Vicious Circle: Poverty, HIV, Neglect, ending in the Sex Business

KENYA: Youth, sex and tourism on the coast

Via:PlusNews.org

Photo:IRIN

With so many tourists on the coast, and so few other jobs available, for some there is little option other than to join the sex trade. “There are no jobs and to get a job is very hard. We look for jobs but we can’t get any because there are so few,” said Alice

Many other young women, however, are forced into prostitution by members of their family, according to Stella Muchiti Mulama, assistant programme manager and researcher for the Straight Talk programme. “Children are often coerced into prostitution by elder people […] Parents actually push their children to do sex work. It happens quite a lot. Sometimes mothers, who are also involved in sex work, bring their daughters into it too. We have had stories of mothers forcing their children to have sex with clients in order to earn their school fees,” she said.

Elizabeth Akinyi, the head of projects at the Coast Province branch of SOLWODI agrees with this view: “Parents play a big role. The children of sex workers are very much at risk. They are abused by the customers that come to see their mothers; sometimes the girls are also made to serve the men.” There are however many other factors that bring young women and girls into the sex industry: peer pressure, financial and social circumstances, and low aspirations, added Akinyi.

“Peer pressure is also a big factor as well as a lack of basic needs. There are children who are staying in families that are very poor. There are parents who can’t even afford to give their children sanitary towels. There is also the issue of ‘this is what I want’. There was one girl who was saying to me, ‘I wanted to buy these hipster jeans, but my mother refused, so I did this [prostitution] so I could get the jeans’,” she said.

Although earnings in the sex trade can vary widely, potential income is much greater than if working in any other profession. According to sex worker, Jane [not her real name], 22: “It [the income] depends on the competition, the season and where you are. It’s never specific. In the low season you end up offering yourself for 20 KES (Kenyan shillings) [US 30¢] if the tourists aren’t there. It can be 5,000 KES [US $70] if the tourists are there. House help is very badly paid. I used to go around and wash people’s clothes. But at the end of the day they give you 150 KES [$2], which is nothing. So you have to look for other ways to pay rent and buy clothes,” she said.

Winkler said, “Many children […] are orphans because of HIV. This often leads to them dropping out of school, and lack of education. I see it as a kind of ‘vicious circle’, starting with poverty, HIV, neglect, and ending in the sex business at the [Kenyan] coast.”

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"I had no alternative but to sell my body"

KENYA: Illiteracy, Poverty aggravating HIV among northern women
Via: PlusNews.org
Photo: Justo Casal

"My father was killed, our livestock stolen ... I had no alternative but to sell my body," said Halima Wario, a young HIV-positive woman who takes care of her three sisters. "Two months after the attack, I moved and started [commercial sex] work."

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ETHIOPIA: Rural HIV - time to wake up and smell the coffee

Via: PlusNews.org
Photo: Victoria Av

The outbreak of war between Ethiopia and neighbouring Eritrea between 1998 and 2000 swelled the army's ranks to about 350,000 soldiers, who spent months at a time in border areas where commercial sex work flourished. When the fighting ended, most of these men were demobilised and returned to their rural homes to continue farming.

In Ethiopia, where 85 percent of the country's 71 million people live in the still conservative countryside, Birhanu's openness in discussing AIDS is far from the norm. "HIV is not at all common here in these rural areas," he said. "I do encourage other farmers to go for testing - I think that's important - but I've never heard of anyone who has HIV or AIDS." The ministry of health estimates rural HIV prevalence at 1.9 percent, compared with the national average of 3.5 percent.

"The government enterprise is reporting many of their staff are dying of HIV/AIDS on these coffee farms; many are dying and many are vulnerable," Gashaw said, adding that HIV was also a growing threat among smallholders. "A smallholder coffee farmer in Yirgacheffe may deny that HIV/AIDS is a problem, but the transfer of the disease from urban to rural areas is growing, and many people are dying," he said.

Low awareness means stigma and discrimination are high, with half the rural women interviewed in a 2006 demographic health survey admitting they would not want to care for a relative with HIV in their own home. As a result, many HIV-positive people remain in denial rather than seeking treatment. "The government has voiced their concerns, yet little is being done to change the situation," Gashaw noted. "The lack of studies and preventative programmes in these coffee-growing regions is very concerning."

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ETHIOPIA: Flower industry needs to nip HIV in the bud

Via: PlusNews.org
Photo: Victoria Averil/IRIN

DEBRE ZEIT, 17 May 2007 (PlusNews) - Ethiopia's flower industry is a booming business, but AIDS campaigners fear that inaction by farm owners and government, combined with a poorly educated workforce, could provide fertile ground for HIV. "I've been working here for six months and in that time I've never heard mention of HIV/AIDS," Sofanit Nigusu, 21, told IRIN/PlusNews as she carefully pruned rose cuttings in one of a huge number of commercial greenhouses at the heart of the country's flower industry. "I know it's a problem, but outside [the capital] Addis Ababa nothing is done about it."

Ethiopia's floriculture industry generates over US$20 million per year and is projected to more than double in size over the next few years. But there are growing concerns that little is being done to address the AIDS pandemic in an industry notorious for attracting a transient, uneducated workforce vulnerable to the virus.

"The problem we face is that the flower industry is an emerging industry, but growing very quickly," said Gashaw Mengistu, coordinator at the HIV/AIDS Resource Centre in Addis Ababa. "Now, the majority of workers come from nearby villages, but in the future there could be a crisis, as people are lured from around the country to work on the farms, living together in camp-like settings ... this is when conditions are ripe for the spread of the virus."

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KENYA: Slum women struggle to put food on the table

Via:IRINnews.org
Photo: Manoocher Deghati/IRIN

Patricia Atieno lives in Kibera, a large slum in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, but spends most of her mornings looking for short-term employment as a house help elsewhere in the city. "I have been doing domestic work for a decade now; my family depends on it," she said. "In the past it was easier to find work but not any more. The employers now hire and dismiss us indiscriminately." Like Atieno, many of Nairobi's women slum dwellers are the breadwinners. "We have to work harder and move from one place to another to increase our chances of getting work," she added.

According to the United Nations Centre for Human Settlement (Habitat), Nairobi's slums are overcrowded, with four to six people living in one room. The dwellings are very close to each other; services are basic, while morbidity and mortality rates are high. City authorities say more than 1.6 million (out of Nairobi's estimated population of 3.5 million) live in the slums or "informal settlements". Most live below the poverty line - earning less than US$7 a week - according to experts. The women who seek domestic work earn a meagre 200-350 Kenya shillings (US$3-5) per task. Aged between 14 and 40 years, they sit at the periphery of upmarket residential estates for up to seven hours every day hoping to be hired. Despite the uncertainties of the work they do, however, the women insist they would rather engage in traditional household chores than in "the flesh thing" (prostitution).

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KENYA: Slum women struggle to put food on the table (Continued)

Via: IRINnews.org
Photo: Manoocher Deghati/IRIN

But they complain that harassment is a significant problem at work. "We usually do laundry, ironing and clean houses," one of the women, who requested anonymity, explained. "But sometimes we get crazy people who ask us to do extras.

