Street children bear the brunt of Malawi’s poor economic and political governance
Lilongwe – Malawi NGO, Child Rights Information and Documentation Centre (CRIDOC) has expressed shock over the horrifying situation of children living in the street who have been reported as posing a security threat to society in the Malawi’s major cities of Lilongwe and Blantyre. CRIDOC says the country’s zero defeciet budget has led to the collapse of Government support services leaving street kids “who are already lacking parental and social care had no option but to embrace even more unorthodox means of surviving each and every passing day in their lives”. The organisation was responding to a newspaper report published in The Weekend Nation of December 24 2011, in which street children are reported to be walking in small groups with tools ranging from razor blades to knives to wreck havoc on people. “In the absence of a well-coordinated child protection system, nobody seemed to care when these children hankered for guardianship; when they craved for a piece of bread, and when they yearned for psychosocial support,” CRIDOC says in a statement released on Christmas.
The newspaper reported that: “They (street children) can rape women, snatch handbags, steal money and phones. They can disfigure their victims with knives or teeth. They attack ATM users at night and steal money from air time vendors.” Executive Director of CRIDOC, George Kayange said while the news may definitely be shocking to all his organisation feels it is not necessarily surprising if we consider the deteriorating rights and wellbeing of children and young people in the country. “It is in this context that we would like to concur with psychology expert Dr Pierson Ntata that “street kids are usually victims and not perpetrators of violence”,” he said in the statement. Kayange noted that the attainment of a wide range of rights and the general welfare of children has been declining in the recent years as a result of increasing poverty, the weakening child protection systems, and the social impact of HIV and AIDS which has resulted in increasing numbers of child-headed families, child labourers, child sex workers, and children living in the street. “In 2011, the child continued to bear the brunt both directly and indirectly of the bad macro-economic governance and poor economic management which was characterised by the shortages of almost every basic commodity such as fuel, forex, water, electricity, medicine, and most significantly, the ever-rising prices of goods and services,” he said.
CRIDOC therefore appeals to the Malawi Government, through the ministry of Gender, Children, Disability, Elderly and Community Development, to consider increasing budgetary support in the year beginning 2012 towards support services for children, and strengthen capacity of child protection officers and protection systems. “Our call for increased allocation of funding for children, in particular, comes amid disheartening reports that Malawi has – due to lower levels of investment in sectors benefiting children – plummeted from the top list of a scoreboard that ranks 52 African governments’ performance in budgeting for their children which was unveiled on 24 May 2011 in Dakar, Senegal,” he said. The organisations further pleaded with Government and development partners to seriously consider scaling up the Social Cash Transfer Programme to all districts in the country.
The programme protects and promotes children’s rights such as basic education, basic health, basic nutrition, basic sanitation. “It is the lack of such “basics” that actually drives many children onto the streets of cities like Lilongwe and Blantyre as they struggle to survive, ultimately exposing them to all sorts of heath and security risks and at times even resulting in untimely (yet avoidable) deaths for the unlucky ones,” observes Kayange. CRIDOC is a non-profit organisation, established to create access to information on child rights or related issues through Research, Documentation, ICT and other communication channels. The Centre pursues this mission: “To contribute towards the promotion of rights and development of children and young people through information exchange, information documentation and information dissemination.”
© 2011, Charles Mkula. All rights reserved. – Reproduction of Newstime Africa content on any other news medium without the prior consent or approval of the publishers is forbidden, and in direct contravention of International copyright laws. Violators will be pursued and prosecuted.
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NGO raps DAP duo over unkept promise
AN NGO has chided two DAP politicians for promising to assist a woman with five children, but did nothing for seven months, reported Tamil Nesan.
Alternative Action Group chief B. Kalaivanar reportedly said that Puchong MP Gobind Singh Deo and Kinrara assemblyman Teresa Kok had promised to assist S. Valarmathy get her husband released from police detention.
He said the two politicians had given her RM100 each and had also obtained publicity, saying they had resolved her problem including paying her water and electricity charges.
He said they promised to find out the whereabouts of her husband and assist in covering the RM14,000 in outstanding repayments for her home in Taman Dahlia in Puchong.
> Tamil Nesan reported that police in Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu were looking for a 27-year-old woman and her family members who helped her marry four men, allegedly for monetary gains.
A 34-year-old disabled man, J. Retnakumar, had complained that M. Manimekhalai had agreed to marry him but wanted an expensive donation to please her brothers they opposed the union as they belonged to different communities.
He donated a piece of prime land owned in Pollachi town to her brothers and the marriage took place, but within a month, she quarrelled and left the home.
Retnakumar subsequently learnt that Manimekhalai had married a taxi driver and two others before him.
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NGO's Collapse As Dutch Funding Agency Pulls Out
You might not know the Dutch agency HIVOS - but you definitely know the NGO's they fund.
Well, the news tonight is that HIVOS is pulling out of Belize after more than 30 years, and 18.5 million dollars invested in more than 20 NGO's.
Tough economic times have forced the Dutch government to slash funding of the agency's budget by more than a third.
The withdrawal of one of the country's biggest funding agencies, which has been providing institutional support to organizations such as WIN, BOWAND, SPEAR, the Toledo Women's Maya Group, and a slew of others, is certain to have far-reaching consequences.
Meaning that, when the New Year rolls around, dozens of NGO's might be forced to close their doors, or look elsewhere for funding. Susana Rochna, Program Officer for HIVOS told us why her agency was forced to close its doors.
Susana Rochna, Program Officer, HIVOS
"Unfortunately, we're under in this scenario of reduction in the corporation funds. We haven't been able to escape from that. The Dutch, as well as other European countries, is revising its budget creation and its policies toward international corporations. And although we are not on a Governmental institution, we HIVOS, receive most of our funds from the Governmental budget."
Jim McFadzean
"What impact is your agency's withdrawal going to have some of the local agencies that you sponsor?"
