Children in particular will benefit from the new commitments, according to UNICEF. The organization says diarrhoeal diseases linked to water and sanitation kill 1,400 children every day, and contribute to stunting in over 160 million children globally.

“The poorest children have the least access to safe water and adequate sanitation and they pay the highest price – so they have the most to gain from these new commitments, as do their communities,” Lake said. “The commitments made here today will help meet the right of millions of children to safe water and sanitation. This can literally transform their lives and their communities.”

Major commitments at the High Level Meeting include over 260 concrete actions by over 50 countries to strengthen institutions, improve planning, and increase domestic spending and donor investment in water and sanitation. Seventeen countries committed to end open defecation by 2030 or earlier, while over 20 countries went even farther and pledged to achieve universal access to water and sanitation within the same period.

Latest data from UNICEF and the World Health Organization released at the High Level Meeting show that rapid progress is possible.  In sub-Saharan Africa, more than 30,000 people per day gained access to an improved water source between 2000 and 2012.  Ethiopia cut in half the proportion of people practicing open defecation over the same time period and managed to do it across all income levels and provinces.

In general, however, global progress has been uneven, and those already at the bottom are falling even farther behind.

“We cannot address water and sanitation without addressing inequities, such as disadvantaged girls who can’t go to school because the bathrooms aren’t safe or because they must collect water for their families during school hours when they should be building their futures,” Lake said. “When the global community set the goal of providing water and sanitation for all, that included these girls and every child, everywhere.”

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About SWA
Sanitation and Water for All is a global partnership aimed at achieving universal and sustainable access to sanitation and drinking-water for all, by firmly placing sanitation and water on the global agenda with an immediate focus on achieving the MDGs in the most off-track countries. More information is available at www.sanitationandwaterforall.org

PHOTO: © UNICEF

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More schools are welcoming first grade children with disabilities in Serbia as a result of years of policy advocacy. Huge nationwide awareness raising campaigns in Montenegro and strong engagement of civil society in promoting inclusion in Armenia have led to increased public demands for inclusive schools, UNICEF said.

At a briefing focusing on the issue of children with disabilities this week during a meeting of UNICEF’s Executive Board in New York, other governments and donor communities were urged to support policies that realized all children’s right to quality education as one way to reduce inequities created by social exclusion.

Countries highlighted their achievements to the President of the UNICEF Executive Board and Permanent Representative of Finland to the United Nations H.E. Jarmo Viinanen, UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake, Regional Director for Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States Marie Pierre Poirier, and members of UNICEF Executive Board and permanent missions from the region.

Mr. Viinanen focused on the importance of the right to education irrespective of disabilities, color, sex, language, religion or economic background. “We cannot afford leaving any child outside schools. Every child must have an equal right to basic education,” he said.

He shared some Finnish experiences in education with the audience: “In Finland basic education is completely free of charge including also school meals and materials, health care and commuting. The aim is that all children including children with disabilities could attend the same schools. The school network is regionally extensive and a lot of emphasis has been given to the quality training of motivated teachers. Qualified teachers are instrumental to successful inclusive education.”

“The examples shown today clearly demonstrate that we know how to make schools welcoming for children with disabilities. But much more needs to be done. Current policies common across many countries mean that children with disabilities are often hidden behind closed doors,” said Ms. Poirier of UNICEF.

“They endure stigma instead of discovering their talents. They are left out of birth registers and become invisible. And even when children with disabilities have access to education, they are excluded from regular schools or often segregated in special schools, away from their families and communities,” she said.

The key achievements cited at the briefing included:

• Minister of Education, Science and Technological Development from Serbia, Dr. Zarko Obradovic described innovations such as the Network for Inclusive Education where the government and over 50 teachers, school psychologists, pedagogues and the members of national civil society groups work together with the National Monitoring Framework that tracks progress in reducing inequities in education. Some 15,000 teachers, or a fifth of the total, have now been trained. A third of Serbian primary schools increased enrolment of children with disabilities into the first grade in 2010.
• The Permanent Representative of Armenia, H.E. Garen Nazarian, speaking on behalf of the government focused on the importance of making a strategic shift from grassroots school-level work to a comprehensive policy effort, including the transformation of special schools.
• Deputy Minister of Education and Sports from Montenegro, Ms. Vesna Vucurovic outlined a three-year advocacy campaign reaching 80 percent of the population. One in four people surveyed said they had changed their behavior and are now more accepting that children with disabilities are included in mainstream schools and society.
  UNICEF welcomed greater focus by the donor community on more inclusive assistance programs, which in the area of inclusive education and children with disabilities was currently being led by the Government of Australia.