"I worry whenever a man comes to hire me because I have been coerced into sexual encounters without which I would not be paid my dues on several occasions," she added. "Sexual harassment is becoming a very common part of this job. We are desperate for the money so we oblige at times."

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Child Protection: Street Children {Ethiopia}

Via:Voanews.com
By: Angel Tabe

Our series this week focuses on the increasing number of Africa’s children who are making their homes in the streets of major cities across the continent. So why does the problem exist and why is it getting worse? What is being done to help homeless children?

Assefa Bequele is the executive director of the African Policy Forum, an advocacy center in Ethiopia. VOA English to Africa reporter Angel Tabe asked him why children end up living on the streets. “The breakdown of family structures, for example the rising level of divorce, poverty, school system not progressing, orphans as a result of the AIDS pandemic, communities have failed to provide a conducive ecology for families and the state, to provide for the basic needs of its people.”

The absence of the above factors which Bequele describes as all important for the survival of children has forced children to resort to irregular trade, dangerous sex, and becoming vulnerable, even to those who are supposed to protect them like law enforcement officers. Bequele says, “Indeed, the officers are not the best friends these children can have, viewed by some as a potential danger, so we need to think about a child-friendly environment.”

Despite a vibrant NGO community working for the welfare of children, Bequele says it’s practically a drop in the ocean when you consider the dimension of the problem. “You can hardly expect it to be addressed through the kind action and generosity of small NGOs however good their work may be. It requires community action and large scale government intervention.” Already, he adds, African governments recognize the need for child protection, but there is a huge gap between rhetoric and reality. “Given resources available, the burden is quite enormous. Quite frankly, children are not a priority. Yes we love our children, but much remains to be done putting children on the public agenda.”

Bequele shares his recommendation. “At the end of the day, the family is the best source of protection for children. We should carry out long term measures to strengthen the family e.g. job creation, combating high mortality rates, universal education. For the short term, pressure the most important actors so that urban development has children at the center of the policy paradigm. Local governments, municipalities, city administrations should ask themselves the question: What are we doing to ensure that children are catered to, to make the city a zone of peace?”

Click here to listen to the interview with Assefa Bequele

Report on Child Deaths Finds Some Hope in Poorest Nations

Via: Celia W. Dugger
Photo: Joao Silva

The rate at which young children perish has worsened most disastrously over the past 15 years in Iraq, hard hit by both sanctions and war, and in Botswana, Zimbabwe and Swaziland, devastated by AIDS, according to a report released yesterday by Save the Children. But researchers also found against-the-odds progress in some of the world’s poorest nations.

Bangladesh has profoundly improved the chances that a child would survive by promoting family planning, a strategy that has enabled women to have fewer children, space births and strengthen their own health and that of their babies.
Nepal, despite a decade-long Maoist insurgency, has halved the death rate of children under age 5. It has enlisted the help of 50,000 mothers, most of them illiterate, who have squeezed vitamin A drops into the mouths of every child, hauled laggards in for vaccinations and even diagnosed pneumonia and dispensed medicines to combat it.

And Malawi, with an extreme shortage of doctors and nurses, has made surprising gains by taking simple steps that require no professional skills, for example distributing nets that protect children from malarial mosquitoes.

“In 2007, when we know what to do and how little it costs, that 28,000 kids are still dying each day is just plain wrong,” said David Oot, a public health expert on the team that produced the Save the Children report, “State of the World’s Mothers: Saving the Lives of Children Under 5.”
Despite many hopeful stories, broad progress against infant and child mortality has flagged since international health agencies began a campaign to reduce deaths 25 years ago, the researchers concluded. By the end of the 1980’s, global rates of child mortality had fallen 20 percent, and the lives of 12 million children were saved.

“Much of the momentum behind the child survival revolution has now been lost, and gains achieved in the 1980s and early 1990s have slowed or reversed,” the report says. “Under-5 mortality declined by only 10 percent from the early 1990s to 2000.”
Among the 60 developing countries where 94 percent of the child deaths occurred, 20 have either made no progress or have regressed, while 24 have cut death rates of children under 5 by at least 20 percent.

Iraq experienced the most staggering rise in under-age-5 mortality — 150 percent over 15 years. Since the war began in 2003, deteriorating health services, rising inflation and electricity shortages have worsened living conditions, the report said. In 2005, about 122,000 Iraqi children died before their fifth birthdays.

In countries that progressed, a focus on family planning was central to progress, the report said. In the five countries that made the greatest strides in reducing child deaths — Egypt, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Nepal and the Philippines — women’s use of contraceptives rose and fertility rates declined. In those countries, mothers were less likely to be physically depleted by having too many babies in too short a time. With fewer children, families were also able to invest more in the care of each child.

Political will was also an essential ingredient of success — and in Malawi, Tanzania, Nepal and Bangladesh was even more important than national wealth, the report found. Egypt, which has cut the death rate of children under age 5 by 68 percent since 1990, more than any other country, has shown a particular commitment to children’s health, said the researchers at Save the Children, a nonprofit group, and other experts.

“In words and deed, Egypt has put children more at the center of their social agenda than most other countries,” said Ruth Levine, author of “Millions Saved: Proven Successes in Global Health (Center for Global Development, 2004).
Egypt has carried out a comprehensive effort to improve the health of mothers and children. It invested in clean water and public health campaigns to teach the importance of hand-washing in disease prevention. It built roads that sped access to hospitals. It renovated dilapidated clinics. It made sure most mothers had midwives or other skilled workers to attend births. It strove to perfect immunization campaign strategies.

“There is a way to do a blanket of public health interventions that is very effective,” said Dr. Ayman El-Mohandes, a pediatrician and chairman of the Department of Prevention and Community Health at George Washington University School of Public Health, who served as a consultant on a United States-financed maternal and child health program in Egypt.

Bill Clinton announces AIDS drug deals

Via: By KAREN MATTHEWS, Associated Press Writer
Photo: Reuters

NEW YORK - Former President Bill Clinton announced agreements with drug companies Tuesday to lower the price in the developing world of AIDS drugs resistant to initial treatments and to make a once-a-day AIDS pill available for less than $1 a day.

The drugs to battle so-called "second-line" anti-retrovirals are needed by patients who develop a resistance to first-line treatment and currently cost 10 times as much, Clinton said. Nearly half a million patients will require these drugs by 2010.
Clinton's foundation negotiated agreements with generic drug makers Cipla Ltd. and Matrix Laboratories Ltd. that he said would generate an average savings of 25 percent in low-income countries and 50 percent in middle-income countries.
Clinton also announced a reduced price for a once-daily first-line AIDS pill that combines the drugs tenofovir, lamivudine and efavirenz.

He said the new price of $339 per patient per year would be 45 percent lower than the current rate available to low-income countries and 67 percent less than the price available to many middle-income countries.
The Clinton Foundation's activities are being financed by UNITAID, an organization formed by France and 19 other nations that have earmarked a small portion of their airline tax revenues for HIV/AIDS programs in developing countries.UNITAID will provide the foundation with more than $100 million to buy second-line medicines for 27 countries through 2008.