Susana Rochna
"We know, of course, that when you leave a country, you leave partners without funds, but there is nothing that we can do. And we just hope that the capacity is left behind, which is something extremely satisfying for us to see. We can see that the Alliance Against AIDS, which didn't exist before us, has been enabled to bring in the assistance for AIDS, and they've trained a number of people who are right now in high decision-making positions in terms of HIV - WIN Belize, the resources of the Toledo people how strong they have ascended, all came out of our efforts. So we have the impression that we've created capacities which weren't there, and these capacities don't disappear because we are not there anymore. They will be able to find other funds; I hope so."
One such NGO that's bound to feel the pinch is Alliance Against Aids whose Executive Director told Seven News hundreds of Belizeans living with Aids will be severely affected.
Rodel Beltran Perrera - Executive Director, Alliance Against AIDS
"Major impacts, the uniqueness of HIVOS was administrative funding, and we are going to lose that. So, there is now a risk for the Alliance Against AIDS of having to pull back, or even contemplate closing our doors. And so, we want to look at other areas, and to ask people if they do, for us to continue our work, to give us a helping hand somehow."
Jim McFadzean
"What will this mean for the people that the people that you serve, those people who looked to you for help, especially those who are HIV-infected?"
Rodel Beltran Perrera
"And you are so right, that is such an excellent question. We are going to be with our backs against the wall with that. We won't have the funding to put out our helping hand to those people that do need our help - do need our assistance in that manner. We won't be able to help; we won't be able to do the things that we did in the past with HIVOS' support, and with other partners' support. As you know, the economic situation out there is very challenging, and so, who is going to feel the brunt of it? It's our persons living with HIV, and who are suffering from the disease, and their immediate families."
As a result of the budget cuts, HIVOS is also pulling out of two other Central American countries, El Salvador and Costa Rica.
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HWF is part of International Federation for Relief and Development
Kuala Lumpur: In recognition of its social services, Delhi based NGO Human Welfare Foundation (HWF) was made part of newly formed International Federation for Relief and Development (IFRD).
HWF was invited to the formational conference of IRFD held with the title “IFRD Leaders Summit 2011” at Hotel De-Palma at Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia from 9 to 11 December, 2011. The federation has been made with the aim at internationally uniting and centralising the relief and charity activities carried out by various NGOs at the national level.
There was a detailed discussion on the solutions for the current Muslim plight. The decision to make a confederation was moved by AMAL Foundation – the official social service wing of PAS, the Islamic Party in the ruling alliance of Malaysia.
The conference also made extended debates and discussions on the areas of work and its modus operandi followed by passing of the constitution and elected the first leadership of IFRD.
Besides HWF from India, the conference was attended by Amal Foundation Malaysia, Jansuyu Turkey, Al-Khidmat Foundation Pakistan, Islamic Aid Bangladesh, Ehsan Charity Organisation Sudan, Baitul Maal Indonesia, and Bangsamoro Development Agency Philipines.
Prof. KA Sidheeq Hassan (General Secretary, HWF), Suhail KK (Director for Public Relations, HWF) and SAP Salam represented HWF in the conference. SAP Salam was later elected as the member of central executive committee.
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North Koreans will 'die from malnutrition within months'
US postponement of food aid decision after death of Kim Jong-il is related to denuclearisation talks, experts claim
North Koreans mourn the death of Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang. Aid groups warn that the country is short of a month's supply of food for the year. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
Humanitarian groups fear that the death of Kim Jong-il could worsen North Korea's dire food situation, after the US postponed a decision on potential aid.
The country has relied on foreign supplies since the devastating famine of the mid-90s killed hundreds of thousands of people. But the World Food Programme (WFP) and NGOs have warned that the situation is particularly bleak this year.
Aid groups warned that North Koreans would die from malnutrition within months unless donations increased. The WFP launched an emergency programme in April, but has received less than a third of the funding it needs.
"We are concerned. Time is of the essence," said Ken Isaacs of Samaritan's Purse, a US-based NGO that helped to distribute the last American food aid in North Korea, almost three years ago.
David Austin of Mercy Corps, who visited flood-hit regions in September, warned: "The longer you delay this decision, the more suffering there's going to be." He said it would take six weeks to three months to set up new deliveries, and warned that based on current conditions, people's food rations would be cut "quite substantially" by April.
"As that goes on and on, you'll see the effects of stunting in people's growth and their development. You'll see children dying," he said.
A WFP assessment last month found that harvests improved this year despite heavy rains and flooding in late summer. However, many people had experienced prolonged deprivation and North Korea still faced a food deficit of some 414,000 tons.
"Health officials interviewed reported a 50% to 100% increase in the admissions of malnourished children into paediatric wards compared to last year, a sharp rise in low birth weight, and the mission team observed several cases of oedema [a symptom of extreme malnutrition]," it added.
Reports have suggested that the US could offer 240,000 tons of aid. It says the decision is unrelated to denuclearisation, but experts point out how closely talks on the two issues have run and say North Korea has greatly improved access for monitoring and assessment – the grounds that the state department gives for requiring further discussions.
"We're going to have to keep talking about this, and given the mourning period, frankly, we don't think we'll be able to have much more clarity and resolve these issues before the new year," spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told a news conference.
Kim Hartzner of the Danish NGO Mission East said the current conditions were equivalent to North Korea producing enough to feed its population for only 10 months of the year, and buying another two weeks' worth of food.
The WFP programme was supposed to provide the other six weeks' worth – but because it has insufficient funding, can supply only two.
"In broad numbers, they lack one month of food for the entire year," he said.
He warned: "Everyone is warning it's going to get worse and worse, but nothing happens. I fear it's going to be the same situation as in the African Horn: in four or five months you will see quite a lot of people dying and people will say, 'Why didn't we do something four or five months ago?'"
He said one of the girls he had treated on a recent visit to North Korea was six years old yet weighed less than his children when they were one. Her hair was greying and her upper arm circumference was just 10cm.
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Unstoppable@46, that's Salman
Salman Khan turns 46 today and in style. This year has been good for him as both his films Dabangg and Ready became top grossers.
