GAET TEIDOUMA, Mauritania, 15 February – Each…
February 16, 2012
In Mauritania, help needed to protect children from emerging malnutrition crisis
By Shantha Bloemen
GAET TEIDOUMA, Mauritania, 15 February – Each year, the period between the rains and the new harvest is a lean season, when mothers like Fatima Mohammed struggle to feed their children – in Ms. Mohammed’s case, seven of them.
But last year, there was no rain, and this year’s lean season has come three months early.
Without rain, the pasture for livestock disappears, and the goats produce less milk. Families compete with birds and locusts for what crops manage to survive. Family members, often men and older boys, are already leaving to search for better pastoral land or work.
UNICEF estimates that in 2012, across the eight countries of the Sahel region, more than a million children will suffer from severe acute malnutrition, which, untreated, can quickly lead to death. The Government of Mauritania and humanitarian agencies are hoping to respond now to avoid mass starvation, worsening poverty and social dislocation.
Working to forestall crisis
In Hodh El Gharbi Region, home mainly to pastoral nomads, carcasses of dead animals line the road. The region is a major supplier of meat to urban areas; should today’s food insecurity become a full-blown crisis, the potential loss of livestock would devastate households here and nationwide.
Efforts are underway to build community resilience through investments in agricultural, health and nutrition services. They are part of a joint initiative by four UN agencies – UNICEF, the World Food Programme (WFP), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) – along with the government and partner NGOS. Over the last three years, the initiative has successfully reached some of the remotest communities in the country.
UNICEF has helped a local health centre in Hodh El Gharbi stay stocked with vaccines, essential medicines and therapeutic food to treat severe malnutrition. And nutrition centres in many villages are now stocked with corn soya blend, oil and sugar supplied by WFP. Mothers can take their moderately malnourished children to these centres for evaluation and treatment, and return home with vital food supplies.
© UNICEF Mauritania/2012/Palitza
Aichelon, 21 months old, with her mother at a health center in Kifa, Mauritania. The arm band shows that she is malnourished.
Other programmes are helping as well. With extensive community education, country-wide rates of exclusive breastfeeding – a critical first line defence for young infants – has shot up to from 35 per cent in 2009 to 46 per cent.
But with no rain and an early lean season, these signs of resilience are not enough. Families are running out of food.
Cannot survive without help
“There is no doubt the investments in development have paid off, but today, we have an emergency, and local communities cannot survive without more help,” said Dr. Ahmed Ould Aida, a UNICEF nutrition specialist.
Dr. Aida visited a tented home in Hodh El Gharbi, where a 70-year-old woman was mixing a bowl of millet meal for her malnourished twin grandchildren. The children’s father has left to find work.
“Even the adults are feeble,” the grandmother said angrily. “When it rains, we normally have something, but now it is not just the children but all of us who suffer from hunger and no food.” The family has been forced to rely on neighbours for meals.
Amadou Demba, his wife and his 21-month-old daughter are staying with relatives in Kiffa, a town in Assaba Region, 77 km from their remote village home. Mr. Demba borrowed US$20 to bring his family to Kiffa so his daughter could be treated for malnutrition at the local health centre. “There is nothing left for us there,” he said of his home.
Lucia Elmi, UNICEF Representative in Mauritania, said there are three immediate challenges: logistics, security and human capacity. In 2012, UNICEF will need at least $3.2 million dollars to prepare for a large-scale response to acute malnutrition and to invest in health, water and sanitation services. Additional funds will be needed to sustain these efforts.
“There is no doubt it will be difficult to reach children in a country this large and with populations so spread out,” Ms. Elmi said. “But if our responsibility and mandate is to make sure every child counts, then it is critical we respond now, especially to reach the poorest and most vulnerable, wherever they are.”
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Article source: http://www.unicef.org/rsstracker/news/infobycountry/mauritania_61737.rhtml
ANKARA, Turkey, 2 February, 2012 – Turkey is at…
February 6, 2012
In Turkey, a conference gives children a voice in the drafting of new constitution
© UNICEF/Turkey/2011/Oktay Ustun
Marie-Pierre Poirier, UNICEF Regional Director for Central and Eastern Europe and Commonwealth of Independent States, stands with child advocates at the children’s consultation on Turkey’s new constitution.