"Every person living with HIV deserves access to the most effective medicines, and UNITAID aims to ensure that these are affordable for all developing countries," French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy, chairman of UNITAID's board, said in a statement.

Since starting its HIV/AIDS Initiative in 2002, the Clinton Foundation has worked with 25 countries in Africa, the Caribbean and Asia to set up AIDS treatment and prevention programs.The foundation also provides access to lower-priced AIDS drugs in 65 countries. Some 650,000 people are now receiving AIDS drugs purchased through the Clinton Foundation. Clinton said Cipla and Matrix collaborated with the foundation to lower production costs in part by securing lower prices for raw materials.

Let Your Own Light Shine

"And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same."

-Nelson Mandela

Why We Should Act!

“Less than 10 per cent of the children who have been orphaned or made vulnerable by AIDS receive public support or services.”

(Ann Veneman, Executive Director of UNICEF)

Get all girls into school and give them a fighting chance against HIV

Via: CRIN
Across the world today, one in every five girls of primary school age are not in school. When girls miss out, not only are they denied the chance to learn to read and write, earn a living and participate in democracy, it also puts their lives in jeopardy. Education gives women and girls the skills, knowledge and confidence they need to protect themselves against HIV and AIDS. The Global Campaign for Education is calling on world leaders to join up and take urgent action now. They must ensure everyone, especially girls, can go to school and get the education needed to fight for their rights. Poorer countries need to enact policies that will make school free, accessible and safe for girls and boys, whilst rich countries must live up to promises repeatedly made, and still not fulfilled, to increase aid in support of these policies.

Around the world, 80 million children - mostly girls - are out of school. Eight hundred million adults, mostly women, cannot read and write. Yet free education has been enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights since 1948.

Giving girls the chance to learn to read and write not only fulfils their right to an education – but it also helps them in challenging the many power imbalances between men and women, and crucially in protecting themselves against HIV.

In a survey carried out last year 30 per cent of girls in South Africa said that their first sexual experience was under force or threat of force. When it comes to HIV and AIDS women and girls fare the worst – accounting for 74 per cent of young people living with HIV in Africa.

At present many women simply do not have the power they need to decide who to have sex with, when to have sex and how to have safe sex. Education can give women a chance to challenge this situation. The more education women and girls receive, the better they are able to negotiate safer sex and HIV rates. This is clearly demonstrated in Swaziland, where two in three girls who are in school are HIV negative, while two in three of girls out of school are HIV positive.

Girls who complete primary school are 50 per cent less likely to be infected with HIV. Seven million cases of HIV could be prevented in a decade if all children attended primary school.

Not only are educated girls better able to protect their own health but they are also able to make informed choices that can protect the health of their family and earn a greater income, giving them more bargaining power within the home:
~The children of women who can read and write are 50 per cent more likely to live past the age of 5.
~In poor countries, each year of schooling increases girls' future earning power by 10-20 per cent.

The Global Campaign for Education asks that leaders no longer turn a blind eye whilst the rights of women and girls are denied. Give them a fighting chance. Ensure education is of high quality, free and accessible to everyone, especially girls.


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Sex work thrives as girls struggle to survive

ZIMBABWE: Sex work thrives as girls struggle to survive

Via: IRIN
Photo: IRIN
Dressed in a tiny white skirt and a top, Linda, 16, (not her real name) struts into a nightclub in Madlambuzi, a sprawling rural settlement in Zimbabwe's Matabeleland South Province. Swinging to the deafening music, she scans the room for potential customers.

She joins a group of visibly drunk girls with pints of clear beer in their hands. Sex work is a last resort of girls desperate to make a living in this poverty-stricken village, or just to "get money to feed our families," Linda told IRIN.

"I was deported as an illegal emigrant from Botswana in December last year, where I used to work as a maid. I have no means of getting money to feed myself and my little child. This is why I am here," she said.

"My parents died two years ago, and I am the one responsible to fend for my two siblings and my only child. They look forward to me to bring food home. There are no jobs here, [and] food is very expensive," she added.

Desperate times
Gordon Chavhunduka, sociologist and political commentator, said Zimbabwe's "social fabric is fast collapsing, just the way the economy is. It's sad that people, especially the vulnerable ones - let alone young girls - would do terrible things just to survive in this economy. It's a sad story."

Linda has many difficulties to contend with besides soaring food prices and the rocketing inflation that has sent the economy into a tailspin, but worst, she feels, is facing criticism from her neighbors and relatives for selling her body.

According to village elders, sex work has been spreading rapidly in rural Matabeleland, especially where there are drinking spots or nightclubs. "These girls are a disgrace. We know survival is not easy, especially considering that commodities are expensive in shops and the there are no jobs, both here [countryside] and in towns, but selling their bodies is wrong," said Methuseli Dumani, a village elder. "We have tried talking to some of them to abandon their evil deeds but they would not listen. Each time the sun sets, you see them trickling in [the club] and start soliciting. We don't know how they can be stopped, at least for the preservation of our culture, which disapproves of prostitution," he added.

Linda and her colleagues know they are seen as immoral people, but say they have no choice. "I know what I am doing is wrong - it is even forbidden in the Bible - but there is no other means through which I can make a living. If I don't go out and sell my body, then my family will starve. Relatives and neighbours say I am a disgrace, but when I go to them and ask for maizemeal or money to help the family, they just look aside; yet they love to be critical."

After a while, Linda gets a "customer", a bald-headed man old enough to be her father, and disappears with him. 'Anita', another sex worker, said the poverty ravaging Matabeleland often forced girls as young as 13 to sell their bodies.

"Save for those who have breadwinners in South Africa and Botswana, many families here have no one looking after them at all. Many of us dropped out of school because our parents could not afford the school fees," she said.

Despite the dangers
Anita is adamant that she understands the dangers of sex work. "Everyone knows there is AIDS; it has actually killed a lot of people here, and some are even ill right now. I am personally afraid of the disease and I always insist on the use of condoms," she said. "For an all-night session, I charge something like Z$200,000 [US$8 at the informal market rate], and half that amount for a short-time session, which normally lasts for only two hours," Anita explained. "Our customers are normally truck drivers who deliver beer from Bulawayo, and those who go or come from Botswana to deliver or collect some goods."

An official of the Matabeleland AIDS Council said a recent survey in southern Zimbabwe had revealed that rural Matabeleland was worst affected by the AIDS pandemic, mainly because of its proximity to South Africa and Botswana. According to 2005 UN estimates, HIV prevalence among people aged 15-49 was 18.8 percent in South Africa and 24.1 percent in Botswana, with Zimbabwe estimated at 20.1 percent.

"Many people in this province work in Botswana and South Africa. Often it's a single partner of the family, say a husband or a wife, and because they stay away from their partner for long, they end up engaging in extramarital relationships, which have the potential of spreading the virus," the official told IRIN.

"Prostitution is another cause [of spreading HIV infection], and it is sad that we are seeing it rearing its head in rural areas," he said. "It just shows how desperate people are."