With his fan following increasing by thousands, he has every reason to celebrate. He is also one of the most bankable stars of our times. Throughout his acting career, Salman has been in the news more for his personal life than his professional life. His sizzling on screen and off-screen chemistry with Aishwarya Rai and his bitter spat with friend turned foe Shah Rukh Khan kept making headlines. However, all that has changed today.
Salman is recognized for what he is as an actor and as a human being- he is actively involved in many social causes, the NGO being Being Human.
Riding on the success waves of Wanted, Dabangg, Ready and Bodyguard, the actor will return to the silver screen with Kabir Khan's Ek Tha Tiger in 2012. The makers of Ek Tha Tiger postponed the release of the film to Eid, 2012 instead of previously scheduled June 1 premier. The actor is turning 46 today but he still is the ageless entertainer with a golden heart.
India Today wishes Salman Khan a very happy birthday.
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HC orders inspection of 64 night shelters of capital
New Delhi, Dec 14 (PTI) The Delhi High Court today said that all 64 night shelters of the capital be inspected and a report be filed by next Monday giving details about them which would include their condition and occupancy. "Let a report be filed on December 19. You both (the petitioner NGO and Delhi Government officials) together visit the shelters and report back to us," bench of Acting Chief Justice A K Sikri and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw said. The court was hearing a PIL which was constituted after it took suo motu cognisance of news reports last year about demolition of a night shelter on Pusa Road amid biting cold. Earlier, the court asked the city government to ensure that all night shelters, including the ones which were not operational for past few months due to low occupancy, should remain functional. The court asked the government and Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board of MCD to comply with earlier order to improve maintenance of night-shelters. An NGO has approached the court again alleging that some shelters have been closed despite its earlier order rejecting the government's plea to shut 64 temporary night shelters on the ground that they were losing more than Rs one crore per month due to low occupancy. NGO Shahari Adhikar Manch alleged that despite the order to MCD to operate all shelters, only 16 were functioning. It further alleged the court had also asked MCD to constitute a panel to find out ways and means to improve the upkeep of night-shelters but nothing has been done so far.
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NGO calls upon Chávez to pardon Iván Simonovis
On Tuesday, several organizations will accompany Ivan Simonovis relatives to the presidencial palace of Miraflores Palace to request a presidential pardon
Representatives of NGO Foro Penal, María del Pilar de Simonovis, and journalist and former political prisoner Leocenis García on Tuesday will appear at the presidencial palace of Miraflores to ask President Hugo Chávez to pardon former police commissioner Iván Simonovis, who has been diagnosed with a number of diseases.
On Tuesday, "we will continue to take peaceful actions, and we will visit the presidencial palace of Miraflores, together with the relatives of Simonovis and human rights organizations, to seek pardon for the former police commissioner. He is going through hard circumstances. We will insist on his release for humanitarian reasons," said attorney Alfredo Romero in a news conference.
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Greek Financial Crisis Tearing Apart Families and Children
The deep financial crisis in Greece has cut swath of misery across the country, particularly upon families struggling to feed their children.
The Greek media are filled with tales of woe, including rising suicides, child abandonments and increasing rates of depression, among other horrors.
The case of one Dimitris Gasparinatos may symbolize the pain that has enveloped the economically crippled nation.
According to a report in the British newspaper The Guardian, just prior to Christmas, the 42-year-old father of 10 asked Greek authorities to take four of his children into care because he could no longer afford to feed them.
Gasparinatos and his wife Christina live in a small flat in the port city of Patras and had to get by on his monthly salary of 960 euros ($1240) and welfare payments of 460 euros ($595) every two months.
That translates to about $18,450 annually – for a dozen people.
The Gasparinatos are also deeply in debt.
"The crisis had killed us. I am ashamed to say but it had got to the point where I couldn't even afford the [two euros] needed to buy bread,” Gasparinatos told the Guardian.
“We didn’t want to break up the family but we did think it would be easier for them if four of my children were sent to an institution for maybe two or three years.”
The following day, his 37-year-old wife appeared at the local government town hall and asked officials to “save” her kids.
Theoharis Massaras, the local deputy mayor and director of social works at Patras, told the paper that requests for aid and food have tripled since last year.
“They weren't what I'd call traditionally low-income people,” the mayor added. “Many had good jobs until this year when their shops and businesses closed. But to be asked to take children away was something new. When we visited their home and saw the situation for ourselves, the third world conditions, the poverty and filth, we couldn't believe our eyes."
The Greek newspaper Kathimerini recently reported that 500 families had asked the charity SOS Children’s Villages to take their children off their hands.
Greece, which has accepted hundreds of billions in financial aid from the EU and IMF, has imposed a harsh austerity program to try to climb out of its deep debt.
Among other things, the Athens government will put 30,000 civil servants on 12 months' notice with a 60 percent pay cut and replace only one in 10 retiring public workers until 2014: Cut certain pensions by 20 percent; significantly raise taxes on virtually everything from cars to cigarettes; and commence a wholesale disposal of state-controlled assets.
A senior official at ADEDY, the public workers union which has been organizing strikes and rallies to protest the government’s spending cuts and austerity measures, told the Guardian: "People are going hungry, families are breaking up, and instances are mounting of mothers and fathers no longer being able to bring up their own kids. Until now there has been a conspiracy of silence around the tragic effects of the austerity measures the [International Monetary Fund] and [European Union] are asking us to take."
Similarly, a social worker named Dimitris Tzouras told the Guardian: "Unfortunately, there's been a huge increase in demand from families in need. In the greater Attica region [around Athens], we're talking about a 100 percent increase partly because public welfare is in such disarray people have no one else to turn to."
Tzouras added: "Parents who feel they can no longer look after children are calling in, but our policy is to do whatever we can to keep families united. The crisis has exacerbated underlying problems that in the past may just have threatened to tear families apart. It's not only the vulnerable. It's now affecting the middle class."
Last month. George Protopapas, director of SOS Children's Villages in Greece, said in an interview on the charity’s Web site: ”These are hard times, and nobody knows exactly what's going to happen. It is quite depressing for all of us that it is currently so difficult to find the correct solutions for these political, economic, and social issues.”
