Article Link: ESA Irrevelant–and Deadly–Cuts in Foreign Assistance

As I was visiting hospitals and health huts in Senegal, I was also receiving e-mailed updates on House GOP budget cuts. The Global Fund, down 40 percent. Child survival programs, which include anti-malaria efforts, down 10 percent. AIDS relief, down 8 percent. Development assistance, down 30 percent.These reductions were intended to be symbolic, but what do they symbolize? Fiscal responsibility? Hardly. No one can reasonably claim that the budget crisis exists because America spends too much on bed nets and AIDS drugs. … Claiming courage or credit for irrelevant cuts in foreign assistance is a net subtraction from public seriousness on the deficit. So, do these cuts symbolize the Republican rejection of fuzzy-headed liberalism? Actually, the main initiatives on malaria and AIDS were created under Republican leadership.

via The Sider Center at Eastern University.

Article Link: Childhood Poverty Persistence: Facts and Consequences

The U.S. child poverty rate has fluctuated between 15 and 23 percent for the past four decades, but far more children—37 percent—live in poverty at some point during their childhoods. Being poor at birth strongly predicts future poverty status. Using the PSID, this study finds that 49 percent of children who are poor at birth go on to spend at least half their childhoods living in poverty. In addition, children who are born into poverty and spend multiple years living in poor families have worse adult outcomes than their counterparts in higher-income families.

via Childhood Poverty Persistence: Facts and Consequences.

Article: Deborah Weinstein: Help Needed Now for Growing Number of Children in Poverty

From Huffington Post.

Deborah Weinstein is the Executive Director of the Coalition on Human Needs.

At least one in four children was poor in nearly 190 counties in 39 states in 2009, a time of severe recession. In 33 counties in 17 states, at least one in three children was living in poverty. The American Community Survey for 2009, released yesterday by the U.S. Census Bureau, shows rising poverty in the majority of states, with children much more likely to be poor than other age groups.

Child poverty is particularly dangerous because children’s health and development is threatened when children are poor, especially if their poverty persists over years. The American Community Survey data is important because it goes beyond national or even state averages to shine a spotlight on local areas where poverty is rampant. A national average of one in five children in poverty should ring alarm bells. But places where a third or more of the children are poor require an immediate emergency response. Read the rest at

via Deborah Weinstein: Help Needed Now for Growing Number of Children in Poverty.

Slumdog Millionaire’s 8 Oscars should translate into action for children in India

World Vision India has a campaign tied into the issues raised by the movie Slumdog Millionaire. Slumdog Millionaire’s 8 Oscars should translate into action for children in India

Here is the US campaign page.

New UNICEF State of the World’s Children 2009

The new UNICEF Sate of the World’s Children 2009 is out and available here.

Give: The Julie Project

The Julie Project is building a shelter for women and children victi,s of the war near the Panzi Hospital.

UNICEF: New Publication: Children and AIDS: Third Stocktaking Report, 2008

UNICEF has a new publication available as a Pdf. file: Children and AIDS: Third Stocktaking Report, 2008

Powerful Short Documentary on Child Soldiers

Fox has a very powerful documentary on child soldiers online. The video is fifteen minutes long and combines compelling video, narratives in the words of child soldiers, and commentary from experts from World Vision, Amnesty International and others.

This is one of the best I have ever seen and the video quality and even background music are excellent.

Advocacy Resource: Global Action for Children

Global Action for Children advocates for policies that affect children world-wide. Her are some highlights from their website.

Contact President-elect Obama and Share GAC’s Emergency Presidential Initiative for the World’s Children with President-elect Obama

The Facts on Orphans and Vulnerable Children.

Resources for StudentOrganizers

Resources for ReligiousOrganizers

Resources for Community Organizers

Emergency Presidential Initiative For The World’s Children

Prioritize Children in FY09 Foreign Aid Funding Bill

New York Times: CNDP Rebels Responsible for Mass Killing in DR Congo

In this article, A Massacre in Congo, Despite Nearby Support and its accompanying video the New York Times reports that more than 150 people mostly young males were killed in a spaced of about 24 hours in the village of Kiwanja in northeast Congo by CNDP rebels. The CNDP is Gen. Laurent Nkunda’s rebel force in eastern DRC.

