UNITE AGAINST POVERTY AND ABUSE

 

Every three seconds a child dies from easily preventable causes

Worldwide Facts: 

 Health

• Every day almost 16,000 children die from hunger-related illness – one child every 5 seconds
• Almost 10 million children die each year before their fifth birthday-  many from easily preventable and treatable causes such as malaria, diarrhoea, pneumonia and malnutrition
• Over 1 billion children do not have access to decent sanitation
• Over 2.3 million children under the age of 15 have been recorded of having HIV and AIDS

Education

• Over 115 million children do not get a basic education -  60% of which are girls

Orphans

Children who suffer the death of their parents are most often exposed to the most extreme forms of exploitation. With a lack of parental care and guidance, they are often forced to fend for themselves and bare the responsibilities of a full-grown adult.

• 143 million children in the developing world are orphans- 1 in every 13.
• More than 16 million children were orphaned in 2003 alone.
• Over 15.2 million children have already been orphaned by AIDS.

 

Hazardous Labour

Forced by the depths of poverty, an estimated 171 million children – of which 73 million are under 10 years old – are working in hazardous circumstances, including work with chemicals and pesticides in agriculture, with dangerous machinery on construction sites or in mines. These children face serious risks of injury, illness and death. Many of these children are forced to work more than 12 hours a day and earn extremely low wages.

 

Early Marriage

In poorer traditional societies, daughters are often perceived as financial burdens on families and, in turn, are often sold and coerced into marriage. Research shows that there is a much higher risk of early death for young brides who often become pregnant prematurely: girls under the age of 15 are five times more likely to die in childbirth than girls in their twenties. Their children are also less likely to survive.

• 1 in every 3 girls in the developing world is married before 18.
• In the poorest countries, the ratio rises to 1 in every 2 girls.

Child Soldiers

Hundreds of thousands of children are caught up in armed conflict – namely as soldiers, cooks, or sex slaves for armed forces among other roles. While under the control of armed forces, children are forced to participate in and endure horrific atrocities.

It is estimated that over 250,000 children are currently serving as child soldiers in armed conflicts worldwide

 

Trafficking

An estimated 1.2 million children are trafficked worldwide each year-most often for child labour or sexual

exploitation

 

Forced Labour

 

Of the 1.39 million people involved in forced commercial sexual exploitation, 40 -50 percent are children.

Sources: UNICEF, World Health Organization, United Nations Population Division and United Nations Statistics Division.

 

 

 

On a global scale there are 218 million child labourers

 

• 126 million children work under dangerous circumstances

• 191 million child labourers are between the ages of 5 and 14

• 74 million of them work under dangerous circumstances

• About 69% work in agriculture

• About 20% work in services

• About 10% work in industry

That the World Bank estimates that 1.3 billion people – 20% of the human race – live in “absolute poverty”.  They survive on less than $1 per day and are too poor to afford an adequate diet and other necessities.

 

More than 828 million people in developing countries around the world go hungry.  They have to survive on fewer calories than their bodies require.  They can’t live healthful or active lives, and are highly vulnerable to disease and death.

More than 828 million people in developing countries around the world go hungry.  They have to survive on fewer calories than their bodies require.  They can’t live healthful or active lives, and are highly vulnerable to disease and death.

 

* UNICEF estimates that 1,000 to 1,500 Guatemalan babies and children are trafficked each year for adoption by couples in North America and Europe.
* Girls as young as 13 (mainly from Asia and Eastern Europe) are trafficked as “mail-order brides.” In most cases these girls and women are powerless and isolated and at great risk of violence.
* Large numbers of children are being trafficked in West and Central Africa, mainly for domestic work but also for sexual exploitation and to work in shops or on farms. Nearly 90 per cent of these trafficked domestic workers are girls.
* Children from Togo, Mali, Burkina Faso and Ghana are trafficked to Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Cameroon and Gabon. Children are trafficked both in and out of Benin and Nigeria. Some children are sent as far away as the Middle East and Europe.

Sexual exploitation

Sexual activity is often seen as a private matter, making communities reluctant to act and intervene in cases of sexual exploitation. These attitudes make children more vulnerable to sexual exploitation. Myths, such as the belief that HIV/AIDS can be cured through sex with a virgin, technological advances such as the Internet which has facilitated child pornography, and sex tourism targeting children, all add to their vulnerability.

* Surveys indicate that 30 to 35 per cent of all sex workers in the Mekong sub-region of Southeast Asia are between 12 and 17 years of age.
* Mexico’s social service agency reports that there are more than 16,000 children engaged in prostitution, with tourist destinations being among those areas with the highest number.
* In Lithuania, 20 to 50 percent of prostitutes are believed to be minors. Children as young as age 11 are known to work as prostitutes. Children from children’s homes, some 10 to 12 years old, have been used to make pornographic movies.

Viola, a young Albanian, was 13 when she started dating 21-year-old Dilin, who proposed to marry her, then move to Italy where he had cousins who could get him a job. Arriving in Italy, Viola’s life changed forever. Dilin locked her in a hotel room and left her, never to be seen again. A group of men entered, and began to beat Viola. Then, each raped her. The leader informed Viola that Dilin had sold her and that she had to obey him or else she would be killed. For seven days Viola was beaten and repeatedly raped. Viola was sold a second time to someone who beat her head so badly she was unable to see for two days. She was told if she didn’t work as a prostitute, her mother and sister in Albania would be raped and killed. Viola was forced to submit to prostitution until police raided the brother she was in. She was deported to Albania.