Protopapas also warned that with charitable organizations coming under the government’s draconian tax policies, his organization might not survive.
“Our means won't last more than another six months to continue our programs as usual and to guarantee the well-being of the children,” he said. “Naturally we are looking for new ways out. However, if the new taxes remain the way they are, it is possible that by the end of next year we will be forced to stop a number of our programs.”
Costas Yannopoulos, head of charity called the Smile of the Child, has seen up close how the crisis has damaged Greek families.
"The crisis has made a bad situation worse," he complained to The Guardian. "Alcoholism, drug abuse and psychiatric problems are on the rise and more and more children are being abandoned on the streets."
The Athens News newspaper frequently reports on new masses of homeless on the capital city’s streets. The paper recently reported that two small 4-year old boys were left abandoned on the doorstep of Kovitos, an NGO in Athens founded by a priest.
Even more tragic, last week a one-week-old baby was abandoned on a plot of land next to a hotel in Thessaloniki in northern Greece.
It is unclear just how many homeless people there are in Greece. In January of this year, the NGO called Klimaka and the Red Cross estimated there are at least 20,000 homeless Greeks; that number has surely climbed significantly since then.
Yiannis Sykroutris, the head of the Greek Red Cross’s homeless program, told the Kathimerini newspaper: “What we are seeing now is unprecedented. We are being approached by people one would never imagine as homeless. There are also owners of small-scale manufacturing units and other traders who have gone bankrupt. We have even seen entire families on the street.”
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Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani could be hanged in Iran
Judiciary officials exploring whether woman whose sentence to death by stoning was suspended can be hanged instead
An Iranian woman whose sentence of death by stoning for adultery provoked an international outcry could be executed by hanging instead, the country's judicial authorities have indicated.
Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, a 44-year-old mother of two, was convicted of conducting an "illicit relationship outside marriage" in 2006 and has since been kept in Tabriz prison in the west of Iran.
Malek Ajdar Sharifi, the head of the judiciary in East Azerbaijan, said on Sunday that the prison does not have the "necessary facilities" to carry out the sentence of stoning. Therefore, he said, authorities are considering hanging as an alternative.
According to Sharifi, an investigation has been launched to determine whether it is legally and religiously possible to go ahead with the hanging instead of stoning. "As soon as the result of the investigation is obtained, we will carry out the sentence," he said in quotes carried by the semi-official Isna news agency.
Mohammadi Ashtiani's sentence was temporarily halted in response to international protests, and Iranian officials have since made confusing and often contradictory comments about her fate. In 2010 President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denied she had been given a sentence of stoning, while a senior adviser to Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, signalled her life could be spared.
Mina Ahadi, a member of the International Committee against Stoning, said Sharifi's remarks proved that international pressure had succeeded, but warned that execution was still a real possibility.
"Iran kept quiet about Sakineh for almost a year and we had little information about her case and now … they have suddenly stepped forward to say she could be hanged," she said. "I believe they are testing the water."
Mohammadi Ashtiani's case came to prominence in July 2010 when her children appealed to the international community to help stop the imminent execution of their mother.
Within days hundreds of human rights activists, campaigners and world leaders joined an international campaign for her release and Mohammadi Ashtiani soon became the symbol for those facing the punishment of stoning in Iran.
Seven people have been stoned to death in Iran since 2006 and at least 14 are currently facing death by stoning, according to the NGO Iran Human Rights.
At her trial Mohammadi Ashtiani was also given a 10-year prison term for the murder of her husband, which her lawyer said was subsequently reduced to five years for "complicity" in the crime, according to Amnesty International. Many activists believe her convictions were based on confessions made under duress.
Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, a spokesperson for the NGO Iran Human Rights, said Iran has a history of changing stoning sentences to hanging in face of pressure. "One such examples is that of Abdollah Farivar, a music teacher who was sentenced to death by stoning for adultery but was instead hanged in 2009," he said. He added that changing stoning to hanging is illegal under Iranian law.
Several people have fallen victim to the Iranian authorities for highlighting Mohammadi Ashtiani's case. Mohammad Mostafaei, one of her lawyers, was briefly arrested and later forced to flee. He now lives in Norway.
Houtan Kian, Mohammadi Ashtiani's other lawyer, who was appointed by the government, is in jail after being arrested in October 2010 for speaking to the media. Kian, who is reported to have been tortured, has been held incommunicado for more than a year. Last December, he was forced to make a televised confession along with Mohammadi Ashtiani, her son and two German journalists who were detained for interviewing Mohammadi Ashtiani's family without a press visa.
The confessions, were broadcast by Iran's English-language Press TV, which has its main overseas offices in London.
In recent years, Iran has been criticised for the sharp rise in its executions. Earlier this month, Amnesty International called Iran's escalating use of the capital punishment "a killing spree of staggering proportions". At least 600 people were executed in Iran in 2011, up to the end of November.
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2,000 “Parcels of Love” from Cyprus to Athens
The humanitarian campaign “Parcels of Love”, organized by the Cypriot radio station “Astra” and the NGO “Cyprus Stop Trafficking”, has showed impressive results in gathering help to support 200 children living in the Municipality of Athens and facing the challenges of food crisis.
After the relevant appeal of the Municipality of Athens and the successful coverage of the needs of the 200 children by Friday, December 23, the campaign aims at expanding its activities in order to aid the ten thousands of homeless people living in the Greek capital.
According to an announcement, the warehouses of the Cypriot Post Offices in Latsia are already containing 2000 parcels of humanitarian aid and the next mission is expected to commence early next week.
Furthermore, money contributions are estimated so far at 30,000 Euros. This money will be sent in form of coupons, which will be cashed in several Greek supermarket chains.
The organizers of the campaign are appealing for clothes, which can be thrown into the special purple baskets of the NGO “Anakyklos”, found all over around Cyprus.
The response of the Cypriot people is astounding and the Turkish-Cypriots have also contributed to the overall effort.
Everyone willing to help this coordinated campaign, should address one of the 55 Cypriot Post offices.