By Lely Djuhari
ANKARA, Turkey, 2 February, 2012 – Turkey is at pivotal point in its history. Parliamentarians are poised to make fundamental changes to the country’s constitution, and children will have a rare chance to leave their stamp on it.
A two-day consultation, ‘Children`s Opinions on the Process for a New Constitution’, was organized by the Ministry of Family and Social Policy, the Parliament and UNICEF Turkey. The event began this week, bringing together 162 children from child-rights committees from all the nation’s provinces.
Thriving democracy
With the conference, Turkey will become one of the few countries in the world where children have been consulted in the drafting of a constitution, the basis of all national laws.
The new constitution will influence the country`s future as a thriving democracy.
Amendments could pave the way for greater freedom of expression, and will change the relationship between the judiciary and political parties, allowing the President and Parliament to have a say in the composition of the constitutional court.
In addition to consulting Turkey’s child representatives, academics, non-governmental organizations and disadvantaged groups were also asked to submit their opinions.
Empowering youth
The conference is part of broader efforts to empower the country’s youth to take on active roles as citizens.
© UNICEF/Turkey/2011/Oktay Ustun
Marie-Pierre Poirier, UNICEF Regional Director for Central and Eastern Europe and Commonwealth of Independent States, speaks at the children’s consultation on Turkey’s new constitution. Child rights advocates Sevval Lafçi and Mirkan Özdemir stand behind her.
Too many children in the country– especially those living in poverty – are missing out on health services, nutrition and education accessible to others. Tens of thousands of children of primary school age are not in school, and many children – particularly girls – may be in danger of dropping out.
Child rights committees, which meet at the province and national level, were established in 2000 to help young people advocate for the rights of those vulnerable children.
“Many of my friends don`t understand what child rights are, let alone why a constitution is important for them,” child advocate Berkay Saygin said. “It`s exciting to see this issue on TV and in the newspapers. The more I learn about it, the more I want to understand how it impacts my life.”
“We want the government to set their policy with child rights at the centre,” said 16-year-old child committee representative Sevval Lafçi. “Getting child rights into the Constitution will make it easier to for us to advocate for children`s rights in laws and making sure that resources are given.”
Participating in the future
“We need to have a constitution that includes the voices of all people,” said Fatma Şahin, Minister of Family and Social Policies, whose office is responsible for facilitating the children’s participation. “In the past, our constitutions were drafted during times of hardship. This is the first time that we are able to do it during peacetime. We need to capture the spirit of these new times.”
“I extend my wholehearted congratulations to the Government of Turkey for having accomplished this invaluable work,” said Marie-Pierre Poirier, UNICEF Regional Director for Central and Eastern Europe and Commonwealth of Independent States.
“The lesson I take from today is inspirational,” she continued. “I will take this as an example to the Governments of Europe and Central Asia of what can be achieved through children participating in the future.”
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<!– Updated 06 February 2012 –>
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Article source: http://www.unicef.org/rsstracker/news/infobycountry/Turkey_61566.rhtml
‘Full of Grace’ photography exhibition celebrates children
January 31, 2012
‘Full of Grace’ photography exhibition celebrates children
© UNICEF/NYHQ1983-0001/Isaac
‘Girls share textbooks to study’, Pakistan, 1983
By Ellen Tolmie
“Photographic images of children are the most common, the most sacred and at times the most controversial images of our times … They can be both banal and profound; they can narrow perceptions by reinforcing clichés or broaden perspectives by kindling the imagination.” – Ray Merritt, curator of ‘Full of Grace’
WEST PALM BEACH, USA, 30 January 2012 – ‘Full of Grace’, a graceful, eclectic and evocative exhibition of more than 200 photographs, accompanied by sculptures and literary quotations, opened on 26 January at the Palm Beach Photographic Center in West Palm Beach, Florida. It is an exuberant celebration of the representation of children in photography over the past 150 years.
Curated by New York’s Ray Merritt, a photography collector, author and editor, and a distinguished lawyer, ‘Full of Grace’ revisits the themes Merritt explored in his book of the same name, published in 2007. The exhibition retains the book’s historical reach and includes many of the same images. But it also offers a more serendipitous presentation, drawing on major New York photography collectors and dealers including Merritt himself, Joe Baio, Henry Buhl, Joe Cohen, Peter McGill and Howard Greenberg.
