End the Injustice

Benson barely had time to grieve his mother’s death when he realized the task of caring for two brothers had fallen on his young shoulders.

In less than five years, the 14-year-old boy had lost both parents to AIDS-related illnesses. And as the conflict in war-torn northern Uganda continued to escalate, the boys were increasingly vulnerable to abduction and forced conscription into the Lord’s Resistance Army, a rebel group known for its brutality and traumatizing tactics.

To make matters worse, community members believed the children were also HIV-positive and refused to offer shelter or care. Benson had to carry this burden alone.

With an estimated 2.2 million orphans, Uganda has more parentless children than any other nation on the continent except South Africa, according to the United Nations. Plagued by poverty, poor health, abandonment, malnourishment, and the loss of family support systems, UNICEF estimates that another 5.4 million children can be classified as highly vulnerable. In all, at least 7.6 million of Uganda’s boys and girls face a daily struggle to survive.

Read more about this story at Samaritan’s Purse

The United Nations Children’s Fund warns many children suffering from severe acute malnutrition in Ethiopia are at risk of death. The United Nations says 6.2 million people in the country are in need of food aid, the highest number for 25 years when one million people died of famine.

Several years of erratic rainfall, high food and fuel prices and the global financial meltdown have robbed Ethiopia of its ability to feed its own people. The United Nations says more than six million people are going hungry.

It warns lack of food weakens peoples’ immune system, makes them vulnerable to disease and, possibly, death. Among the most vulnerable are children.

According to the U.N. Children’s Fund, an estimated 270,000 children suffer from severe acute malnutrition and are in urgent need of special therapeutic feeding.

In a telephone briefing from Addis Ababa, UNICEF representative in Ethiopia, Ted Chaiban, considers the challenges ahead daunting. But, he says his agency is not without resources.

He says several programs have been functioning for years that are making a difference. One is a productive safety net program, which is a cash and food transfer program for families that lack food.

He says another program provides health services to every village in Ethiopia. And a third program treats severe acute malnutrition at community level.

“The result of that is that you treat children early on and you avoid complications and you save many more lives,” said Chaiban. “A child that is severely acutely malnourished that is not treated has a 30 to 50 percent chance of dying. We now have 3,200 points which can do this treatment at community level and that is 1,600 percent increase since 2007.”

Chaiban says UNICEF needs nearly $39 million to carry out a few essential activities. He says the agency needs to pre-position ready-to-use therapeutic food to treat severely acutely malnourished children.

He says UNICEF needs money to buy saline solutions and antibiotics to protect children from diarrhea and to establish safe water points. He says insecticide-treated bed nets are needed to protect children from malaria.

And, in some areas, particularly the Somali area of Ethiopia, a critical measles vaccination campaign is being planned. He says this is crucial because the combination of measles and malnutrition is deadly to children.

Source: http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-10-23-voa33.cfm