Lilongwe – Malawi NGO, Child Rights Information and Documentation Centre (CRIDOC) has expressed shock over the horrifying situation of children living in the street who have been reported as posing a security threat to society in the Malawi’s major cities of Lilongwe and Blantyre. CRIDOC says the country’s zero defeciet budget has led to the collapse of Government support services leaving street kids “who are already lacking parental and social care had no option but to embrace even more unorthodox means of surviving each and every passing day in their lives”. The organisation was responding to a newspaper report published in The Weekend Nation of December 24 2011, in which street children are reported to be walking in small groups with tools ranging from razor blades to knives to wreck havoc on people. “In the absence of a well-coordinated child protection system, nobody seemed to care when these children hankered for guardianship; when they craved for a piece of bread, and when they yearned for psychosocial support,” CRIDOC says in a statement released on Christmas.
The newspaper reported that: “They (street children) can rape women, snatch handbags, steal money and phones. They can disfigure their victims with knives or teeth. They attack ATM users at night and steal money from air time vendors.” Executive Director of CRIDOC, George Kayange said while the news may definitely be shocking to all his organisation feels it is not necessarily surprising if we consider the deteriorating rights and wellbeing of children and young people in the country. “It is in this context that we would like to concur with psychology expert Dr Pierson Ntata that “street kids are usually victims and not perpetrators of violence”,” he said in the statement. Kayange noted that the attainment of a wide range of rights and the general welfare of children has been declining in the recent years as a result of increasing poverty, the weakening child protection systems, and the social impact of HIV and AIDS which has resulted in increasing numbers of child-headed families, child labourers, child sex workers, and children living in the street. “In 2011, the child continued to bear the brunt both directly and indirectly of the bad macro-economic governance and poor economic management which was characterised by the shortages of almost every basic commodity such as fuel, forex, water, electricity, medicine, and most significantly, the ever-rising prices of goods and services,” he said.
CRIDOC therefore appeals to the Malawi Government, through the ministry of Gender, Children, Disability, Elderly and Community Development, to consider increasing budgetary support in the year beginning 2012 towards support services for children, and strengthen capacity of child protection officers and protection systems. “Our call for increased allocation of funding for children, in particular, comes amid disheartening reports that Malawi has – due to lower levels of investment in sectors benefiting children – plummeted from the top list of a scoreboard that ranks 52 African governments’ performance in budgeting for their children which was unveiled on 24 May 2011 in Dakar, Senegal,” he said. The organisations further pleaded with Government and development partners to seriously consider scaling up the Social Cash Transfer Programme to all districts in the country.
The programme protects and promotes children’s rights such as basic education, basic health, basic nutrition, basic sanitation. “It is the lack of such “basics” that actually drives many children onto the streets of cities like Lilongwe and Blantyre as they struggle to survive, ultimately exposing them to all sorts of heath and security risks and at times even resulting in untimely (yet avoidable) deaths for the unlucky ones,” observes Kayange. CRIDOC is a non-profit organisation, established to create access to information on child rights or related issues through Research, Documentation, ICT and other communication channels. The Centre pursues this mission: “To contribute towards the promotion of rights and development of children and young people through information exchange, information documentation and information dissemination.”
© 2011, Charles Mkula. All rights reserved. – Reproduction of Newstime Africa content on any other news medium without the prior consent or approval of the publishers is forbidden, and in direct contravention of International copyright laws. Violators will be pursued and prosecuted.
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NGO raps DAP duo over unkept promise
AN NGO has chided two DAP politicians for promising to assist a woman with five children, but did nothing for seven months, reported Tamil Nesan.
Alternative Action Group chief B. Kalaivanar reportedly said that Puchong MP Gobind Singh Deo and Kinrara assemblyman Teresa Kok had promised to assist S. Valarmathy get her husband released from police detention.
He said the two politicians had given her RM100 each and had also obtained publicity, saying they had resolved her problem including paying her water and electricity charges.
He said they promised to find out the whereabouts of her husband and assist in covering the RM14,000 in outstanding repayments for her home in Taman Dahlia in Puchong.
> Tamil Nesan reported that police in Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu were looking for a 27-year-old woman and her family members who helped her marry four men, allegedly for monetary gains.
A 34-year-old disabled man, J. Retnakumar, had complained that M. Manimekhalai had agreed to marry him but wanted an expensive donation to please her brothers they opposed the union as they belonged to different communities.
He donated a piece of prime land owned in Pollachi town to her brothers and the marriage took place, but within a month, she quarrelled and left the home.
Retnakumar subsequently learnt that Manimekhalai had married a taxi driver and two others before him.
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NGO's Collapse As Dutch Funding Agency Pulls Out
You might not know the Dutch agency HIVOS - but you definitely know the NGO's they fund.
Well, the news tonight is that HIVOS is pulling out of Belize after more than 30 years, and 18.5 million dollars invested in more than 20 NGO's.
Tough economic times have forced the Dutch government to slash funding of the agency's budget by more than a third.
The withdrawal of one of the country's biggest funding agencies, which has been providing institutional support to organizations such as WIN, BOWAND, SPEAR, the Toledo Women's Maya Group, and a slew of others, is certain to have far-reaching consequences.
Meaning that, when the New Year rolls around, dozens of NGO's might be forced to close their doors, or look elsewhere for funding. Susana Rochna, Program Officer for HIVOS told us why her agency was forced to close its doors.
Susana Rochna, Program Officer, HIVOS
"Unfortunately, we're under in this scenario of reduction in the corporation funds. We haven't been able to escape from that. The Dutch, as well as other European countries, is revising its budget creation and its policies toward international corporations. And although we are not on a Governmental institution, we HIVOS, receive most of our funds from the Governmental budget."
Jim McFadzean
"What impact is your agency's withdrawal going to have some of the local agencies that you sponsor?"