According to witnesses and clips of video shot at the time, Jean Bosco Ntaganda, Mr. Nkunda’s chief of staff, commanded the troops that carried out the killings. Mr. Ntaganda, whose nom de guerre is the Terminator, is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes committed while he was commanding a different armed group earlier in the war.

This all took place while UN MONUC troops were less than a mile away, unaware of what was happening.

The video accompanying the article features an interview with Gen. Nkunda who denies it was his troops but the evedence says otherwise.

See also Congo Needs 5 Minutes and 27 Seconds of Your Time Today in the Huffington Post.

A Video Which Will Make You Angry

This is a video which will make you angry–which is its purpose.

CNN:Food For the Hungry: DR Congo

CNN has a commentary, video, and slideshow by Lindsey Branham a Food for the Hungry aid worker who is working on the border of the DR Congo and Uganda. She is especially concerned about the recruitment of child soldiers in Eastern DR Congo now.

Commentary: War is Stealing Congo’s Young. Text article. one quote.  “I am convinced: The Congolese are waiting for peace. But they shouldn’t have to wait for assistance.”

Accompanying Video and slideshow.

Newsweek Article: On the Trail of a Ferocious Killer-Malaria

This article from Newsweek, On the Trail of a Ferocious Killer: Health officials are mounting the boldest campaign against malaria in 50 years. Will it work this time?, discusses the what is being planned and warns that in order for this to succede it will require quite a bit of resolve on the part of the whole world.

The author warns:

But success is not guaranteed. Eradication is probably the greatest challenge in all of public health; it requires that commitment remain high even as infection rates drop and other causes start to look more compelling. Vaccine development will also be daunting; there is very little precedent for immunization against anything as tricky as the malaria parasite. And then there is the sheer difficulty of collecting enough money to pay for what needs to be done. Last week, as part of the GMAP rollout, world leaders committed $3 billion to malaria prevention—but also announced that to fully implement their plan, they’d actually need $5.3 billion for 2009, followed by $6.2 billion for 2010, plus another $900 million or so each year for scientific research. Eradication may turn out to be a luxury we can’t afford.

But I argue that it is one we must afford and it certainly is not a luxury. Children are some of the hardest hit by this disease, children in poor countries or communities. To a mother of one of these children, I don’t think she would ever consider it a luxury. We really need to reverse our priorities and especially here in the US we need to catch a vision for the world.

Some related links:

Help From People of Faith

Faith communities around the world have already done a great deal for the Millennium Development Goals in the past eight years. Their advocacy for change has encouraged and pushed governments forward. Their work in education and health, particularly in Africa, often unpublicized and unrecorded, has been an invaluable complement to government programs. The response of the faith communities to the HIV/AIDS epidemic has been widely recognized and has stimulated the growth of new and effective interfaith networks.

Malaria.Com

Unicef: Malaria

Roll Back Malaria Partnership

Global Strategic Plan to Roll Back Malaria 2005-2015 (PDF)

Some facts from the above document:

“Six out of eight Millennium Development
Goals can only be reached with
effective malaria control in place.”

“A child dies from Malaria
every 30 seconds.”

“Malaria costs African countries
US$ 12 billion each year.”

“Populations exposed to complex emergencies are highly vulnerable to malaria”

“58 per cent of malaria cases occur
in the poorest 20 per cent
of the world’s population.”

The Global Malaria Action Plan

Some Malaria Advocacy Groups

The Abuja Declaration: The African Summit on Roll Back Malaria (PDF)

Nothing But Nets

World Vision: Global Issues: Malaria

The President’s Malaria Initiative

The President’s Malaria Initiative E- newsletter

Africa Fighting Malaria

World Vision: Malaria Initiative

World Vision: Take Action: Contact Members of Congress