Unicef News on Bangladesh

Cyclone Sidr devastated Bangladesh. See the vidoe news from Unicef:

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Bangladesh Cyclone Sidr

Courtesy: Save the Children UK

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Child Abuse in South Asian Eyes

This is an interesting research article posted in the Stop Honour Killings website. "Child Abuse is Dishonour" basically presents the survey results from the communities from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Communities across the South Asian countries deal sexual abuse cases with their victims. They don't bring the perpetrators to justice.

This article says, "Most people surveyed said they would prefer to deal with suspected child abuse themselves rather than involve the police or social services. They were afraid that the child could be removed from their family, and felt that the authorities did not understand their religion and culture. NSPCC Asian helpline manager Saleha Islam said: “We want to send out a message to the British Asian community that putting up a wall of silence will not protect children. It will only protect the abuser who will be free to abuse again.”

What should we do for these communities to increase their awareness about child protection? Read more!

More Assets for Foster Children

US Lawmakers are reconsidering assets for foster children. Currently, state foster care agencies claim federal money for maintaining foster children. As NPR's Rachel Jones reports on March 25th, "Across the country, child welfare agencies are trying to cover costs by claiming the Social Security benefits of tens of thousands of foster children. New legislation on Capitol Hill aims to give control of that money back to the children....Most states won't end the practice without a fight. But child advocates say that unless eligible foster children actually get the SSI payments they're entitled to, they could wind up like so many other youth who age out of the system: homeless and broke".

Does this mean that new initiative will reduce States burdens to take care older children? Does it imply that more monies will be allocated for States to maintain foster children as they will loose maintneance money? Who knows? Read more!

Rights for Children

Do you really care for rights for children here, there and everywhere? Are you really sure that children are safe and happy all over the world? What have you done for a child next to you? This is an inspirational music video to remind us our duties for children. Courtesy of: naturalchildhood blog. Enjoy now:

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Troubled Child Welfare in New York City

A 7 year old child's death in New York last year by her step father shook the community. The story is a sad reminder for the community to show what happens when the New York City's Administration for Children's Services (ACS) failed to protect children in its care. Christian Science Monitor ran a story on January 26, 2006, that showed how the city failed to correct the systematic deficiencies. More money and support were promised to revamp the agency. Now after a year, New York Public Radio runs a story on March 22nd to show how the city is laying off current case workers and replacing them by hiring 500 more case workers to provide services to 17,000 foster care and 27,000 in home care children. The reform is bringing hope although it's not free from concern and controversies. Read more!

Land of Missing Children

Watch this 3 part video documentary that shows how children are trafficked in the underworld. Indian Police raided the brothel in Bombay and rescued the underaged children. If you want to see how the children are trafficked from South Asian countires, such as Bangladesh, India, Bhutan and Nepal, this series is a must see. please watch this 3 part video.

Part 1


Part 2


Part 3
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Performance based Contracting in DC

Foster care contract in the nation's capital is undergoing a major overhaul. In order restructure public-private initiative in Washington, DC, Child and Family Services Agency is offering a series of public meetings for stakeholders. Read the background information (pdf file) on Structure, Performance Status and Performance Expectations of the District of Columbia’s Child Welfare System. This open public discussion will continue weekly until April 17th. If you'd like to personally attend or join through Readytalk, please follow this link "CFSA Seeks Community Engagement for Planning a New Performance-based Contracting Initiative" Read more!

Adoption Reform in Nepal

International adoption is increasing in the West. It is not always very transparent. Nepal announced adoption reform as the Neapali Minister alleged illegal sale in the name of adoption. Gulf Times reports on March 12, 2007, “There are big gangs in the capital involved in selling children in the name of adoption,” Urmila Aryal, Minister for Women, Children and Social Welfare told local media on Saturday. The official paperwork to adopt a Nepali child costs about $300, but child welfare groups say people pay as much as $20,000, and the lure of the cash has led to a racket to sell children.“District administrations and police are not paying enough attention to controlling such crimes,” Aryal said.France recently banned its citizens coming to Nepal to adopt individually, and now requires they go through agencies approved by the French ministry of foreign affairs". Read here the full article from Gulf Times. Read more!