ETHIOPIA: I knew the risk I was taking, but my family had to eat

Via: PlusNews
Picture: PlusNews

Article:ETHIOPIA: I knew the risk I was taking, but my family had to eat

The following are excerpts from an article written and published by PlusNews:

By day, Aster Beyene [not her real name], 21, is a saleslady at a boutique in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa; by night she attends computer school. After losing her mother and older brother to AIDS-related illnesses, Beyene has been left with the responsibility of feeding and clothing her remaining siblings. "Even though I am the last born, I have experienced the struggle for survival first hand, and I vowed to rescue my family from the pit of poverty that seemed to get worse as the days went by. A middle-aged guy who lived next door had always had his eye on me, but I never considered going out with him before the problems at home.

I pushed all the frightening thoughts aside and opted to have a relationship with him; in return, he offered to give me money, including my tuition for night school. Despite repeated warnings from people in my community that he was infected with the HIV, I continued having sexual relations with him without protection. I was aware of what was at stake, but my family relied on me to provide for them and I felt I had no other option.

Click here to read this article!

*Note all credit and references should be afforded to the authors/sources for this article.

A Simple Reflection...

by: Nasir Al-Amin
I wrote this to a friend today and thought I would share it….

I think the best intentions and initiatives that address the plight of marginalized populations both domestically and abroad originate in the heart. And like in any relationship with the heart, the turning of the heart towards an individual or issues is a connection that could be instantaneous or gradual, but that connection—a station of the heart, which motivates one to love for humanity that which one love for oneself—is the aim. One of the responsibilities that comes with reaching and/or aspiring for this station of the heart, is to create an atmosphere and/or environments that will nurture that connection for others—so that this desire for the best for all is contagious. That’s actualized through the facilitation of presentations, workshops, downtime during meetings, and random conversations on the subway or at a dinner with the waiter/waitress.

One never knows what will be their moment of awakening, nor does one know what it will be for someone else, as I was oblivious to the magnitude and meaning behind my encounter with a little 5 year old street girl I bumped into in Mercato (a bustling market in Ethiopia). This girl was the spark that created ALIF. When I reflect on it now, this initiative to send 50 orphans and vulnerable children to school (the Hiwot Campaign) is merely a response to that “accidental” meeting with the 5 year-old child laborer in Ethiopia. That was my moment of turning, my awakening!

So yes, people will say to you that you are just one person and that’s true. However, the beauty in this whole process is that neither you nor the one that makes that statement knows the beauty inside that one child you will serve and what that encounter will awaken in you.

In difficulty I find solace in the following:
"Past the seeker as he prayed
came the crippled and the beggar and the beaten.
And seeing them... he cried
"Great God, how is it that a loving creator
can see such things and yet do nothing about them?"
God said "I did do something. I made you."
(Sufi Teaching)

Nasir Al-Amin

Overview of Services for Orphans and Vulnerable Children in Ethiopia

by: Tsegaye Chernet
via: CRIN

The first part of the report attempts to give a “birds eye view” of basic statistical indicators in Ethiopia. Brief descriptions of the current situation of orphans and vulnerable children is also part of the report. The recurrent droughts as well as the civil unrest are discussed as major factors that influenced the expansion of institutional care. Subsequent discussions are made on problems associated with residential services for orphans. In this connection, a case of the ‘Ethiopian Orphanage’ is presented to help readers gain a better insight of the
situation.

Click here to read the article!

ETHIOPIA: Urban farming boosts families affected by HIV

Via: PlusNews

Picture: PlusNews

Twelve-year-old Woinishet Wujura's dedication to her gardening duties would be surprising in someone her age, but the land she is tilling has been a lifeline for her and her family because the farm is run exclusively by and for women and children affected by AIDS."I love this garden," she told PlusNews. "I come as much as possible, as soon as school finishes." Woinishet's garden is one of many plots of land in an unusual setting: a sprawling urban farm in the middle of the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.The farm, called 'Gordeme', is part of a successful urban gardening project that started in 2004 and now has several farms across Ethiopia, all managed and maintained by about 10,000 women or children.

Broad Benefits

The goals of the urban garden programme have been to combine HIV/AIDS education with nutritional support for HIV-positive people, but Kimberly Flowers, communications officer for USAID in Addis Ababa, said surplus vegetables were also sold to the surrounding community, providing much-needed income to the women and their families.An estimated 40,000 people buy their vegetables from the project's farms in Adama, Addis Ababa, Awassa, Bahir Dar, Dessie and Gondar, the six largest urban areas in Ethiopia.

The programme also helps reduce the huge social stigma and discrimination associated with HIV/AIDS. "The relationship with my neighbours has changed," said Akaki Kaliti, another single mother. "Before the garden they never came to my house. Now they come to my house for food."Ethiopia's HIV prevalence is estimated at about 3.5 percent, and of the estimated 1.32 million people living with HIV/AIDS in 2005, 55 percent - or 730,000 - were women.

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YEMEN-AFRICA: Smugglers drown African migrants

Via: IRIN
Picture: IRIN

A group of 33 migrants from Ethiopia and Somalia died on Friday after smugglers forced them off their boat near the Yemeni shore, a Somali community leader in Sana'a, the capital of Yemen, said on Monday. "Smugglers forced 120 [Ethiopian and Somali] migrants into the sea before anchoring at the shore for fear of the Yemeni coastguard authorities," Sadat Mohammed, head of refugee affairs in the Somali community in Sana'a, told IRIN. "Those who resisted were stabbed and beaten by smugglers, and then thrown into the stormy sea. Twenty of them were stabbed, and the shore became reddish as a result of the bleeding bodies," he added. According to Mohammed, Yemeni authorities buried the bodies in the local area. The victims were on three boats carrying 320 passengers in total that left the Somali port of Bossaso on 4 April and arrived in Bir Ali in Yemen’s southern province of Shabwa after a two-day perilous journey across the Gulf of Aden. Two other boats carrying 100 passengers each arrived safely. The incident came 15 days after at least 35 African migrants were confirmed dead and 113 missing while crossing the Gulf of Aden as traffickers forced 450 Somalis and Ethiopians off four boats into the sea off the Yemeni coast.

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ETHIOPIA: New strategy to tackle reproductive health issues

Via: PlusNews

Picture: PlusNews

Ethiopia has launched a national strategy on adolescent and reproductive health that aims to tackle the problems of early marriages and pregnancies, female circumcision, abduction and rape, and poor access to healthcare for 10- to 24-year-olds. Launched by the health ministry in collaboration with United Nations agencies on Tuesday, the Adolescent and Youth Reproductive Health Strategy (AYRH) will be implemented over eight years.

• The report cites the 2005 Ethiopian Demographic Health Survey which showed that 80 percent of women and half of men believed that there were situations when a husband was justified in beating his wife.

• Another widespread issue was female genital mutilation. More than half of 15- to 19-year-old girls had been circumcised. Although support for this harmful practice was declining, about a quarter of 15- to 24-year-old girls believed it should continue.