The 2011 World Disability Report estimated the number of children with disabilities at 5.1 percent of the population. This means about 93 million children in the world and about 5.1 million in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia. However, these figures only represent very gross estimates and should be treated with caution. In most cases, the underlying national data should be improved in quality and collected using up-to-date definitions and consistent methods to provide a reliable picture.

Children continue to remain invisible whether they are excluded from education, or segregated within the mainstream or make up the more than 600,000 children in institutions, which is still a common approach in many countries of the region.

A UNICEF paper The Right of Children with Disabilities to Education: A Rights-Based Approach to Inclusive Education was presented at the briefing detailing how inclusive education promotes tolerance and equal participation in society. It leads to better learning outcomes, not only for children with disabilities but for all children. It is central to the achievement of high quality education for all learners, reducing inequities and building more inclusive societies.

All students, including children with disabilities, require individualized services and approaches to learning. Inclusive education does not require special schools, specialized care, expensive materials or highly technical expertise.

UNICEF is working with governments to support families to prevent separation; end placement of children in large-scale institutions; as well as provide quality inclusive education. Inclusive education means each and every child – with or without disability, rich or poor, regardless of gender, ethnic, religious, cultural origins – is able to attend a neighborhood school, which fully nurtures every child’s potential.

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PHOTO: ©Unicef

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Over the past 40 years, new vaccines, improved health care practices, investments in education, and the dedication of governments, civil society and other partners have contributed to reducing the number of child deaths by more than 50 per cent.

Still, millions of children – most of them in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia – die every year from largely preventable causes before reaching their fifth birthdays.  In 2010, this translated to 57 children dying for every 1,000 live births.

The Call to Action challenges the world to reduce child mortality to 20 or fewer child deaths per 1,000 live births in every country by 2035.  Reaching this historic target will save an additional 45 million children’s lives by 2035, bringing the world closer to the ultimate goal of ending preventable child deaths.

Modelling shows that this goal can be reached by greater effort across five key areas:

1. Geography: Increasing efforts in the 24 countries that account for 80 percent  of under-five deaths.
2. High Burden Populations:  Focusing country health systems on scaling-up access for underserved populations, to include rural and low income groups
3. High Impact Solutions:  Addressing the five causes that account for nearly 60 per cent of child deaths: pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria, pre-term births and intrapartum (around the time of childbirth)
4. Education for Women and Girls: Investing beyond health programs to include educating girls, empowering women, and promoting inclusive economic growth
5. Mutual Accountability: Unifying around a shared goal and using common metrics to track progress

At the Call to Action, governments and partners are being asked to pledge their support for A Promise Renewed, a commitment to work together on sharpening national plans for child survival, monitoring results, and focusing greater attention on the most disadvantaged and vulnerable children.

“We have the tools, the treatments, and the technology to save millions of lives every year, and there is no excuse not to use them,” said UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake.  “To renew our promise to the world’s children, we have to focus on the leading causes of child mortality like diarrhea, pneumonia and malaria, scaling up coverage of high-impact, low-cost treatments, sparking greater innovation, and spurring greater political will to reach the hardest to reach children. The grand goal of preventing child deaths must be our common cause.”

”India is honored to co-convene this global call to action.  The opportunity is timely, and we have to seize it.  Though there has been a steady decline in child mortality rates in India over the past 10 years, there is no place for complacency,” said Ghulam Nabi  Azad , India’s Minister of Health and Family Welfare.  “Reducing neonatal, infant and child mortality remains the topmost goal of India’s National Rural Health Mission.  With India’s experiences in child survival interventions, and the magnitude of scale of programming, the country is well positioned to work towards furthering collaboration in implementation of Child Survival Initiatives in the Asia-Pacific region,” he added.

“In the world, there are no two countries that are the same.  Therefore each of us needs to define our own roadmap to achieve this laudable goal.  In Ethiopia, we have halved under-5 mortality rates from 166 to 88 per 1,000 live births just in the last decade,” said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Ethiopia’s Minister of Health. “What we can promise the world and our children now is that Ethiopia will try our best, as we have done in the past, to bring the rate down to fewer than 20 deaths per 1000 live births by 2035. We will then be able to look back and say that we have done justice for our children, and we have written an important piece in human history,” he added.

USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah said: “Development can be full of problems we have few ways to solve.  Helping a child reach their 5th birthday is not one of them.  It is not a question of whether the world can end preventable child deaths; it is question of whether we will.”

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Photo: © UNICEF/NYHQ2009-0870/Sokol

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According to a UNICEF news release, the price of an insecticide-treated, long-lasting bed net has dropped to under $3.

