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The
global community has been, and continues to be, ambivalent towards
children and although many societies have nurtured and protected their
young one stark fact is unavoidable – for centuries millions of
children have been exploited and abused.
The statistics are almost unimaginable!
250,000 children die every week from diseases and malnutrition,
12 million children die before reaching their fifth year, 100 million
homeless children living in the streets around the world, 2 million
children are objects of sexual abuse - child pornography and demand for
child prostitutes is increasing globally.
But
if the global community is ambivalent about children it is especially so
about orphans. In many countries orphans are considered
outcasts. Throughout the world millions of orphans and abandoned
children are kept in grossly sub-standard orphanages and other
institutions – little more than warehouses for children who suffer
from inadequate food, clothing, medical care, lack of stimulation and
neglect. Medical care for most orphans is limited and basic
medical supplies are scarce.
In
most of the newly independent republics of the former Soviet Union,
economic dislocation has ensured children in state institutions have not
fared well. Most orphanage buildings have fallen into serious
disrepair and lack functioning water and sewage services, electricity or
basic heating facilities. These
orphanages receive scarce public or private support: children and staff
survive primarily on intermittent food, bedding and clothing assistance
from international donors.
On
their 16th birthday these orphaned or abandoned children are turned out
onto the even harsher streets, with no contacts, no skills, and nowhere
to go. There are no
programmes to help these teenagers for in countries struggling with
economic collapse, orphans and abandoned children are not a priority.
The
hidden cost of war
Childhood
is the time to grow, to learn, to be happy and at peace but wars have
created millions of orphans and displaced children.
Currently 20 million children are refugees or internally
displaced in their homeland. But
the vicious modern ethnic conflicts also target children for they are
seen to represent the future. Children
are traumatised, often terrorized, sexually abused, mutilated, sometimes
even forced to participate in killing or are enrolled as child soldiers.
During the last 10 years 2 million children have died in wars.
Long
after war is over it is children who continue to be traumatized by their
brutal experience and children who are most at risk of being maimed by
the hundreds of thousands of landmines left as a deadly legacy of war.
Over 6 million children have been maimed or injured during armed
conflicts in the past decade alone.
But now children have a new enemy.
..."By
2010 there will be..." |
