taliban denied targeting the teen activist because of her demands for an education.

The singer Madonna said, during a Wednesday night concert in Los Angeles, that Malala's story made her cry and exclaimed, "Support education! Support women!" As she performed a striptease, Madonna "turned her back to the audience to reveal the name 'Malala' stenciled across it," according to The Hollywood Reporter.

"This song is for you, Malala," she said, and then sang "Human Nature."



http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/11/world/asia/pakistan-teen-activist-attack/index.html?hpt=wo_c1

India's Sex Problem

The scenes at the transit home for girls in the Prakasam district of Andhra Pradesh, India, are horrible. Girls as young as 13 are brought here for temporary reflief after they have been rescued from sex traffickers and brothels in big cities. Each has suffered varying degrees of abuse, torture, slavery and inhumane treatment.

According to police estimates, 300,000 women and girls have been trafficked for exploitative sex work from Andhra Pradesh; of these just 3,000 have been rescued so far. The state, Andhra Pradesh, is relatively prosperous but is also has some of the poorest people in the country.

Organized sex trafficking is so entrenched that traffickers have penetrated the remotest villages, preying on vulnerable young girls from impoverished households and pushing them into sex work and slavery across the country. Promises of marriage, employment and even food are used to lure girls from their homes, only for them to find themselves forced into the sex trade. It is not surprising that when rescued girls are referred to the transit home their minds and bodies are in deep trauma

In 2005, India's National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) estimated that 44,000 children go missing in the country every year. Of these, 11,000 are never traced. A 1998 report noted that children constituted more than 40% of those trafficked into sexual exploitation in the country.One study in India found more than three in 10 trafficked children suffered from HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted infections and other problems.

The overwhelming majority of girls pushed into exploitative sex work come from rural pockets of India hit by extreme poverty. Social structures and deep-rooted gender bias mean they are the poorest, most disadvantaged people even within their own communities. Girls usually drop out of school long before their brothers; they are assigned household chores and often look after their siblings while their parents go out to work.

In many cases, girls are simply abandoned to the care of neighbors by migrant parents who leave for seasonal work in the cities.  The charity is supporting the recovery and rehabilitation of rescued girls in transit homes. They are encouraged to continue their education and are offered training to secure decent employment or set up their own business. For a few moments, the girls can forget their circumstances, and revert to being playful youngsters. Some are hopeful it could mean a new life.

Often unwanted and unwelcome, victims find themselves trapped in life-long destitution and slavery. Sometimes the only option is to return to their traffickers. Nearly eight out of 10 victims are forced back on to the streets and into brothels after being rehabilitated, according to Andhra Pradesh police. Meanwhile, their traffickers go mostly unpunished, keeping up a thriving sex trade. Although hundreds of girls are rescued from brothels every year, police say the conviction rate of perpetrators under the national Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act is low.

This leaves many sex workers helpless and lonely, and for the most there is no way to break the cycle. Most do not even exist on official records, leaving them without identity papers and excluding them from the little welfare support the state can afford, such as discounted food rations. The rehabilitation support for sex workers is virtually non-existent and most are either unable to access it or have rejoined the sex trade by the time any support becomes available. Only sex workers with HIV/AIDS are entitled to a monthly financial support of less than $4 provided by the state government. But even those who qualify rarely get it. Challenges like these make the task of organizations like Plan International and its partner grassroot NGOs extremely challenging.

http://thecnnfreedomproject.blogs.cnn.com/2012/10/10/indias-sex-slaves-face-lifelong-cycle-of-abuse/?hpt=wo_t4