Less Money for Children

Children don't run for office. They are voiceless and faceless numbers in our political gamble. We've enough reasons to be concerned as the Urban Institute's published Kid's Share 2007 yesterday. It shows that less monies are slated for children. This published report says:

"This study reports on trends in federal spending on children from 1960 to 2017, looking across over 100 major federal programs, including tax credits and exemptions. Children's spending increasingly shifted from broad-based programs to programs targeting low-income or special needs children over the 1960 to 2006 period. Thirteen major programs enacted between 1960 and 2006, which include Medicaid, the earned income tax credit, and Food Stamps, comprised 65 percent of federal spending on children in 2006. Overall, federal children's spending increased in real terms from $53 billion in 1960 to $333 billion in 2006, or from 1.9 to 2.6 percent of GDP. Yet as a share of federal domestic spending, children's spending declined from 20.1 to 15.4 percent. Meanwhile, spending on the automatically growing, non-child portions of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, nearly quadrupled from 2.0 to 7.6 percent of GDP ($58 billion to $993 billion) over the same time period. Over the next ten years, children's programs are scheduled to decline both as a share of GDP and domestic spending, because they do not compete on a level playing field with these rapidly growing entitlement programs".

You can also listen to NPR's Rachel Jones report on March 15th on this issue. What's the next step? Are you going to write to your representatives? Who's going to lobby for children? Read more!

Child Trafficking Documentary

This powerful documentary on child trafficking is a must see. It is presented by Ahava Kids.

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Vulnerable Girls in the Streets of Dhaka

This story portrays a grim picture of street girls in the city areas of Bangladesh. Increasingly girl children are abandoned and forgotten in busy streets of the flourishing cities. They live on their own by selling water bottles, candies, flowers who will never be picked by any child protective services. There are no mandated child protective services or shelter homes in Bangladesh for abandoned children. In the recent months, more children became homeless as the Interim Government demolished slums and illegal establishments without any thought for rehabilitation. Watch a video report by Reuters presented on February 27, 2007: Poverty Grips Bangladesh (nuvu.tv).

Just imagine the lives of the girls on the streets as 70% of them will be ultimately sexually abused, one survey revealed. As one report indicates the horrible condition of these children, "a 2005 survey by Rainbow Nari O Shishu Kallyan Foundation on sexual activity among street girls underscored that street girls are extremely vulnerable to sexual abuse and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). More than half of the boys interviewed and more than three quarters of the girls, including 20 percent of those under fifteen, admitted they were sexually active. Sixty-one percent of the boys said they had forced a girl to have sex with them". Read this article from NFB. Read more!

Child Trafficking in Border Areas

A lot of children are still smuggled out of country by criminals. Is it law enforcement issue? Is it poverty? Is it loosening social and family fabric? No parents want to loose their children. Criminals smuggle children and women out of the country. Yesterday, I read this article in the Daily Star. As the report writes:

"In recent years, there has been a significant increase in trafficking of women and children in Bangladesh particularly in border area. Very little work has been done to understand the local dynamics of the problem meaningfully. There are young boys aged about 8 to 15 (some are even younger). They are those specifically sent to the Arab Gulf countries. There they are used as drivers for camel races; offering sexual favours is a secondary activity in most instances. As in the case of girls, there are no reliable statistics, but possibly about 50 to 100 boys are being smuggled out of Bangladesh for this purpose. The camel-rider boys of Bangladesh are part of rich Arab households.

The entire trafficking operation involves "scouting" for suitable victims, picking them up, then keeping them hidden in Dhaka City for a few days (sometimes the children are gagged and chained), then putting them on a bus or train towards the Indian border or elsewhere. There are people on both sides of the border who are part of the trafficking chain. Sometimes a prospective buyer is also waiting at the border. Transactions can be up to 40,000 to 50, 000 taka though most go for less".

Please read this article here. Read more!

Why US ranked Lowest

It's an interesting article published yesterday in the Washington Post that UNICEF ranked US and Britain the lowest in the child welfare survey. The article says, "...The Netherlands, followed by Sweden, Denmark and Finland, finished at the top of the rankings, while the United States was 20th and Britain 21st, according to the report released Wednesday in Germany by UNICEF, the U.N. children's agency. One of the study's researchers, Jonathan Bradshaw, said children fared worse in the United States and Britain -- despite high overall levels of national wealth -- because of greater economic inequality and poor levels of public support for families".

As a child welfare professional, it concerns all of us. Are we failing as a profession? Read more!

Poverty & Hunger

Words are more powerful than letters. Pictures are more powerful than words. Watch this powerful video on world hunger and poverty. (Please note, it's graphic)

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Faces of Victims

I always find audio visual presentations are to be more powerful than hundreds of words to show the pains of children across the globe who are victim of child trafficking. When I'm working here as a child welfare professional to ensure safety, permanency and well being, thousands of children are becoming commodities of heartless criminals who sell these young children's innocence. Please watch this video "Toys of Lust and Greed" presented by Campaign Against Child Trafficking in India. This situation is no different for children from neighboring Bangladesh. So please watch this video and act on it:

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