Bangui, Central African Republic | AFP | The line of parents waiting to see doctors stretches back outside the hospital into the dusty courtyard. Mums and dads carrying weak, starving children. Many hanging limply in their arms like half empty sacks of rice. The scene at the paediatric complex in …
Read More »Child marriage costs countries billions in lost earnings: World Bank
Accra, Ghana | AFP | Respect Ruvimbo Topodzi was 15 and walking home from school in her native Zimbabwe when a 22-year-old man asked her out. She turned him down but it was too late. Her father saw them and assumed they were already together. He told her she had …
Read More »Walking, talking and separated: Bangladesh conjoined twins go home
Dhaka, Bangladesh | AFP | Bangladeshi twins conjoined at birth have gone home nearly a year and a half after being separated in the country’s first such successful operation, a doctor said Tuesday. Two-year-old sisters Tofa and Tahura, joined at the spine and at the rectum, underwent a gruelling nine-hour …
Read More »Rotary gives hope to children with Rheumatic Heart Disease
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Up to 150 Ugandan children suffering from Rheumatic Heart Disease have been given a new lease of life thanks to Rotary International. The international service organization has committed a 1 billion Shillings (USD 272,500) grant towards correcting the life threatening complication caused by throat-bacterial infections. …
Read More »Drought, conflict driving Afghans to marry off children: UN
Geneva, Switzerland | AFP | With a devastating drought worsening an already horrendous humanitarian situation in Afghanistan, parents are increasingly compelled to “sell” young daughters into marriage to pay off debt or buy food, the UN said Tuesday. In the drought-hit Herat and Baghdis provinces of Afghanistan, the UN children’s …
Read More »French 9-year-old beaten to death ‘for not doing homework
Mulhouse, France | AFP | Four relatives of a nine-year-old boy who was apparently beaten to death in eastern France were arrested Wednesday over suspicions he was killed for refusing do his homework, prosecutors said. The boy’s mother, 20-year-old sister, 19-year-old brother, and the brother’s girlfriend were taken into custody …
Read More »ARTS: Child scrap collectors inspire artist
Kampala, Uganda | DOMINIC MUWANGUZI | Scraps of metal, plastics, rubber and more are everywhere in Kampala; especially in low income areas where dumping many people cram into small spaces, leaving no room for proper garbage disposal. These are the treasure troves of scrap dealers who rummage through the heaps waste …
Read More »Pneumonia to kill nearly 11 mn children by 2030, study warns
Paris, France | AFP | Pneumonia will kill nearly 11 million children under five by 2030, experts warned Monday on a global day aimed at raising awareness of the biggest infectious killer of infants worldwide. While in the developed world the severe lung infection mainly affects the elderly, in developing …
Read More »UN says war-torn Yemen ‘living hell’ for children
Amman, Jordan | AFP | Conflict-ravaged Yemen has become a “living hell” for children with thousands dying every year from malnutrition and easily preventable diseases, a top UN official said Sunday. Geert Cappelaere, regional director for the Middle East and North Africa at UN children’s agency UNICEF, called on the …
Read More »Over 7 million Yemeni children face ‘serious’ famine threat: UN
Hodeida, Yemen | AFP | Over seven million children face a serious threat of famine in Yemen and ending the country’s war will not save all of them, the UN children’s agency said. “Today, 1.8 million children under the age of five are facing acute malnutrition, and 400,000 are affected …
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