Susana Rochna
"We know, of course, that when you leave a country, you leave partners without funds, but there is nothing that we can do. And we just hope that the capacity is left behind, which is something extremely satisfying for us to see. We can see that the Alliance Against AIDS, which didn't exist before us, has been enabled to bring in the assistance for AIDS, and they've trained a number of people who are right now in high decision-making positions in terms of HIV - WIN Belize, the resources of the Toledo people how strong they have ascended, all came out of our efforts. So we have the impression that we've created capacities which weren't there, and these capacities don't disappear because we are not there anymore. They will be able to find other funds; I hope so."
One such NGO that's bound to feel the pinch is Alliance Against Aids whose Executive Director told Seven News hundreds of Belizeans living with Aids will be severely affected.
Rodel Beltran Perrera - Executive Director, Alliance Against AIDS
"Major impacts, the uniqueness of HIVOS was administrative funding, and we are going to lose that. So, there is now a risk for the Alliance Against AIDS of having to pull back, or even contemplate closing our doors. And so, we want to look at other areas, and to ask people if they do, for us to continue our work, to give us a helping hand somehow."
Jim McFadzean
"What will this mean for the people that the people that you serve, those people who looked to you for help, especially those who are HIV-infected?"
Rodel Beltran Perrera
"And you are so right, that is such an excellent question. We are going to be with our backs against the wall with that. We won't have the funding to put out our helping hand to those people that do need our help - do need our assistance in that manner. We won't be able to help; we won't be able to do the things that we did in the past with HIVOS' support, and with other partners' support. As you know, the economic situation out there is very challenging, and so, who is going to feel the brunt of it? It's our persons living with HIV, and who are suffering from the disease, and their immediate families."
As a result of the budget cuts, HIVOS is also pulling out of two other Central American countries, El Salvador and Costa Rica.
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HWF is part of International Federation for Relief and Development
Kuala Lumpur: In recognition of its social services, Delhi based NGO Human Welfare Foundation (HWF) was made part of newly formed International Federation for Relief and Development (IFRD).
HWF was invited to the formational conference of IRFD held with the title “IFRD Leaders Summit 2011” at Hotel De-Palma at Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia from 9 to 11 December, 2011. The federation has been made with the aim at internationally uniting and centralising the relief and charity activities carried out by various NGOs at the national level.
There was a detailed discussion on the solutions for the current Muslim plight. The decision to make a confederation was moved by AMAL Foundation – the official social service wing of PAS, the Islamic Party in the ruling alliance of Malaysia.
The conference also made extended debates and discussions on the areas of work and its modus operandi followed by passing of the constitution and elected the first leadership of IFRD.
Besides HWF from India, the conference was attended by Amal Foundation Malaysia, Jansuyu Turkey, Al-Khidmat Foundation Pakistan, Islamic Aid Bangladesh, Ehsan Charity Organisation Sudan, Baitul Maal Indonesia, and Bangsamoro Development Agency Philipines.
Prof. KA Sidheeq Hassan (General Secretary, HWF), Suhail KK (Director for Public Relations, HWF) and SAP Salam represented HWF in the conference. SAP Salam was later elected as the member of central executive committee.
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North Koreans will 'die from malnutrition within months'
US postponement of food aid decision after death of Kim Jong-il is related to denuclearisation talks, experts claim
North Koreans mourn the death of Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang. Aid groups warn that the country is short of a month's supply of food for the year. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
Humanitarian groups fear that the death of Kim Jong-il could worsen North Korea's dire food situation, after the US postponed a decision on potential aid.
The country has relied on foreign supplies since the devastating famine of the mid-90s killed hundreds of thousands of people. But the World Food Programme (WFP) and NGOs have warned that the situation is particularly bleak this year.
Aid groups warned that North Koreans would die from malnutrition within months unless donations increased. The WFP launched an emergency programme in April, but has received less than a third of the funding it needs.
"We are concerned. Time is of the essence," said Ken Isaacs of Samaritan's Purse, a US-based NGO that helped to distribute the last American food aid in North Korea, almost three years ago.
David Austin of Mercy Corps, who visited flood-hit regions in September, warned: "The longer you delay this decision, the more suffering there's going to be." He said it would take six weeks to three months to set up new deliveries, and warned that based on current conditions, people's food rations would be cut "quite substantially" by April.
"As that goes on and on, you'll see the effects of stunting in people's growth and their development. You'll see children dying," he said.
A WFP assessment last month found that harvests improved this year despite heavy rains and flooding in late summer. However, many people had experienced prolonged deprivation and North Korea still faced a food deficit of some 414,000 tons.
"Health officials interviewed reported a 50% to 100% increase in the admissions of malnourished children into paediatric wards compared to last year, a sharp rise in low birth weight, and the mission team observed several cases of oedema [a symptom of extreme malnutrition]," it added.
Reports have suggested that the US could offer 240,000 tons of aid. It says the decision is unrelated to denuclearisation, but experts point out how closely talks on the two issues have run and say North Korea has greatly improved access for monitoring and assessment – the grounds that the state department gives for requiring further discussions.
"We're going to have to keep talking about this, and given the mourning period, frankly, we don't think we'll be able to have much more clarity and resolve these issues before the new year," spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told a news conference.
Kim Hartzner of the Danish NGO Mission East said the current conditions were equivalent to North Korea producing enough to feed its population for only 10 months of the year, and buying another two weeks' worth of food.
The WFP programme was supposed to provide the other six weeks' worth – but because it has insufficient funding, can supply only two.
"In broad numbers, they lack one month of food for the entire year," he said.
He warned: "Everyone is warning it's going to get worse and worse, but nothing happens. I fear it's going to be the same situation as in the African Horn: in four or five months you will see quite a lot of people dying and people will say, 'Why didn't we do something four or five months ago?'"
He said one of the girls he had treated on a recent visit to North Korea was six years old yet weighed less than his children when they were one. Her hair was greying and her upper arm circumference was just 10cm.
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Unstoppable@46, that's Salman
Salman Khan turns 46 today and in style. This year has been good for him as both his films Dabangg and Ready became top grossers.
