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Brazil: Great gains, but still far to go - 18/10/2010 10:47

The current elections to decide who will take office as President on January 1st, 2011, mark the beginning of the end of the Lula da Silva era in Brazil. Luis Inacio Lula da Silva ("Lula") is Brazil's first working-class president, a first that has tremendous symbolic as well as actual For the estimated 29 million Brazilians who have been catapulted into the middle class over the six years between 2003 and 2009 – a staggering number, over three times the population of London – the answer is a resounding yes. With an average monthly income equivalent to £417 – £1797, However, although the number of Brazilians living below the official poverty line has dropped from over a third in 2002 to under a quarter in 2008 – a magnificent achievement – very many people are still desperately poor. The poverty of the slums has barely been touched. And perhaps most Basic education is compulsory in Brazil from the ages of 7 to 14, and over the past decade and a half the country has achieved almost 100% enrolment thanks to determined government action. In the 1990s, the government of President Cardoso built thousands of schools; Lula da Silva inherited and However, beyond this primary stage education is not pressed nearly as strongly: it's estimated that only about a third of Brazilians have completed secondary school in contrast to an average of at least three-quarters in richer countries. As Brazil looks both inwards to its own infrastructure and outwards to engage In the global arena Brazil, with its average of 7 years' education, is having to compete with countries where the duration of basic schooling alone is 11, 12 or 13 years. The situation isn't helped by massive internal inequalities in the education system. Those whose parents can afford private school President da Silva has undoubtedly achieved real progress and he is to be applauded for that. But for the change to be deep and lasting over generations and to affect those who need it most, it is crucial to attack the roots of poverty – inequality of life chances. Da...

Sacrificing the future - 30/09/2010 16:59

Many Iraqi refugee children growing up in Syria are struggling to make the most of their education for various social and economic reasons, according to UNICEF. 1.2 million of the 2 million people who had to flee Iraq in 2003 due to the war were taken in by Syria and Refugees do get financial support from organisations such as the UNHCR, but sometimes the money does not go far enough; and while the recipients are thankful for the help, usually what people really want is the chance to work and support themselves. Where children have to help out by working...

Economic crisis devastates impoverished children in the Philippines - 30/09/2010 11:57

A recent study by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies and UNICEF has found that approximately 12.8 million children aged under 15 in the Philippines are living in poverty. (For perspective, that's 1.8 million more than the entire child population of England.) This number represents 44% - nearly half -...

Violence Against Children - 20/09/2010 10:39

In early September this year, a global conference was held in Accra, the capital of Ghana, on the subject of violence against children. "Global conference" might bring to mind a meeting of the powerful and the privileged, politicians and heads of state, but the participants here were children and young According to a 2006 study by the UN, between 133 and 275 million children are affected by violence at home every year, mostly in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. These are huge numbers but they are only a guess at the real extent of the problem. Part of the trouble is "Very little is known about the extent of violence affecting the most vulnerable children," says Marta Santos Pais, UN Special Representative on Violence Against Children, going on to cite children abandoned in the street, those in institutions, those living with HIV/AIDS and children with no family or friends as the Although 194 countries have ratified the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child (some with reservations), only 29 have passed laws explicitly making violence against children illegal. Tunisia and Kenya are the only African nations to have done so. Marta Santos Pais wants to see four changes in the This view is echoed by Thales, a 17-year-old delegate from Benin: "We children suffer mistreatment and are often afraid to speak out. At this forum, I can learn what children in other countries are doing to combat violence." The world may be far from a solution, but admitting there is 275 million children suffering from violence is a huge number. But speaking out, recognising that there is a problem and coming together to tackle it is a giant step....

Patrick's story - 02/09/2010 10:50

16 years have passed since the brutal genocide swept through Rwanda. Yet for so many, the suffering still continues. Patrick can remember the contagious fear which spread through his village as his parents ran with him and his sisters, fleeing with their neighbours to find sanctuary in the church. He He remembers all too well how the door burst open and men armed with machetes poured into the church. He will never be able to forget the sight of his neighbours being cut down and killed. Then the men made their way towards his family. His parents and four of For two whole days they lay under the corpses, too terrified to move even to find food or water. Eventually a neighbour who had escaped returned to the village to search for survivors and found them. The immediate danger was over, but for Patrick a new ordeal was beginning. He Patrick has spent the last 16 years working whatever odd jobs he can find simply so that he and his sisters could survive. He has sacrificed his own childhood and education to keep them alive. Only now is he finally getting the support he needs: vocational training, trauma counselling, health Patrick sacrificed his own future for his sisters. What could you sacrifice to help more children like Patrick? Join our fight for justice... Donate now >>...