“Never before have bed nets been as accessible and affordable for children and families in developing countries,” said the Director of UNICEF’s Supply Division in Copenhagen, Shanelle Hall, adding that the price reduction is the result of a long-term strategy to create a healthy global market for bed nets.

Last year, UNICEF made available on its website the prices it pays for vaccines so that the availability of this information would improve market transparency and efficiency, and support governments and partners in making more informed decisions.

UNICEF and its partners also implemented other strategies to achieve savings in supplies. These include aggregating demand and pooling procurement to help achieve economies of scale, transparent and long-term forecasts to industry, special financing terms and clear quality requirements, among others.

The drop in bed net prices, follows projected cost savings and cost avoidances for vaccines and child survival supplies worth $735 million in the coming years, according to UNICEF’s Supply Annual Report. This amount includes a projected $498 million in costs avoided in the rotavirus vaccine procurement, which protects children against virulent strains of diarrhea, the second largest cause of death for children under five.

According to the agency, for supporting child survival and development programs around the world, its procured supplies are critical in providing for children’s health, education and protecting them from abuse, exploitation, and neglect. It procures and supplies over 5,000 products to address the needs of children.

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Photo: UNICEF/Jan Grarup

UNICEF and Salesian Missions

Around the globe, Salesian institutions are among the UNICEF-supported schools that work beyond just providing a basic education–they provide customized solutions to meet the needs and challenges of the world’s poorest children and focus on better futures and lasting change.

Working in more than 150 countries, UNICEF provides children with health care, clean water, nutrition, education, protection, emergency relief, and more.

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The landmark document was adopted on 10 May 2002, during the first-ever UN General Assembly session devoted exclusively to children’s issues. The event was preceded by a UN Children’s Forum, organized by UNICEF and its partners, in which more than 400 child delegates enumerated the needs and priorities of children around the world.

“Ten years ago today, at an historic special session of the UN General Assembly with 180 nations present, we heard the voices and saw the faces of children demanding a world fit for them,” said UNICEF Executive  Director Anthony Lake.

“We cannot say we have fulfilled what children asked of us. We can say we listened. And we have made progress.”

PROGRESS, BUT NOT ENOUGH

“We, the heads of State and Government and representatives of States … are determined to seize this historic opportunity to change the world for and with children,” the document begins, laying out goals in four overarching categories: promoting healthy lives;  providing a quality education; combating HIV and AIDS; and protecting against abuse, exploitation and violence.

In the ten years that have passed, there has been much improvement in the welfare of children – but not enough.

Deaths among children under age 5 have declined by one third since 1990, meaning nearly 12,000 fewer children die every day.

Yet too many children continue to die needlessly, many from causes that are both treatable and preventable.

“Child deaths have come down gradually, but by no means sufficiently,” said Richard Morgan, UNICEF Senior Adviser for the Post-2015 Development Agenda. “Child malnutrition – and particularly stunting among children – is persistent and stubborn across many countries.”

The past decade has also seen improvement in access to education. Some 90 per cent of primary-school-aged children are now enrolled in primary school, and most countries have achieved gender parity in primary education.

“Our main problem was the disparity between girls and boys. So many more boys than girls were in school,” reflected Caroline Barebwoha, who was a 15-year-old representative from Uganda at the 2002 Children’s Forum. She is now a lawyer and a youth participation consultant for UNICEF.

“Today, as I speak – especially with the help of the Girls Education Movement clubs in schools – so many more girls are in school.”

Still, only 87 per cent of children in the developing world complete their primary educations, and secondary school enrollment remains low, especially among girls.

A NEED FOR VIGILANCE

The world has achieved a steady reduction in HIV infection rates, with the global incidence rate declining by nearly 25 per cent between 2001 and 2009. Many of the most significant declines were seen in sub-Saharan Africa, stabilizing or moderating some of the biggest HIV epidemics in the world. And the number of people receiving anti-retroviral treatment has increased 13-fold between 2004 and 2009, cutting AIDS-related deaths by 19 per cent.

But officials must remain vigilant. HIV incidence rates in Eastern Asia, Western and Central Europe, and North America have remained constant, and in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, they have begun to rise.

And violence, abuse and exploitation of children remain unacceptably common.

In developing countries, one in six children is engaged in child labor. Studies from low- and middle-income countries show that as much as three quarters of children face violent discipline at home.

Large proportions of adolescent girls report experiencing sexual violence; in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a staggering 21 per cent of girls aged 15 to 19 have been sexually assaulted. And tens of millions of girls continue to be forced into marriage while still children, a practice that increases their vulnerability to domestic abuse and complications during pregnancy and childbirth.