With his fan following increasing by thousands, he has every reason to celebrate. He is also one of the most bankable stars of our times. Throughout his acting career, Salman has been in the news more for his personal life than his professional life. His sizzling on screen and off-screen chemistry with Aishwarya Rai and his bitter spat with friend turned foe Shah Rukh Khan kept making headlines. However, all that has changed today.
Salman is recognized for what he is as an actor and as a human being- he is actively involved in many social causes, the NGO being Being Human.
Riding on the success waves of Wanted, Dabangg, Ready and Bodyguard, the actor will return to the silver screen with Kabir Khan's Ek Tha Tiger in 2012. The makers of Ek Tha Tiger postponed the release of the film to Eid, 2012 instead of previously scheduled June 1 premier. The actor is turning 46 today but he still is the ageless entertainer with a golden heart.
India Today wishes Salman Khan a very happy birthday.
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HC orders inspection of 64 night shelters of capital
New Delhi, Dec 14 (PTI) The Delhi High Court today said that all 64 night shelters of the capital be inspected and a report be filed by next Monday giving details about them which would include their condition and occupancy. "Let a report be filed on December 19. You both (the petitioner NGO and Delhi Government officials) together visit the shelters and report back to us," bench of Acting Chief Justice A K Sikri and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw said. The court was hearing a PIL which was constituted after it took suo motu cognisance of news reports last year about demolition of a night shelter on Pusa Road amid biting cold. Earlier, the court asked the city government to ensure that all night shelters, including the ones which were not operational for past few months due to low occupancy, should remain functional. The court asked the government and Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board of MCD to comply with earlier order to improve maintenance of night-shelters. An NGO has approached the court again alleging that some shelters have been closed despite its earlier order rejecting the government's plea to shut 64 temporary night shelters on the ground that they were losing more than Rs one crore per month due to low occupancy. NGO Shahari Adhikar Manch alleged that despite the order to MCD to operate all shelters, only 16 were functioning. It further alleged the court had also asked MCD to constitute a panel to find out ways and means to improve the upkeep of night-shelters but nothing has been done so far.
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NGO calls upon Chávez to pardon Iván Simonovis
On Tuesday, several organizations will accompany Ivan Simonovis relatives to the presidencial palace of Miraflores Palace to request a presidential pardon
Representatives of NGO Foro Penal, María del Pilar de Simonovis, and journalist and former political prisoner Leocenis García on Tuesday will appear at the presidencial palace of Miraflores to ask President Hugo Chávez to pardon former police commissioner Iván Simonovis, who has been diagnosed with a number of diseases.
On Tuesday, "we will continue to take peaceful actions, and we will visit the presidencial palace of Miraflores, together with the relatives of Simonovis and human rights organizations, to seek pardon for the former police commissioner. He is going through hard circumstances. We will insist on his release for humanitarian reasons," said attorney Alfredo Romero in a news conference.
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Greek Financial Crisis Tearing Apart Families and Children
The deep financial crisis in Greece has cut swath of misery across the country, particularly upon families struggling to feed their children.
The Greek media are filled with tales of woe, including rising suicides, child abandonments and increasing rates of depression, among other horrors.
The case of one Dimitris Gasparinatos may symbolize the pain that has enveloped the economically crippled nation.
According to a report in the British newspaper The Guardian, just prior to Christmas, the 42-year-old father of 10 asked Greek authorities to take four of his children into care because he could no longer afford to feed them.
Gasparinatos and his wife Christina live in a small flat in the port city of Patras and had to get by on his monthly salary of 960 euros ($1240) and welfare payments of 460 euros ($595) every two months.
That translates to about $18,450 annually – for a dozen people.
The Gasparinatos are also deeply in debt.
"The crisis had killed us. I am ashamed to say but it had got to the point where I couldn't even afford the [two euros] needed to buy bread,” Gasparinatos told the Guardian.
“We didn’t want to break up the family but we did think it would be easier for them if four of my children were sent to an institution for maybe two or three years.”
The following day, his 37-year-old wife appeared at the local government town hall and asked officials to “save” her kids.
Theoharis Massaras, the local deputy mayor and director of social works at Patras, told the paper that requests for aid and food have tripled since last year.
“They weren't what I'd call traditionally low-income people,” the mayor added. “Many had good jobs until this year when their shops and businesses closed. But to be asked to take children away was something new. When we visited their home and saw the situation for ourselves, the third world conditions, the poverty and filth, we couldn't believe our eyes."
The Greek newspaper Kathimerini recently reported that 500 families had asked the charity SOS Children’s Villages to take their children off their hands.
Greece, which has accepted hundreds of billions in financial aid from the EU and IMF, has imposed a harsh austerity program to try to climb out of its deep debt.
Among other things, the Athens government will put 30,000 civil servants on 12 months' notice with a 60 percent pay cut and replace only one in 10 retiring public workers until 2014: Cut certain pensions by 20 percent; significantly raise taxes on virtually everything from cars to cigarettes; and commence a wholesale disposal of state-controlled assets.
A senior official at ADEDY, the public workers union which has been organizing strikes and rallies to protest the government’s spending cuts and austerity measures, told the Guardian: "People are going hungry, families are breaking up, and instances are mounting of mothers and fathers no longer being able to bring up their own kids. Until now there has been a conspiracy of silence around the tragic effects of the austerity measures the [International Monetary Fund] and [European Union] are asking us to take."
Similarly, a social worker named Dimitris Tzouras told the Guardian: "Unfortunately, there's been a huge increase in demand from families in need. In the greater Attica region [around Athens], we're talking about a 100 percent increase partly because public welfare is in such disarray people have no one else to turn to."
Tzouras added: "Parents who feel they can no longer look after children are calling in, but our policy is to do whatever we can to keep families united. The crisis has exacerbated underlying problems that in the past may just have threatened to tear families apart. It's not only the vulnerable. It's now affecting the middle class."
Last month. George Protopapas, director of SOS Children's Villages in Greece, said in an interview on the charity’s Web site: ”These are hard times, and nobody knows exactly what's going to happen. It is quite depressing for all of us that it is currently so difficult to find the correct solutions for these political, economic, and social issues.”