• The AYRH document noted that abduction was common, especially in Oromia and southern regional states, and young women in rural areas were twice as likely to be abducted. Nationwide, many married women reported having been abducted for marriage.

• Rape was common in both rural and urban areas. A study in six peri-urban areas found that 9 percent of sexually active adolescent girls and six percent of boys had suffered rape.

• Another study among street girls in the capital, Addis Ababa, found that 15 percent had experienced rape while 43 percent had been coerced into their first sexual activity. "

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Becoming Remarkable

"At a tender age I discovered that it isn't doing spectacular things that make you remarkable in the eyes of God, but instead, it is when you light just one candle to dispel a little bit of darkness that you are doing something tremendous. And if, as a global people, we put all the little bits of good together, we will overwhelm the world."
-- Archbishop Desmond Tutu

STRENGTH & COMMITMENT

by Nasir Al-Amin

I want to take a moment to introduce as well as acknowledged someone whose actions exemplify the commitment needed to aid in the global struggle to raise awareness and liberate children from bondage of child labor and poverty. Her name is Feven Shiferaw. I met Feven six months ago at one of ALIF’s CAF (Civic Action Forum) meetings, when she introduced herself to me, in which she indicated her interest in joining ALIF’s efforts to alter the life of impoverished children in Ethiopia. When she introduced herself, I remember thinking to myself that her name was familiar, then I remembered that I received a financial contribution from her the prior week. I went on to thank her for contributing to the Hiwot (Life) Campaign, an initiative to send 50 children to school in Ethiopia, and she maintained that she wanted to do more. However, at that point I had no clue that she would subsequently enter a triathlon in an effort to raise awareness and funds for the orphans and vulnerable children of Ethiopia through the Hiwot (Life) Campaign.

By no stretch of the imagination is a triathlon a simple task. The Liberty to Liberty-America’s Memorial Triathlon consist of a one-mile swim in the Hudson River, 91-mile bike through New Jersey to Philadelphia and a 10K run along Phil’s Schuylkill River ending at Philadelphia’s Art Museum famous for its scenes in “Rocky.”

When Feven and another friend told me of their plans to do this triathlon, I must admit I was in awe of their commitment to affect change in the lives of Ethiopia’s orphans and vulnerable children and inspired to push myself to do more for our children!

In the coming week ALIF will dedicate a page to Feven’s efforts, which we hope will inspire others to join in this global effort to affect change in the lives of Ethiopia’s orphans and vulnerable children.

I’ll close with a reflection from Feven on why she decided to take action:

Saving lives,

When I first found out about the Hiwot Campaign the first thing that came to my mind was to check out the website, and then I thought to myself how can I help? Sure I can donate money, but I wanted to do more than donating, I wanted to raise awareness, get more of our generation involve to help kids in Africa to achieve a better life through education.

When you drive around the streets of Addis Ababa and see hundreds of children roaming the streets, it can be very overwhelming and disheartening. You just want to help all of them. We can change their lives by helping one child at a time.

We're blessed to live in a place of comfort and opportunity. I also feel doubly blessed to have the chance to share and give, to give them hope and opportunity. For me this is a journey, a journey to better children's lives through education.

Click here to find out how you can help Feven raise funds for the Hiwot (Life) Campagin!

GMU ETHIOPIAN STUDENT ASSOCIATION (ESA) 6TH ANNUAL CULTURAL SHOW

Please come out and celebrate with the ESA of George Mason University (GMU) as they host their 6th Annual Cultural Show. This event promises to be one of excitement and purpose. Admission is FREE, however everyone is encouraged to bring a textbook to donate for Africa and/or a $5 donation. Lastly, ALIF will have a booth, as well as an opportunity to briefly speak about the Hiwot (Life) Campaign.

I look forward to seeing you all there!

Tuesday, April 10th
7:30pm-11:00pm
Located @ SUB II
(Student Union Building 2)
On the GMU Fairfax Campus

For more information contact
Ms. Yodit Gebreyes
703.801.8057

ygebreye@gmu.edu

The world of modern child slavery

By Rageh Omaar
Presenter of BBC Two documentary Slave Children

The world of modern child slavery

Via: BBC

Slavery is a word which immediately conjures up very specific images in our minds. When it is mentioned we tend to think of people, almost always black people; degraded, abused and bound in chains, and we tend to think of such images, and the word slavery itself, as belonging to another era. We do not see slavery as belonging to our world, not as something which is still happening today.

Yet the truth is that if William Wilberforce were alive today and he travelled to different parts of the world - not just in Africa, but also in large parts of Asia, the Middle East, South America and even parts of Europe - he would find children living in conditions and circumstances which Wilberforce would understand and which I am sure he would describe as slavery. It is believed there are nearly nine million children around the world today who are enslaved. There are international charters and covenants which try to come to a legal definition of what constitutes slavery.

In essence these documents define slavery in the modern world as a situation where a human being and their labour are owned by others, and where that person does not have the freedom to leave and is forced into a life which is exploitative, humiliating and abusive.

Click here to read the rest of the article!

The child slaves of Saudi Arabia

By Rageh Omaar
Presenter of BBC Two documentary Slave Children

The child slaves of Saudi Arabia

via: BBC

On the wealthy streets of Jeddah, in Saudi Arabia, thousands of young child-beggars, under the auspices of ruthless gangmasters, are simply trying to survive. Many hail from countries like Yemen which, despite bordering one of the Middle East's richest states, is a world away in terms of economic prosperity. These children are often sold by families who are either duped into believing their offspring will get a better life or sometimes simply threatened. Once in the country, they are likely to face beatings and are sometimes even mutilated as their Dickensian masters stoop to any low to try to improve the chances of them earning more money.

The Ministry of Social Affairs in Saudi Arabia's western province has a unit dedicated to picking up children who are illegal in the country. It is tasked with taking these children from the streets and then investigating their stories. Efforts are made to try to find their families but often no relatives are found. In such cases, these youngsters are deported as illegal aliens back to their country of origin.

But to bring these children in, the unit must carry out night-time swoops to find children begging without families. When these children are found, they are often frightened and desperate to get away from the Saudi officials. One child found by the team during a raid, Ali, is a typical victim of the slavery business. Initially, he attempted to convince officials that he was in the city with his brother. However, it soon became clear that this was not the case.

'Smuggled'
Eventually, Ali revealed that he slept under a bridge or in "any house" he could find. He avoided using shoes, to boost his chances of getting money. While the details of Ali's story are sketchy, we know that Ali was smuggled across the porous border between the Yemen and Saudi Arabia. In 2005, the Yemeni Ministry of Social Affairs acknowledged that about 300 children were crossing the border every month.

It is not always possible to know the entire truth about these children but what is clear, is that they are working for others, out of education, and kept in a cycle of poverty and danger.
Ali told officials at the shelter: "I was smuggled in, in order to beg. I told him (the gangmaster) I don't want to beg, so he beat me up." The boy said he ended up begging because of physical abuse involving metal wire attacks to his back. He also said he was forced to beg all day, but claimed that he only gave some of his earnings back to his paymaster.

