We Were All Children Once

How we were treated as children influenced what we grew up to be as adults. Children treated with understanding and empathy became  adults with empathy and understanding. Children who were taught love and patience grew into adults with love and understanding. I think I am making my point.

Children bought up in brutal conditions grow into brutal adults as a general rule of thumb. What can be done to prevent children being forced to become child soldiers, children being traded and sold in human trafficking that exists in so many places around the world?  All this in an age when we are building a new space program, medical science is making amazing advances, more women around the globe are attaining more rights and education is becoming a staple in countries that not too long ago had few if any classrooms. 

How can you help children or a child in dire need. Use the Internet and Google a charitable organisation near you. You can help either locally or globally through an organisation such as the ones you see on this link. 

https://www.thelifeyoucansave.org/causes/children-charities?gclid=CjwKCAjwwuvWBRBZEiwALXqjwynvmoBajzNF8qYsbkorP5h9gZ-B2xiXTvA_Wjc3mrgC3jShl-A5DhoCtIcQAvD_BwE

Do your due diligence though. There are many scams out there and there are many charities that have very heavy admin charges with simply not enough funds from contributors getting through to the children that need them. By estimates, there are 45.8 million people are enslaved across the world. Global Slavery Index 2016 key findings: Total number of people enslaved globally: 45.8 million people. Enhanced methodology reveals that 10 million more people are enslaved than previously estimated – a 28% increase. Many many, of them are children.

How comfortable are you in your current life? Comfortable?  Maybe its time to forgo that planned cruise or the 2 months "in the desert" and channel that money to children who have been bought into this world and know nothing but suffering.

Just suggesting.

The 3 Worst Countries in the World to be a Child

Zimbabwe

The problem: One in eight kids will die before the age of 5, according to the United Nations.

The cause: AIDS and poverty. Zimbabwe once had one of the best healthcare systems in Africa, but skyrocketing inflation caused by Robert Mugabe's misguided economic policies and a 3,000 percent increase in healthcare costs in recent years have destroyed Zimbabwe's hospitals. 

Today, food shortages, lack of medicines, and a failing education system leave Zimbabwean kids with tragically bleak futures, and thousands make the dangerous trek to South Africa each year in search of a better life. To make a miserable situation even worse, one in five children has been orphaned by AIDS.

What needs to be done: Zimbabwe needs more resources for HIV education and prevention efforts that encourage long-term change in risky behaviors, along with new investments in hospitals. Sane fiscal policies to stop the hyperinflation that has destroyed Zimbabwe's economy wouldn't hurt, either.

Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)

The problem: Child soldiers. About 40 percent of all soldiers in the DRC are kids, half of them young girls who have been forced into sexual slavery.

The cause: The legacy of war. Guerrilla and paramilitary forces kidnapped approximately 30,000 children for use as fighters, guards, and sex slaves during the countrys second civil war, which ended in 2003. Despite a formal end to the conflict, the use of child soldiers persists, as groups opposed to the government continue to force children to fight. Those who have escaped the fighting often find it extremely difficult to reintegrate into society, and many wind up on the streets. More than 20,000 street children live in Kinshasa, the capital, where they suffer from malnutrition and physical and sexual abuse.


What needs to be done: The DRC, after decades of war, needs to make permanent peace and establish programs to rescue child soldiers and reintegrate them into normal life. As for the street children, the government and international aid organizations have launched a campaign to make the public more aware of their plight, and they are targeting their abusers. Law enforcement officials, instead of throwing these kids into prison with adults, are working to rehabilitate dilapidated juvenile detention centers.

India

The problem: Child labor. An estimated 12 million Indian children toil in hard labor instead of attending school.

The cause: Economic growth and urbanization. As economies throughout Asia have grown dramatically in recent years, the demand for cheap labor has exploded. In many cases, children meet that demand. The problem is most acute in India. Most child workers there are migrants from rural areas, and they work shifts as long as 16 hours for pittances, generally less than $2.50 a day. The government has gone so far as to ban the practice, but it has had little success in combating it. Police generally ignore the problem, and even when a factory exploiting child laborers is shut down, another appears in its place.


What needs to be done: The Indian government recognizes the problem, and last year amended its Child Labor (Prohibition and Regulation) Act to expand on what constitutes child labor. However, without enforcement, the practice will continue unabated.

CELEBRATING THE POWER OF EDUCATION

Three years ago, Malala Yousafzai was targeted for her outspoken support of girls’ education. But not even a gun could silence her. In fact, it made her voice ring louder. Since her brush with death, Malala has made it her life’s purpose to advocate for the equal rights of all children and was recently the subject of the documentary He Named Me Malala, by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Davis Guggenheim.

Free The Children is proud to have welcomed Malala in Kenya on a ME to WE Trip where she spent several days speaking to girls about their passion for education at Kisaruni All Girls Secondary School. For many young girls, accessing education is about having the opportunity to reach their full potential as leaders and making a meaningful difference in the world.

Marcella Sang, a Kisaruni graduate and aspiring journalist, shares Malala’s belief in the power of education: “This school has changed my life completely. I have gained leadership skills and I have excelled in academics. When I started Kisaruni, I was shy and not able to address people in public. That’s changed—I have a voice now.”

Join us in celebrating the power of education and help support Free The Children’s education program overseas.

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