Shadir, a boy of 15 years, was offered a job that included good clothes and an education; he accepted. Instead of being given a job, Shadir was sold to a slave trader who took him to a remote village in India to produce hand-woven carpets. He was frequently beaten. He worked 12 to 14 hours a day and he was poorly fed. One day, Shadir was rescued by a NGO*working to combat slavery. It took several days for him to realize he was no longer enslaved. He returned to his village, was reunited with his mother, and resumed his schooling. Now Shadir warms fellow village children about the risks of becoming a child slave.

There are about 300,000 child soldiers involved in over 30 areas of conflict worldwide, some even younger than 10 years old. Child soldiers fight on the front line, and also work in support roles; girls are often obliged to be sex slaves or "soldiers' wives". Children involved in conflict are severely affected by their experiences and can suffer from long-term trauma. The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict entered into force on 12 February 2002, which encourages governments to raise the age of voluntary recruitment into the armed forces and explicitly states that no person under the age of 18 should be sent into battle.

 

Dieusibon
"When I first moved to Port-au-Prince I cleaned dishes, the house, everything. My 'aunt' would beat me whenever I didn't get water. I worked so hard that my body ached and I couldn't move, but she would beat me if I didn't do more work. Her three children went to school...One day my aunt sent me to fetch water. I refused, so she took a pot of boiling water and threw it at me and burned my face and slammed the hot cooking pot on my hand." Dieusibon*, 14, ran away and found help from a shelter in Haiti.

That In this day and age, hundreds of thousands of children from the age of 3 years old roam the streets without homes or families.  It is a matter of Monumental shame that, of the 38 million street-children worldwide 23 million are in Asia.  They are leading a wretched life, ill clad and hungry, sleeping on pavements. They are begging or allowing themselves to be exploited in different trades, like working on roads, picking rags or working in the fields, or in some cases exploited in far worse trades than these.  

 

For many there is no joy over the birth of a newborn child in the family. One more mouth to feed, and if it is a girl, what then? The father walks into the town where the tourist buses stop. Many times these babies lie in the arms of these men naked and so fresh from birth that the umbilical cord is still attached.  They offer the babies to any foreigner who will pay for the baby.  If they cannot exchange the baby for money , what next? The child will probably join the more than 16 million baby girls whose lose their lives every year.

 

Isaiah 40 v 11   He gathers the lambs in His arms and carries them close to His heart…………..

 

Many of the street girls (prostitutes) have been tricked, forced or sold into this wicked trade, and once trapped cannot see a way out of the pain and abuse that many suffer every day. Many try and even manage to end their lives to get away from this pain and abuse.

We are working with other missions that have set up programmes to help these girls. Taking them off the streets and away from this abuse. Giving them new hope and a new beginning. Helping to rehabilitate them into a new life and newfound love.

 

Psalm 102 v 17 …..He will respond to the prayer of the destitute; He will not despise their plea.

 

Manoj is five year old.  The streets of India are all he has ever known as  home.  He wonders the streets and slums of the city every day, along with 200,000 others just like him in Asia. Searching among garbage heaps and bags to try and satisfy the gnawing hunger that never goes away.

 

 

In India there are thousands of poor kids working from drawn to dusk on rock piles breaking large rocks into small ones for road works, all they have is a hammer to do this hard work.  A large number are cut when the rock flies up and hits their face or body.

Many of their parents have no education and were brought up on this work from childhood, and this is how it is from generation to generation.

 

Child trafficking can occur when children are abducted from the streets, sold into sexual slavery and forced marriage by relatives, or in any place where traffickers, pimps and recruiters prey upon a child's vulnerabilities. Poverty is the pre-condition that makes it easier for traffickers to operate.
Photo by GOOD NEWS FELLOWSHIP MINISTRY

The greatest factor in promoting child sex trafficking and child sexual exploitation is the demand for younger and younger victims worldwide. This demand comes from the mostly male buyers who become the customers in the growing global sex industry.

 

Every day is a life and death struggle for children not strong enough to withstand disease because hunger has weakened their tiny bodies.

 

Others, who are healthy, have to stay at home because their parents cannot afford the school fees or even the books needed for school.

 

Life in parts of Asia is a struggle for anyone, but the life of a child is even harder. Imagine, growing up in a world where you lack the very basics in life, food, clean water, medicine, shelter, and. School., But there is no money for school fees, so you stay home and wait for a miracle.

 

Life is hard, and yet, most of the world is unaware of the plight of any of the poor children.  Growing up anywhere brings its share of problems, but growing up in areas of Asia is a struggle that is beyond imagination.

 

Many poor children are fortunate to be still alive at the age of seven or eight; many of their friends have died of things such as malaria, dysentery, malnutrition, and the like.  

GIRLS

In many homes, a poor girl, will normally be at home alone with no schooling..  “Why” The answer to that is, a girl does not need school, she only needs to take care of the house, get a husband when she is older, have babies, raise a family, fetch water and cook, so it is believed

 

The future really does not look bright for these poor children It would be nice to learn how to read and write.

 

There are only two ways out of the slum and dire poverty in which the poor children live.  One is to get an education and the other way is what their mother or aunt is doing, selling herself to men who have money and just might take a young girl as a live in 'girlfriend'.

 

These poor children are then trapped in this life unless they can get help. Many even try and end their lives to get away from this abuse.  With your support we can and will change this for some. The more help we get the more we can do.

 

We would like to thank the following organisations for this information provided: UNICEF, UNITED NATIONS COUNCEL, ANTI SLAVERY INTERNATIONAL, ISPCAN, EMBRACE DIGNITY, GOOD NEWS FELLOWSHIP MINISTRY, STOP CHILD LABOUR AND THE COALTION AGAINST TRAFFICKING IN WOMEN.

 

 

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