RENEWING THE COMMITMENT TO CHILDREN

“We really had the hope and enthusiasm that it wouldn’t just be a document,” Ms. Barebwoha said of the adoption of ‘A World Fit for Children’.

“These heads of State were all committed and made promises to us,” she said.

UNICEF is working to ensure these promises are kept.

“There is much unfinished business before us,” Mr. Lake said. “This year, on this anniversary year, we are renewing our commitment to our cause: A world fit for our children and our grandchildren, a better world for all of us.”

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See this article at its original location at Unicef.org along with videos and other information.

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The Salesian school began the first formal training program in the prosthetics and orthotics fields in Latin America in 1996 and since then, about 230 students from 20 countries have graduated with skills that are in demand in their home countries.

“The training program shows how education and training not only benefit the individual student, but also entire communities, as the students return to work in local hospitals and clinics, and even train others in some cases,” says Father Mark Hyde, executive director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. fundraising arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco.

Fr. Mark adds that most recently the University Don Bosco was able to provide assistance in Haiti, helping children and adults who have had amputations following the 2010 earthquake. Immediately following the earthquake, seven professional technicians aided, providing nearly 200 artificial limbs and more than 100 sessions of orthopedic assistance in Port-au-Prince.

“The aim is to help the people. We know what state the country is in after the earthquake. We know this will also help us in our lives and in our profession,” says Alexis Mendoza, one of the volunteers. Volunteers will be involved in assessing the condition of the patients, planning and fitting the artificial limbs and providing orthopedic help.

During a trip in 2010, Prof. Rolando Martinez Panameño, dean of the School of Re-habilitation Science, estimated that out of approximately 10,000 people in need of help, 4,000 have had an amputation.

In addition to volunteer trips, the University partners with the Ministry of Health, Physicians for Peace and other nongovernmental organizations in Haiti to establish a national training and certification program for the Haitian prosthetic and orthotic community. Students take part in a distance learning course in their native language of Creole, while also training with US professionals.

“We are constantly working to expand our services in Haiti to ensure that people with disabilities are able to contribute to the rebuilding of their country. We know that even before the earthquake, children and adults with disabilities faced enormous challenges as resources in Haiti were stretched far beyond capacity,” says Fr. Mark, citing the World Report on Disabilities statistics that show children with disabilities are less likely to start school than non-disabled children and have lower rates of staying in school. In addition, in OECD countries (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development), the employment rate of people with disabilities (44 percent) is slightly over half that for people without disabilities (75 percent).

With additional support from the World Health Organization, distance learning programs available in Spanish, Portuguese, English, and French are now also offered in Angola and Bosnia and Herzegovina, says Fr. Mark.

Almost one-fifth of the estimated global total of one billion persons living with disabilities — or between 110-190 million — encounter significant difficulties including discrimination and lack of adequate health care and rehabilitation services, according to the World Report on Disabilities which was developed with contributions from more than 380 experts and is expected to be a key resource for countries implementing the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The report also cites difficulties associated with a lack of access to transportation and information and communication technologies.

People with disabilities have generally poorer health, lower education achievements, fewer economic opportunities and higher rates of poverty than people without disabilities. Children surrounded by poverty, especially those with disabilities, face uncertain futures and overwhelming obstacles.

“Children with disabilities have the same rights as all children, and they deserve the same chance to make the most of their lives and to make their voices heard,” says Anthony Lake, UNICEF executive director. “We need to break down the barriers that prevent full participation of children with disabilities — from programs that ignore their needs, to prejudice that discounts their ability to contribute.”

The remarks were part of Lake’s recent call on Dec. 3, the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, for a greater investment in helping children and young people with disabilities to realize their rights. Lake also renewed the call for universal ratification of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

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PHOTO: UN Photo/Sophia Paris

Related MissionNewswire article: GLOBAL: UNICEF Calls for Children with Disabilities to be Included in All Development

Sources:

World Report on Disabilities

UNICEF calls for children with disabilities to be included in all development

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: New world report shows more than 1 billion people with disabilities face substantial barriers in their daily lives

International Society for Prosthetics and Orthotics

Handicap International

Salesian Lay Missioners

The post EL SALVADOR: Salesian University Recognized for Leadership in Providing Children with Prosthetics first appeared on MissionNewswire.

“Children with disabilities have the same rights as all children, and they deserve the same chance to make the most of their lives and to make their voices heard,” says Anthony Lake, UNICEF executive director. “We need to break down the barriers that prevent full participation of children with disabilities – from programs that ignore their needs, to prejudice that discounts their ability to contribute.”