Click here to read the rest of the article!

Waking Up: An “Authentic Moment,” joining the Human Soul to the World

by: Nasir Al-Amin

Almost a year ago, a fellow traveler gave me a book of poetry entitled “Ten Poems to Change your Life.” Due to the daily demands of life I never got around to reading this text until the other day.

It was a normal day, a million and one things to do, functioning as usual off of a coffee addiction due to sleep deprivation. However while waiting for the D train to go home before a meeting, this quite inner voice told me to ‘call it a night.’ I have to admit I was feeling drained, my first love, coffee, had let me down so I began to wrestle with myself on how I can cancel this appointment and rearrange my scheduled so that I can take care of the other things on my To-Do list.

Subsequently, I conceded to the voice, canceled my appointment, trashed the To-Do list, took a shower changed into a pair of jeans, t-shirt and blazer (one never knows who you will meet, I have 50 kids to support, I was tired but its still business first!). Still feeling out of it I left for the mosque, as my intention was to simply pray and just sit their and clear my mind, yet before I left I turned back and picked up the book of poems while thinking to myself ‘this isn’t work related I’ll read it.’ Yet what I soon realized is this collection of poems is work related, as I’m blessed in the sense that my work is my passion. It evolved out of various life altering moments, which lead to an awakening, this transformation in life and the subsequent path I’ve chosen to take.

Once in the taxi, I opened the book to the poem, “The Journey” by Mary Oliver, which begins: “One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began.” At that moment the words spoke to me as it brought me back to Mercato, this bustling market in Ethiopia when I first encountered this 5 year old girl who spent her days begging in the market; it brought me back to the grandfather I met in Maginaya who explained to me that he lost his daughter and son-law to AIDS and that he could no longer support his grandchild in their absence; it brought back to the moment when tears poured from the face of Mintesnot’s mother as she explained the pain of pulling him out of school because she could not afford to pay the school fees and afford to feed him; it brought back the conversation I had with a teenage girl in Addis whose eyes brighten when she spoke of her plan to open a clothing boutique, yet quickly became despondent when she spoke of selling her body to support herself and her son, and her fleeting dream of opening that boutique.

Also, I read “Last Night As I Was Sleeping” by Antonio Machado. Both poems speak of this “authentic moment”, this “waking up,” in which the human soul connects to the world. As Roger Housden maintains, it’s a “moment when you dare to take your heart in your hands and walk through an invisible wall into a new life.” The new life that these poets allude to is a life that is deeper than the selfishness of our desires, a life that shuns conformity to the status quo, to systems of power and inequality, while simultaneously rejecting “habitual perceptions of life” in favor of taking a journey towards the inward, beyond mere vain pursuits, conspicuous consumption and materialism. In essence, an awakening to the true self, and what that authentic self yearns for.

For me that “authentic moment,” which in previous writings I have referred to as an ‘Awakening’ when I knew what I had to do, first occurred in the streets of Ethiopia. However that clarion call to the inner self is not bound by geographical location, as it was in the streets of Harlem that I was reminded of “The Journey.”

“Beyond living and dreaming there is something more important: Waking up.”
(Antonio Machado)

SWAZILAND: Community gardens flourish to feed the vulnerable

Via: IRIN PlusNews

Picture: UNICEF Swaziland/2005

NGOs in Swaziland are shifting the emphasis of their operations from handouts of donated foodstuffs to training households and communities to set up projects that produce food and generate income, to find a lasting solution to perennial food shortages.

"AIDS has made food security more difficult to achieve. You cannot separate food from health. People living with HIV/AIDS require food to boost their strength: antiretroviral drugs must be taken after nourishment," said Sibongile Hlope, Director of the Baphalali Red Cross Society. "We do give food assistance to children: a 50kg bag of maizemeal, 10kg of corn-soya blend that is rich in protein, five kg of beans and three bottles cooking oil every month," said food coordinator Kunene.

COMMUNITY STEPS IN

"More people require food assistance; that is why we are also doing community gardens," said Kunene, who supervises six community gardens around the Sigumbeni settlement, about one hour's drive southeast of the capital, Mbabane. "There is a problem with irrigation affordability, especially with our communal gardens. They all depend on rain - but even with proper watering, the hot weather harms the crops. The heat brings pests, but we discourage [these by] using pesticides - we don't want people consuming chemicals."

Besides food production and income generation the gardens are also social gathering spots for HIV-positive people and AIDS-affected families, who comprise the bulk of the volunteers who till, weed, water and harvest. Until recently, HIV-positive people were stigmatised in their villages, and support organisations for HIV-positive people were located in some towns but rarely in rural areas.

"The communal gardens allow HIV-positive people to discuss matters important to them, and be with other HIV-positive people. They get out of the house, and they take charge of one part of their lives," Kunene said. Volunteers working in the gardens divide the food amongst themselves and the vulnerable children in the area. Some fields are even large enough to generate food surpluses, which are sold and the profits divided among the workers.

In Zandondo, a settlement in the northern Hhohho Region, one community donated a 28.5ha field for this purpose. "Last year one field provided school uniforms and basic school supplies to area orphans. We expect other fields to follow suit when this year's harvests come in, starting in May," said Kunene.

Click here to read the full report!

ETHIOPIA: Nearly half of the children orphaned by HIV/AIDS

Via: IRIN PlusNews

Ethiopia has one of the largest populations of orphans in the world with nearly half of the children having lost at least one of their parents.A government official said on Tuesday that HIV/AIDS, disease, hunger and poverty threatened to drive the number of orphaned children from 11 percent to 43 percent of the 45 million children in Ethiopia by 2010.

This could mean some 19 million children will have lost one or both of their parents, according to the figures, said Bulti Gutema, the head of the government's taskforce on the problem of orphans and vulnerable children. He said the figures were based on projections by the health ministry.

Bulti said antiretroviral drugs are vital in curbing the explosion but less than five percent got the drugs. Cheap antibiotics costing less than US $0.03 cents could also cut the numbers of child deaths from HIV/AIDS in the country by half but less than one per cent of the children got them, he added.The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) estimate that looking after each orphaned child in Ethiopia would cost around $300 a year, totalling some $1.38 billion. But the organisation has less than $10 million available even though Ethiopia has one of the largest populations of orphans in the world.

Some 300,000 children already live on the streets, according to the UN body."It is easy to stand and look at the problem from a distance and wring our hands at how big and impossible the problem is," he said. "But we must confront this."There are currently 4.6 million orphans in Ethiopia - with around 540,000 of them having been orphaned by the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

Click here to read the full report!

ETHIOPIA: Inequality, gender-based violence raise HIV/AIDS risk for women

Via: IRINPlusNews

ADDIS ABABA, 8 January (PLUSNEWS) - Efforts to address the plight of women infected and affected by HIV/AIDS are lagging behind in Ethiopia's profoundly conservative society, while they continue to bear the brunt of the epidemic. "Women are more vulnerable to HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia, mainly due to a lack of know-how and control over how, when and where the sex takes place, particularly in the rural areas, where culture and religion dominate the rights of women," Alemu Anno, in the advocacy department of Ethiopia's Federal HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Office (FHAPCO), told PlusNews.