“I have often been asked to describe that one radiant quality that draws us to photographs of children,” Merritt writes in his introduction to the show. “For this curator, it is best captured by the word ‘grace’.”
© Dorothea Lange, courtesy the Cohen Family Collection
‘Migrant mother’, USA, 1936
Photography’s luminaries
The depth and nuance of this concept of grace is on vivid display, starting with the stark black-and-white 1978 ‘Baby’s face’ image by Ralph Gibson that opens the show. It includes many rarely seen, usually small-scale, images of children made in photography’s earliest days by Victorian masters including Lewis Carroll, Julia Margaret Cameron and John Thomson. These are complemented by contemporary works, often large scale and in blazing colour, by photographers including Thomas Struth and Joyce Tenneson.
Roughly half the photographs in the exhibition come from the United States, works by W. Eugene Smith, Sally Mann, Helen Levitt, Robert Frank and many other luminaries, spanning all the ages of childhood as well as children’s diverse circumstances, including both scarcity and affluence.
This exhibit also includes some of photography’s most important social documentarians, such as Lewis Hine and Dorothea Lange. One of the most iconic of the images presented is Lange’s 1936 ‘Migrant Mother’, a portrait of a destitute woman with some of her children during the Great Depression. This is perhaps America’s most famous single photograph.
An elegiac rendering of the plight of the dispossessed during this time, the image was widely published and hugely popular, helping to mobilize public opinion behind a national response to alleviate the worst effects of rural poverty.
© Martin Munkácsi, courtesy Howard Greenberg
‘Boys in Liberia’, c.1930
Photographs from the rest of the world are equally arresting, particularly in tracing the history of photographic representation of children. Another iconic image is Martin Munkácsi’s 1930 photograph of Liberian boys, seen from behind, running into the sea to swim: an ode to the physical joys of childhood. This image is on the cover of the book ‘Full of Grace’.
Children in conflict
A representation of the terrible circumstances children face is a photograph by George Rodger. It shows another boy, about the same age as the Liberians, in Germany in 1945. He is walking past rows of corpses in Bergen-Belsen, the recently liberated Nazi extermination camp. The boy is looking away from the rows, seemingly pushing his face away from the horror he is witnessing. As an image, it is a graphically powerful depiction of the psychological assault on children caused by witnessing atrocities.
‘Full of Grace’ also includes several images from UNICEF’s photography collection. These include veteran UN photographer John Isaac’s 1983 photograph of Pakistani girls sharing their school books, and Michael Kamber’s 2005 photograph of a baby, Faisal, in Darfur, Sudan. Faisal was born after his mother was raped during a violent attack on the region’s civilians; such attacks continue today.
‘Brutally honest’
“Children lack bias, they know no prejudice, they are brutally honest and incapable of hiding their emotions,” Merritt comments. “They exhibit pride without vanity and are inclusive to a fault. Challenged children and those in danger often exhibit other aspects of grace – the ability to adapt, to endure and to forgive.”
© George Rodger, courtesy the Carol and Ray Merritt Collection
‘Bergen-Belsen’, Germany, 1945
‘Full of Grace’ explores all these aspects of childhood, and many more. Both the exhibition and the book draw on Ray Merritt’s abiding interests in both children and photography. The impulse to marry these interests was, in part, the result of his association with the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, where he served for several years on the Executive Committee of its governing board. It was also inspired by his many years as a photography trustee at major American museums, including The Whitney Museum of American Art, the Guggenheim and the International Center of Photography.
‘Full of Grace’, the exhibition, opened in West Palm Beach in conjunction with Fotofusion, a five-day photography festival of seminars and workshops that is now in its seventeenth year. The show will stay at the Photographic Center there through March 17, after which it will travel to other American museums.
‘Full of Grace’, the book, has sold more than 4,000 copies in its English and Italian editions – and can be purchased online at the Cygnet Foundation. Net proceeds from its sale are donated to UNICEF.
Ellen Tolmie is UNICEF’s Senior Photography Editor. She was an advisor to the Full of Grace book project.