Children with disabilities are among the most marginalized and excluded groups of children. Compared to their peers, they are routinely denied access to health, education and social services. They are often excluded from opportunities to participate in their communities, and are more vulnerable to violence and abuse.

Girls with disabilities also face additional discrimination because of their sex. In addition to marginalization within the family, community, school and wider social circles, girls with disabilities are often at greater risk of violence, injury, abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment and exploitation.

And children with disabilities are less likely to receive necessary healthcare, be taken to clinics, receive medication or be immunized. They are also often the last to receive information that would help them to stay safe, including how to avoid HIV/AIDS, and how to tell adults when they feel endangered. Such information is rarely available in formats accessible to blind or deaf children or those with intellectual disabilities.

Discrimination against children with disabilities stems from multiple sources, including ignorance, prejudice and cultural norms, which in turn lead to stigma and entrenched social exclusion. Their participation is further limited by multiple barriers, including lack of access to the physical environment and to information and communication; lack of adequate legislation, lack of public policies and monitoring mechanisms; and lack of training for teachers and other service providers.

One of the chief barriers to improving the lives of children with disabilities is the paucity of reliable data. When children with disabilities are not included in data collection efforts, they are equally absent from policy discussions and budget allocations.

The situation of children with disabilities is improving, but there are still extraordinary gaps, especially in places where poverty and inequality are more prominent. As the global community works together to achieve the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals with greater equity, it must do more to create effective legislation to protect the rights of children with disabilities, to establish programs and services to support children with disabilities and their families at the community and national levels, and to dispel stereotypes, fight stigma and change attitudes towards disability.

“UNICEF is committed to working with our partners to overcome the barriers that stand between children with disabilities and the full realization of their rights,” says Lake.

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Photo by Albert Gonzalez Farran – UNAMID

Sources:
UNICEF

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The U.N. Security Council’s new resolution to protect schools and hospitals during conflict was welcome news to the humanitarian world, including Salesian NGOs which operate schools in more than 130 countries around the globe – making them one of the world’s largest providers of vocational/technical education for youth.

Recent events in the Ivory Coast offer a chilling example of why the U.N. resolution is necessary. More than 30,000 displaced civilians fled to a Salesian Missions compound in Duékoué when the Carrefour district was looted and houses set on fire on March 29. At least 800 people were killed.

One month previously, armed robbers attacked members of the faculty of a Jesuit-run theology school in the Ivorian capital of Abidjan as the priests were preparing for dinner. Students had not been at the school for several months due to escalating violence in the area. The robbers entered school grounds by jumping over a security wall, quickly disarmed the guards on duty and attacked a deacon. This illustrates why U.N. forces have been guarding the Salesian compound where 15,000 displaced people still seek safety.

The troubling reality is that such violence happens in countries around the globe, and children are too often caught in the crossfire even when they are in school or seeking medical care at a hospital.

“These horrific attacks are not only a violation of international and humanitarian law, they are a violation of our common humanity,” said Anthony Lake, executive director of UNICEF. “The Security Council has taken a major step toward ending the culture of impunity and protecting children at their most vulnerable.”

The Security Council unanimously adopted the resolution on July 12 during its “Open Debate on Children and Armed Conflict” at the United Nations headquarters in New York.

The ruling means that attacks on schools and hospitals will be listed in the U.N. Secretary-General’s annual report on children and armed conflict. The Security Council says it will also impose targeted measures on those who violate children’s rights through such attacks.

Radhika Coomaraswamy, the special representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, told the council that schools and hospitals are increasingly targeted by armed groups.

“The promise of this resolution is very real,” she said. “During my visits to conflict areas, I have personally seen the devastation – schools completely destroyed, bombed or burnt to the ground. Attacks on hospitals are two-fold atrocities. Not only do they kill and wound girls and boys, but they leave children without access to treatment.”

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the measure would send a clear message that schools and hospitals should be spared from violence, building on seven previous Security Council resolutions dealing with children in armed conflict.

Lake urged that the Security Council, while it strengthens the legal framework to protect children in conflict, not consider children merely as victims but as resilient, resourceful and courageous citizens.

“They have hopes and dreams like children everywhere, even when virtually everything has been taken from them,” he said. “They don’t need our pity. They need practical support.”

(Photo: Rick Bajornas/UN)

About Salesian Missions at the United Nations

Sources:

UN Security Council adopts new resolution to protect schools and hospitals during conflict (by Chris Niles)

IVORY COAST: Fear, Population Grow at Salesian Compound in Duékoué Where 30,000 Seek Safety

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