According to FHAPCO's latest report, of the estimated 1.32 million people living with HIV/AIDS in 2005, 55 percent - or 730,000 - were women. They also accounted for 54.5 percent of AIDS deaths and 53.2 percent of new infections in that year.Women and girls often have less information and access to services, especially in rural areas. Girls make their sexual debut early - either through early marriage or sexual abuse - and their partners are typically much older men.

According to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), marriage at the age of seven or eight is not uncommon in Ethiopia.The results are usually premature pregnancies, which cause higher rates of maternal and infant mortality, and increased vulnerability to sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS. Physical and sexual violence within marriage are also common, and women have little room to negotiate the use of condoms or to refuse sex to an unfaithful partner. A 2005 World Health Organisation (WHO) multi-country study on women's health and domestic violence revealed that in a one-year period nearly a third of Ethiopian women reported being physically forced by a partner to have sex against their will.

"This high rate of forced sex is particularly alarming in the light of the AIDS epidemic and the difficulty that many women have in protecting themselves from HIV infection," WHO said."Women in Ethiopia have the larger AIDS burden because of factors like economic dependence and difficulty in meeting basic needs, insufficient proper knowledge of prevention, lack of enough access to prevention, and lack of proper information about sex and sexuality," Berhane added.

Click here to read the full report!

The Journey

by Mary Oliver

On the day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice —
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
‘Mend my life!’
each voice cried.
But you didn’t stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do —
determined to save
the only life you could save.

EVENT: Reflections

Reflections, is an event to provide Ethiopians and non-Ethiopians who have just returned from Ethiopia with a venue to share their experiences and images from their trip and outreach efforts with vulnerable populations in Ethiopia. Reflections will be facilitated on Friday, February 23rd from 7PM- 9PM.

Location:
Columbia University’s Teacher College (Room 305)
525 W. 120th St.
New York, NY 10027


Please join ALIF for this event as we hear about the enriching experiences of three individuals who have recently traveled to Ethiopia. This event is sure to be an edifying and insightful affair for all who attend.

Textbook Fundraiser for Black Lion Hospital Dept. of Pediatrics

ALIF is engaging in an initiative to purchase pertinent textbooks for medical students and residents of Black Lion Hospital’s Department of Pediatrics. On Friday, February 23rd ALIF will be hosting a fundraising event at Duke City located in Washington D.C. to secure the funds to purchase the following textbooks: Nelson’s Textbook of Pediatrics 17th edition and Neonatology Textbook

Location:
Duke City
1208 U st NW
(bet: 12st & 13st)

10PM-Until
$10 at the Door

The following is a letter written by Dr. Abdulrahman:

Books for Black Lion Hospital Department of Pediatrics
This initiative is the result of seeing the need for textbooks after doing a rotation as a graduated medical student at Black Lion Hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Black Lion Hospital is the only government owned tertiary care center serving not only the heavy populated capital city Addis Ababa, but also persons who walk miles from the rural areas to seek health care. While the hospital is a teaching center, the library holds very few up-to-date textbooks that medical students and residents need to read about their patient’s diseases. Although, there are many issues that need to be addressed to improve health care in Ethiopia, one way to make a difference is to provide newer edition textbooks for medical students and residents. It is my belief that it is important to support the physicians in Ethiopia as they tackle the very difficult task of working with minimal resources. Since my visit in 2004, I have kept in touch with the Dean of Medical School, pediatric residents whom I worked with and medical students that are active in the Ethiopian Medical Student Association (EMSA). They have confirmed what books are desperately needed. I hope that this is the beginning of a life-long collaboration with this teaching hospital in Ethiopia.

Thanks for your support,

Dr Eiman Abdulrahman
Second Year Resident Schneider Children’s Hospital- North Shore Long Island Jewish Hospital

UPDATE: Fundraising Event for Fresh & Green Academy

ALIF would like to thank everyone for his or her support in making Friday’s One School At-A-Time fundraising event for Fresh & Green Academy a success. The proceeds from this event will serve to financially assist the Fresh & Green Academy in paying the schools rent for two months, the purchasing of vital tools to serve potable water to the children, reestablishing the Academy’s internet connection, as well as send one child to school through the Hiwot (Life) Campaign.

Again, ALIF sincerely appreciates your support, and we look forward to seeing you at future events!

New ALIF Initiative: One-School-At-A-Time

One School At-A-Time is an initiative to reach out to children and their families through community-initiated schools that are responding to the needs identified by the community. The aim of this initiative is to link community-based schools to various indigenous and international organizations in an effort to enhance the services and the education these schools provide. The first beneficiary of the One-School At-A-Time initiative is Fresh and Green Academy.

Fresh and Green Academy
Fresh and Green Academy is a kindergarten created 6 years ago by vanguards Ms. Almaze Beyene and Ms. Muday Mitiku who realized the need to educate children that spent most of their day on the streets begging. Located in Yeka Kihe Ketema (woreda 28, kebele 19) the children of Fresh and Green Academy suffer from malnutrition and extreme depravation.

At present Fresh and Green affords 75 kids between the ages of 4 and 9 with the opportunity to access education. The kindergarten receives no government aid, and operates solely by sponsorship of local residents. Currently, only 20 children are sponsored.

On-Going Initiatives:

(1) Potable Water Project
We need to buy the following items in order to provide water to the children at school:

Items: Price USD
1 Stove $312
1 Fridge $282
3 Large Filters $30
Filter refills -
2 Large Pots $37.5
Water Jars $ 3.75
Cups (70 units) -

(2) Library Project
We need to buy the following items in order to create a libraryfor the kids of Fresh and Green Academy:

Items: Price USD
Shelves $300
Folding chairs $8
Folding tables $22.5
File Cabinet $115
TV $288
DVD Already donated! Thanks Kenia Valentin!

(3) Other Efforts:

School Supplies
We are collecting new/used school supply materials to be sent to Fresh & Green Academy.

Toys
We are collecting new/used toys to be sent to Fresh & Green Academy.

Clothing
We are collecting new/used adults’ and children’s clothing to be sent to Fresh & Green Academy and their community.

Contact Gabi Dias at gabidias@allianceinvestment.org in order to send your new or used school supplies, toys, and children/adults clothing to our children and the community of Fresh & Green Academy!

We also accept financial contributions for all of the aforementioned efforts. Checks can be sent to the following address:
Alif Fund
Columbia University Station
P.O. Box 250457
534 West 112 Street
New York, NY 10025

Pleased indicate in the memo section of the check the particular initiative you would like your contribution to be directed towards!

Girl, 6, embodies Cambodia's sex industry

By Dan Rivers (CNN)

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (CNN) -- At an age when most children might be preparing for their first day of school, Srey, 6, already has undergone trauma that is almost unspeakable. She was sold to a brothel by her parents when she was 5. It is not known how much her family got for Srey, but other girls talk of being sold for $100; one was sold for $10.