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Article source: http://www.unicef.org/rsstracker/news/infobycountry/usa_61513.rhtml
‘Smart salt’ reduces iodine deficiency in Ghana
January 28, 2012
‘Smart salt’ reduces iodine deficiency in Ghana
© UNICEF Ghana/2012/Logan
Gertrude Azasim with her grandson, Joseph Opoku, at the chop bar where she sells iodized salt in Bolgatanga, Ghana. Behind her are her granddaughters Claudine, Josephine, Claudia and Grace.
By Madeleine Logan
BOLGATANGA, Ghana, 26 January 2012 – Joseph Opoku pointed to a plastic container in the local restaurant, called a chop bar, belonging to his grandmother, Gertrude Azasim. “That is the smartest salt in Ghana,” he said.
Joseph, 14, is one of a growing number of children in Bolgatanga, capital of the Upper East Region of Ghana, educated about the benefits of iodized salt.
Iodine deficiency is the most common cause of preventable brain damage in the world. It also increases risk of infant mortality and miscarriage, and can cause goitre, an enlarged thyroid gland. This deficiency is easily and effectively prevented with the use of iodized salt use, but Ghana has persistently low iodized salt consumption.
In response, UNICEF is supporting a campaign to achieve universal salt iodization in the region. The campaign, led by the Ghana Health Service and supported by salt traders, chop bar owners, students and parents, has had a profound effect in Bolgatanga. In 2009, the municipal health service found only 24 per cent of tested households had adequate levels of iodized salt; by 2011, that number had risen to 63 per cent.
Educating the community
Municipal Health Director Joyce Bagina is leading the effort to promote salt iodization in Bolgatanga. In November 2010, she created a salt iodization committee that, with UNICEF support, conducted a radio campaign to teach the community – and especially parents – about the benefits of iodine. The committee also armed salt traders with iodine testing kits.
Patience Ayamga, assistant leader of the Bolgatanga Salt Traders Association, used to have no idea that the salt she heaped on her wooden table every day could prevent brain damage and mental impairment. She has since become a powerful advocate for the cause, persuading doubtful sellers to buy iodized salt and store it properly.
“Before the program started, I used to pour all my salt on the table in the sun. Now I package it in plastic bags to stop the iodine from evaporating. We ask our customers to put it in a container with a lid when they get home,” she said.
© UNICEF/NYHQ2007-2715/Noorani
UNICEF supports salt iodization efforts around the world. Salt is tested for the presence of iodine during an inspection by UNICEF staff at a company in Egypt.
She also makes sure traders know what’s in their product. “We were also given test kits, and if there was no iodine in the salt we wouldn’t buy it from the suppliers,” she said. “In the beginning, some salt didn’t have iodine. Now all salt does.”
Influencing public sentiment
Chop bar owners like Ms. Azasim were also crucial to the success of the campaign. Feeding thousands of Bolgatanga residents every day, chop bars were in a key position to influence public sentiment and increase iodine consumption.
Ms. Azasim, a former nurse, quickly realized the food industry could affect the health of the entire community. “We use iodized salt in all our dishes,” she said. “Those who come here to eat, we educate them about iodine. We tell them it develops the brain and prevents goitre. ”
Her six grandchildren – three pairs of twins including Joseph – grew up eating iodized salt. They can all recite the benefits of iodine, and not just because of their grandmother’s work. Children have been at the centre of the iodization campaign, with awareness-raising activities in schools and child welfare clinics throughout the city.
Key to success
Achieving universal salt iodization throughout Ghana remains a challenge due to weak law enforcement; limited availability of potassium iodate, the compound used to iodize salt; and the large number of small-scale salt producers, estimated between 5000–10,000, who are difficult to monitor.
But the Bolgatanga program has been a great success thanks to its focus on educating consumers, who demand iodized salt from suppliers. The community’s refusal to buy salt without iodine gave producers a commercial incentive to change.
And Joseph, for one, is happy more children are consuming iodized salt. “They will be the brightest person that they can be,” he said.
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<!– Updated 27 January 2012 –>
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Article source: http://www.unicef.org/rsstracker/news/infobycountry/ghana_61446.rhtml