News on Children's Issues

School collapses as major earthquake strikes in China

UNICEF China is deeply concerned that large numbers of children could be affected by a major earthquake in Sichuan Province. China Central Television reports that in one middle school in the city of Du Jiangyan, near Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan, a three story school building collapsed and 900 students are trapped in the rubble. According to Government sources, the latest death toll from the quake stands at 8,600 (although this figure is likely to be much higher) after a series of large earthquakes struck the Wenchuan district of Sichuan at approximately 14:30 hrs (Beijing Time) on May 12. Sichuan is one of the poorest and most populous provinces in China. The total population of the province is approximately 90 million. Agencies are concerned that the number of people killed, injured and affected by this large earthquake will rise as additional affected areas are reached by rescue teams over the coming hours. UNICEF and other UN agencies are not usually requested to assist the government of China in its response to natural disasters. They have been informed that the National Disaster Reduction Centre of China - the official coordinating body for disaster response - has dispatched rescue teams numbering in the thousands supported by the Peoples Liberation Army. (CRIN, May 12)

Schooling is key following Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar/Burma

[The] big concern is when school will start, so that they can resume some semblance of a normal routine. The new school term is set to begin 1 June, but with an estimated 90 per cent of the region’s schools destroyed, the logistical challenges are immense. UNICEF’s global Chief of Education, Cream Wright, said cyclone-affected children should be placed, “as quickly as possible … within safe and secure environments, so that some amount of support can be given for psychosocial damage that these children may have suffered – but also so that the learning process may start again. “What is important about education is that it’s at the leading edge of restoring a sense of normalcy,” added Dr. Wright. “It does this by putting children in a situation where they are safe. The first priority is not teaching and learning, it’s a safe environment for children.” Aid agencies hope to provide wind-up radios as part of the relief package, so that even if children are not able to get full-time teaching, they can at least begin to listen to information. “This can be a very powerful tool both for information and education,” said Dr. Wright. “Starting with play and moving onto formal lessons, you can even re-start schools whilst we’re trying to create safe spaces, and parents can have the feeling that something is returning to normal for their children.” The school that Kaung and Aung attend is one of the estimated 3,000 schools in Myanmar that have been badly damaged by the cyclone and subsequent flooding. The education of an estimated 500,000 children has been disrupted. In response, UNICEF Myanmar has ordered large quantities of ‘schools in a backpack’ – a more mobile version of the standard ‘School in a Box’ kit – which provides basic learning and play equipment and has been used successfully in previous emergencies. (CRIN, May 12)

Battling to take death out of birth in Africa

Last June, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) said south Sudan had the highest rate of pregnancy-related deaths in the world, at 2,030 per 100,000 births. That compares to a rate of 509 deaths per 100,000 births in the north. The UNFPA says only around 5 per cent of women in south Sudan deliver in an institution. At the Juba teaching hospital, wide-eyed babies are weighed in a harness and then passed through a jostling sea of mothers. "It's shocking because most of those women just represent those who get to facilities, how many more did not reach them?" said Magda Armah, who works for UNFPA. South Sudan is by no means unique in Africa, but the severity of its situation stands out: Until recently, there was only one delivery bed in Juba hospital. A new theatre with four delivery beds, a blood bank and beds for 150 patients, plus a nursery, are about to open. In April, a new report by the U.N. children's agency UNICEF said African countries had made the least progress among developing nations towards a U.N. goal of cutting infant and maternal mortality by two-thirds by 2015. (The Washington Post, May 12)

Teenage trafficking on the rise in northern areas of Nigeria

The trafficking of teenage girls from poor villages to northern Nigerian cities to work as domestic help for meagre wages is on the rise, officials said at the weekend. "The business of recruiting teenagers as domestic help is booming despite our efforts to put a stop to it," said Bello Ahmed, head of the Kano office of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons (NAPTIP), in charge of 18 northern and central states. The girls, usually between the ages of 12 and 17, are paid around 1,500 naira (13 dollars, eight euros) a month, money that they send to their parents, Ahmed told AFP. However meagre the wage, for the parents it means a little more cash and one mouth fewer to feed. Lack of state-level legislation to prosecute traffickers makes NAPTIP unable to take legal action against them, meaning the best it can do is monitor their activities to keep them in check, according to Ahmed. (CRIN, May 12)

Kurdistan bracing for possible cholera outbreak

The Iraqi authorities in the self-ruled northern region of Kurdistan are gearing up to face a possible cholera outbreak which last year affected nearly 4,200 people, and caused the deaths of 24 nationwide, a local official said on 6 May. “We have allocated 25 billion Iraqi dinars (US$20 million) to fight any cholera outbreak in Kurdistan after concerns rose last month when at least 500 patients with diarrhoea and vomiting were admitted to hospitals. So far no cases of the disease have been confirmed,” said Mohammed Sadiq from the regional Health Ministry. The last cholera outbreak was first detected on 14 August 2007 in the northern city of Kirkuk. It then spread to Sulaimaniyah, Arbil, Dohuk, Tikrit, Mosul, Diyala, Basra, Wasit, Baghdad and Anbar provinces. The hardest-hit provinces were Kirkuk with 2,309 cases, and Sulaimaniyah with 870. Cholera is a gastrointestinal disease typically spread by drinking contaminated water and can cause severe diarrhoea which, in extreme cases, can lead to fatal dehydration. It can be prevented by treating drinking water with chlorine and by improving hygiene conditions. (IRIN, May 7)