Before she was rescued, Srey endured months of abuse at the hands of pimps and sex tourists. (Watch where freed girl is found upon reunion with reporter )
Passed from man to man, often drugged to make her compliant, Srey was a commodity at the heart of a massive, multimillion-dollar sex industry in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. "It is huge," said Mu Sochua, a former minister of women's and veteran's affairs who is an anti-sex trade activist.

The precise scale of Cambodia's sex trade is difficult to quantify. International organizations -- such as UNICEF, ECPAT and Save the Children -- say that anywhere from from 50,000 to 100,000 women and children are involved. An estimated 30 percent of the sex workers in Phnom Penh are under the age of 18, according to the United Nations. The actual figure may be much higher, activists say.

Global sex industry
Around the world, more than 1 million children are exploited in the global commercial sex trade each year, according to the U.S. State Department. The State Department believes Cambodia is a key transit and destination point in this trade.

Sochua said that with millions of Cambodians struggling to live on less than 50 cents a day, many women turn to the sex industry. Poverty is also often what drives parents to sell their child or themselves on the streets.
"Always a child is left behind, often a girl, who is preyed on by traffickers," Sochua added.

Click here to read entire article!

The Audacity of Hope

The Audacity of Hope
by: Nasir Al-Amin
Photo by: Menen Hailu

Recently, I purchased Senator Barack Obama’s book entitled “The Audacity of Hope.” Although I’m intrigued and admittedly inspired by Senator Obama’s ability to be a lawyer, professor, member of Congress and father, it was the allure of the title that made me purchase his text. As the phrase, “the audacity of hope,” reminds me of why I created Alif, rather it reminds me of the children who inspired me to create Alif.

The plight of orphans and vulnerable children is unacceptable by any standards: increased risk of physical and sexual exploitation, malnutrition, limited medical attention, loss of parental protection, an environment of chronic poverty and hopelessness, high rates of school dropouts and child labor. However, the children I met represent the 4 million plus orphans and vulnerable children in Ethiopia that are driven by this brazen and unmitigated optimism in themselves and their future, which I liken to Senator Obama’s phrase “the audacity of hope.”

Such children dare to dream. If you ask them what they want, most will tell you: “I want to go to school to become a teacher…I want to help my country.” These are children who have a vision and the drive. Thus through Alif, I want to match that resolve by affording orphans and vulnerable children with an opportunity to actualize their dream: to be able to attend school and disengage from child labor. For me this is my minute contribution to children who have “the audacity of hope.”

Short Video: The Plight of an Impoverished boy from the Oromo Region

Via: Global Goals

This film conveys the life of 13-year old Gezahegn, who due to his impoverished status has difficulties obtaining a basic education.

Click here to view this short film!

Video: A short film about life in Addis for the impoverished

Via: Global Goals

This film depicts the plight of an impoverished girl, Elene, and her obstacles to education and a healthy, vibrant childhood.

Click here to view this short film!

SUCCESS STORY: Providing hope and support for HIV-affected women

Via: USAID
Battling the Stigma of HIV/AIDS: Providing hope and support for HIV-affected women

Challenge
Several years ago, a young mother in Ethiopia named Tadeleu contracted HIV from her husband, who later passed away from the disease. Her two children, who are HIV negative, live with her mother. She tells of the stigma she faces, both emotionally and socially. “When I found out I had the disease,” she said, “all I could think about was how much I hated myself, and I kept denying that I had the disease. I do not want to become intimate with people, because I fear they will find out my status.”

Initiative
When Tadeleu discovered she had HIV, she started attending support meetings at the Hope Center, a church-based organization established with help from USAID funding. She found a sense of community and a program that would change her life. The Center provided skills, training, and start-up capital for her to begin a small sewing business.

Now, she is too busy to worry about disapproval from her neighbors. Her buyers are often from markets several towns away, because she does not want to deal with local people. Despite the stigma of living with HIV in Ethiopia, she finds relief in the Hope Center. “I am happy that the church has provided support,” she says. “They keep our secrets.”

Results
Vibrant fabrics grace the wall behind Tadeleu where she spends each day hard at work from sunrise to sunset at her manually powered sewing machine. Orders come in regularly, giving Tadeleu confidence in her work and a sense of security. Amidst her tears, a smile breaks out, and she says, “This program has given me life.” With funding for a small business, Tadeleu keeps busy with orders on her self-powered sewing machine.

“This program has given me life,” said Tadeleu, an HIV-positive mother who now runs her own small business.

Snapsot of the Situation: Orphans and Vulnerable Children in Ethiopia

Via: UNICEF
By: Andrew Heavens

Overwhelming numbers
More than 744,000 of Ethiopia’s {6 million} orphans have lost parents to AIDS. These huge numbers are overwhelming extended families and communities who struggle to help where they can.

As a result, many orphans do not go to school, and many are forced to live on the street. They get caught up in child labour, taking on the drudgery of domestic service and the dangers of sex work.

Many orphans have to become the heads of their own households, taking the place of their deceased parents. These young people often sacrifice their own education to guarantee a better future for their younger siblings.

Click here to read entire article!

Two Brooklyn youths join the fight against AIDS in Ethiopia

Via: UNICEF

By Gerrit Beger
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, 30 November 2006 – Kimberly Canady, 19, and Elias Perez, 20, both from Brooklyn, look tired but have a sparkle in their eyes as they arrive in Ethiopia after the 16-hour flight donated by Ethiopian Airlines. It’s the first time either of them has travelled outside the United States.
Tired or not, there is no time to rest. Kimberly and Elias are youth activists on an important UNICEF mission to see firsthand what AIDS is doing to children and young people in a region that has been hard-hit by the disease.

Click here to read entire article!

AIDS impact on children
HIV-positive children orphaned by AIDS? Isn’t that an African story? Not necessarily. But although their story is similar to many others here in Ethiopia, the impact on their lives is worlds apart.

In Ethiopia, too many mothers are still passing the virus to their newborns, even though it could easily be prevented. Thousands of children wait for HIV treatment that is easily accessible in developed countries but a distant hope for most African children in need. Too many young people are infected because they don’t have the knowledge they need to keep themselves safe. And hundreds of thousands who have lost their parents to AIDS face hardships that challenge their potential to survive and thrive.

Click here to read entire article!

Teacher Training Initiative for sub-Saharan Africa (TTISSA)

UNESCO's Teacher Training Initiative for sub-Saharan Africa (TTISSA) is a 10-year project that spans 46 sub-Saharan countries with the mission to enhance national teacher policy and teacher education. The TTISSA aims to synchronize teacher policies, teacher eduation and labour practices with national development priorities for Education for All and the UN Millennium Development Goals for identified sub-Saharan countries.

What follows is the TTISSA National Report--March 2006:

This report was prepared by the TTISSA National Coordinator for Ethiopia to introduce and analyze teacher status in the country (training, status, living and working conditions, etc.), as well as existing teacher training actions. It was presented on the occasion of the First Meeting of National Coordinators for TTISSA held at UNESCO Dakar from 7 to 9 March 2006.
Click here to read the full report!


(Source: UNESCO)