From The US Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families --
There are several agencies that collect information and report on childcare and family issues, including adoption, foster care, child abuse, youth in transition, and child welfare.
The rate of being overweight increased significantly every year of age for children 1-5 years old. The biggest weight gains being between the ages of 1-3. This is when eating habit and food preferences are developed. Parents need to intervene when necessary to prevent obesity.
From YouTube -- Examines how public opinion has led teacher unions to try to be advocates for children as well as for the teachers they serve.
Congolese militia leader Thomas Lubanga trained child soldiers to kill, pillage and rape during the region's bloody 1998-2003 conflict, a war crimes prosecutor said at the start of his trial on Monday. He pleaded not guilty at the start of the first trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC), which became the first permanent war crimes court when it was set up in 2002.
The New York Times --
Nicholas D. Krisoff goes to Cambodia to find out about the business of buying and selling girls in the Poipet, Cambodia. In the past young girls were bought for $2 each time they were with a man. This was done over and over until the girls died from AIDS. Cambodia has been cracking down but brothels do still exist. They are not as lucrative as the used to be.
Every day 3000 children perish from malaria. Malaria is preventable. Malaria is curable. On World Malaria Day 2008, the partners of the Rollback Malaria initiatives will join together to spread awareness on the disease without borders.
From Kennebec Journal -- A reader's opinion on how the teacher-to-student ratio formula does not help children but hinders them. The reader believes that the money put aside for the teacher-to-student ratio is not used to the best of its ability.
“ I look at that list and think that perhaps those schools think of the children first. Kids today have many needs that are addressed in schools -- behavioral, emotional, health and educational needs, guidance. The EPS policy counts all the teachers in a building and divides the number of students to get a teacher-to-student ratio. ”
Urination. Cigarette Burns. Electric Shocks. Spit. Hot Tea Poured Over The Head. Threats of Rape. Denial Of Water. Made To Drink Out Of A Toilet Water. These are some of the abuses suffered by Guantanamo detainee Juma Mohammed Abdul Latif Al Dossary. The video also features an interview with his attorney, Joshua Colangelo-Bryan. One of the lawyers associated with the Guantanamo Bay Bar Association.
Merin News --
Many children workers are not thrilled about the implementation of new child labor laws that would prohibit children under the age of 14 from working in India. They question how they will eat and where will they live? The 2006 revamp of India's Child Labour Prohibition act of 1986 is only half of what needs to be done. As one child worker says, "As it is, I barely make enough to survive. I really don’t know what I’ll do." Children can not live childhood alone. They can not live in isolation either, with education and other opportunities they will continue to in poverty. Poverty is a perpetual cycle.
From Time Magazine --
Somalia is now a hub for human trafficking in the Middle East. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.
Today there are more slaves than anytime in human history. In Haiti, a 5 hour flight from New York City, children in bondage stands at 300,000. For 50 USD, you can buy a child slave of your very own. A question might be posed like this: “Is this someone you want as just a worker? Or also someone who will be a ‘partner’? You understand what I mean?”