Protopapas also warned that with charitable organizations coming under the government’s draconian tax policies, his organization might not survive.
“Our means won't last more than another six months to continue our programs as usual and to guarantee the well-being of the children,” he said. “Naturally we are looking for new ways out. However, if the new taxes remain the way they are, it is possible that by the end of next year we will be forced to stop a number of our programs.”
Costas Yannopoulos, head of charity called the Smile of the Child, has seen up close how the crisis has damaged Greek families.
"The crisis has made a bad situation worse," he complained to The Guardian. "Alcoholism, drug abuse and psychiatric problems are on the rise and more and more children are being abandoned on the streets."
The Athens News newspaper frequently reports on new masses of homeless on the capital city’s streets. The paper recently reported that two small 4-year old boys were left abandoned on the doorstep of Kovitos, an NGO in Athens founded by a priest.
Even more tragic, last week a one-week-old baby was abandoned on a plot of land next to a hotel in Thessaloniki in northern Greece.
It is unclear just how many homeless people there are in Greece. In January of this year, the NGO called Klimaka and the Red Cross estimated there are at least 20,000 homeless Greeks; that number has surely climbed significantly since then.
Yiannis Sykroutris, the head of the Greek Red Cross’s homeless program, told the Kathimerini newspaper: “What we are seeing now is unprecedented. We are being approached by people one would never imagine as homeless. There are also owners of small-scale manufacturing units and other traders who have gone bankrupt. We have even seen entire families on the street.”
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Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani could be hanged in Iran
Judiciary officials exploring whether woman whose sentence to death by stoning was suspended can be hanged instead
An Iranian woman whose sentence of death by stoning for adultery provoked an international outcry could be executed by hanging instead, the country's judicial authorities have indicated.
Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, a 44-year-old mother of two, was convicted of conducting an "illicit relationship outside marriage" in 2006 and has since been kept in Tabriz prison in the west of Iran.
Malek Ajdar Sharifi, the head of the judiciary in East Azerbaijan, said on Sunday that the prison does not have the "necessary facilities" to carry out the sentence of stoning. Therefore, he said, authorities are considering hanging as an alternative.
According to Sharifi, an investigation has been launched to determine whether it is legally and religiously possible to go ahead with the hanging instead of stoning. "As soon as the result of the investigation is obtained, we will carry out the sentence," he said in quotes carried by the semi-official Isna news agency.
Mohammadi Ashtiani's sentence was temporarily halted in response to international protests, and Iranian officials have since made confusing and often contradictory comments about her fate. In 2010 President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denied she had been given a sentence of stoning, while a senior adviser to Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, signalled her life could be spared.
Mina Ahadi, a member of the International Committee against Stoning, said Sharifi's remarks proved that international pressure had succeeded, but warned that execution was still a real possibility.
"Iran kept quiet about Sakineh for almost a year and we had little information about her case and now … they have suddenly stepped forward to say she could be hanged," she said. "I believe they are testing the water."
Mohammadi Ashtiani's case came to prominence in July 2010 when her children appealed to the international community to help stop the imminent execution of their mother.
Within days hundreds of human rights activists, campaigners and world leaders joined an international campaign for her release and Mohammadi Ashtiani soon became the symbol for those facing the punishment of stoning in Iran.
Seven people have been stoned to death in Iran since 2006 and at least 14 are currently facing death by stoning, according to the NGO Iran Human Rights.
At her trial Mohammadi Ashtiani was also given a 10-year prison term for the murder of her husband, which her lawyer said was subsequently reduced to five years for "complicity" in the crime, according to Amnesty International. Many activists believe her convictions were based on confessions made under duress.
Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, a spokesperson for the NGO Iran Human Rights, said Iran has a history of changing stoning sentences to hanging in face of pressure. "One such examples is that of Abdollah Farivar, a music teacher who was sentenced to death by stoning for adultery but was instead hanged in 2009," he said. He added that changing stoning to hanging is illegal under Iranian law.
Several people have fallen victim to the Iranian authorities for highlighting Mohammadi Ashtiani's case. Mohammad Mostafaei, one of her lawyers, was briefly arrested and later forced to flee. He now lives in Norway.
Houtan Kian, Mohammadi Ashtiani's other lawyer, who was appointed by the government, is in jail after being arrested in October 2010 for speaking to the media. Kian, who is reported to have been tortured, has been held incommunicado for more than a year. Last December, he was forced to make a televised confession along with Mohammadi Ashtiani, her son and two German journalists who were detained for interviewing Mohammadi Ashtiani's family without a press visa.
The confessions, were broadcast by Iran's English-language Press TV, which has its main overseas offices in London.
In recent years, Iran has been criticised for the sharp rise in its executions. Earlier this month, Amnesty International called Iran's escalating use of the capital punishment "a killing spree of staggering proportions". At least 600 people were executed in Iran in 2011, up to the end of November.
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2,000 “Parcels of Love” from Cyprus to Athens
The humanitarian campaign “Parcels of Love”, organized by the Cypriot radio station “Astra” and the NGO “Cyprus Stop Trafficking”, has showed impressive results in gathering help to support 200 children living in the Municipality of Athens and facing the challenges of food crisis.
After the relevant appeal of the Municipality of Athens and the successful coverage of the needs of the 200 children by Friday, December 23, the campaign aims at expanding its activities in order to aid the ten thousands of homeless people living in the Greek capital.
According to an announcement, the warehouses of the Cypriot Post Offices in Latsia are already containing 2000 parcels of humanitarian aid and the next mission is expected to commence early next week.
Furthermore, money contributions are estimated so far at 30,000 Euros. This money will be sent in form of coupons, which will be cashed in several Greek supermarket chains.
The organizers of the campaign are appealing for clothes, which can be thrown into the special purple baskets of the NGO “Anakyklos”, found all over around Cyprus.
The response of the Cypriot people is astounding and the Turkish-Cypriots have also contributed to the overall effort.
Everyone willing to help this coordinated campaign, should address one of the 55 Cypriot Post offices.
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