The International News
Afghan children face world’s worst conditions
http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id+229911
Friday, March 19, 2010
HEART: Afghanistan is the hardest place in the world to be a child, the South Asia regional director for Unicef said, with high child mortality rates, poor levels of nutrition and rampant sexual abuse. “The situation in Afghanistan as a whole is one of the most dramatic in South Asia and also in the world. Afghanistan is the most difficult place to be born as a child,” Daniel Toole said on a visit to Afghanistan this week. “If I could take one challenge, it’s survival.”
Three decades of war and a worsening insurgency have made it ever tougher for an Afghan child just to survive, Toole told Reuters during a visit aimed at highlighting what Unicef calls the worst conditions for children on earth. One of the girls he had just met in a woman’s shelter was only nine years old when she was forced to marry a total stranger. Another was just 11.
More than a quarter of Afghan children — 257 out of 1,000— will die before they reach their fifth birthday and 165 out of every 1,000 will die in the first year of their lives, more than any place in the world, according to Unicef data from 2008.
Afghanistan also has the second highest maternal mortality rate in the world after Sierra Leone, with 1,800 women per 100,000 live births dying during child birth, according to Unicef estimates from 2005.
“On top of that, we overlay the conflict, and so children are being displaced, their food production has been disrupted, so the chances of being yet further endangered by the security situation ... make it that much more dramatic,” said Toole.
Violence in Afghanistan is at its worst levels since a US-led invasion in late 2001 overthrew the Taliban. Since then, intense fighting between insurgents and foreign and Afghan troops has forced thousands of civilians to flee their homes. An increasing number of children are also fleeing across Afghanistan’s borders, said Toole, with many turning up as far away as Western Europe without their parents. Last April, 24 Afghan children aged between 14 and 16 were found living on a sidewalk of a railway station in Rome. The Save the Children aid group said Afghan children now made up one of the biggest groups of unaccompanied minors in the city.
Other major problems facing children in Afghanistan, particularly girls, said Toole, is underage marriage and sexual abuse. Forty-three per cent of girls aged 20-24 were married before they were 18, according to Unicef figures from 2009. Girls are often married against their will to men more than twice their age and are forced to have sex with their husbands before they reach puberty.
Toole described a visit he made to a women’s shelter supported by Unicef in the western city of Herat. The shelter is the only place in the city where girls who have been sexually abused or married at a young age can seek refuge. “Two young girls, one who was nine who was married. She didn’t even know she was being married until she arrived and was told, ‘here is your husband’. Another married at 11 against her will,” said Toole after meeting the girls at the shelter.
“Dramatic stories, painful stories, but I think it’s the tip of the iceberg. I found myself thinking, ‘how many girls have had this happen and can’t get to this centre?’,” he said. But despite the difficulties facing Afghan children, Toole said progress was being made, especially in education with an increasing number of girls being sent to school. “There is a lot of improvement but there is still so much more to do here, even if I just think about survival,” Toole said.
Showing posts with label UNICEF. Show all posts
Showing posts with label UNICEF. Show all posts
Friday, March 19, 2010
Thursday, January 14, 2010
A shelter for women in Herat
Cornelia Walther describes a shelter for women in Herat, Afghanistan. Herat is located in the central, western part of Afghanistan. In previous blogs, we have identified a number of efforts by women to assist other women. The following example is one that has received some support from UNICEF. These are mostly efforts that don't yet reach a large number of women and children, but they represent a postive and often courageous step under freightening conditions.
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Shelter provides hope for abused women in western Afghanistan
© UNICEF Afghanistan/2009/
By Cornelia Walther
HERAT, Afghanistan, 11 January 2010 - Nafiza Popal, 45, manages Herat’s only women’s shelter, providing a refuge for women in distress, the vast majority of whom have fled their husbands after experiencing physical violence.
When a woman arrives at the shelter she meets a psychosocial consultant and a nurse. If her problem is of a legal nature, she is able to see a lawyer. The location of the shelter is kept secret, even from family members.
“Last month we took care of Haidary, a girl whose nose and ears had been cut,” said Ms. Popal. “She had found out that her husband was betraying her with another woman and tried to argue with him. He answered with his knife. Today, the husband is in jail and the woman is back with her family.”
The shelter was established by Afghan Voices of Women and UNIFEM in 2003. UNICEF has been supporting it since 2008, by training social workers and providing equipment.
‘Half her body was burned’
Fariba is just 10 years old, but she is already married. Her brother arranged her marriage to a 45-year-old man, in exchange for $5,000.
© UNICEF Afghanistan/2009/Walther
Arzo Nusrat, 25, found refuge at Herat’s women’s shelter, along with her daughter. She fled home after being beaten by her husband.
“Fariba came here some days ago,” said Ms. Popal. ”Half of her body was burned. When she tried to prepare a meal for her husband, she had poured hot water over herself; the cooking pot was too heavy for her.”
“The marriage was celebrated under the condition that the husband would not touch the girl before her 14th birthday,” added Ms. Popal. “What an empty promise!”
Today, thanks to the support of the women’s shelter, Fariba’s husband is in jail.
Classes foster independence
Fifty women, on average, come to the shelter every month. They usually stay between six months and four years, and attend classes in tailoring, literacy and carpet weaving.
“I may never be independent, but at least I know that I could earn money for myself if I got a chance,” said Arzo, 25, who fled to the shelter with her daughter after being beaten by her husband.
For those women who stay longer in the shelter, Ms. Popal and her co-workers find small jobs for them. Depending on their level of education, the women are employed as cleaners, cooks or secretaries. When a man is interested in establishing a relationship with one of them, his offer goes through the Ministry of Women’s Affairs.
The shelter is a glimmer of hope for women like Haidary, Fariba and Arzo, yet they represent just a fraction of the women who face domestic violence in the region. In response, UNICEF and its partners are working to give hope to all Afghani women facing abuse with expanded shelter programmes and widespread education campaigns.
------------------------------
Shelter provides hope for abused women in western Afghanistan
© UNICEF Afghanistan/2009/
By Cornelia Walther
HERAT, Afghanistan, 11 January 2010 - Nafiza Popal, 45, manages Herat’s only women’s shelter, providing a refuge for women in distress, the vast majority of whom have fled their husbands after experiencing physical violence.
When a woman arrives at the shelter she meets a psychosocial consultant and a nurse. If her problem is of a legal nature, she is able to see a lawyer. The location of the shelter is kept secret, even from family members.
“Last month we took care of Haidary, a girl whose nose and ears had been cut,” said Ms. Popal. “She had found out that her husband was betraying her with another woman and tried to argue with him. He answered with his knife. Today, the husband is in jail and the woman is back with her family.”
The shelter was established by Afghan Voices of Women and UNIFEM in 2003. UNICEF has been supporting it since 2008, by training social workers and providing equipment.
‘Half her body was burned’
Fariba is just 10 years old, but she is already married. Her brother arranged her marriage to a 45-year-old man, in exchange for $5,000.
© UNICEF Afghanistan/2009/Walther
Arzo Nusrat, 25, found refuge at Herat’s women’s shelter, along with her daughter. She fled home after being beaten by her husband.
“Fariba came here some days ago,” said Ms. Popal. ”Half of her body was burned. When she tried to prepare a meal for her husband, she had poured hot water over herself; the cooking pot was too heavy for her.”
“The marriage was celebrated under the condition that the husband would not touch the girl before her 14th birthday,” added Ms. Popal. “What an empty promise!”
Today, thanks to the support of the women’s shelter, Fariba’s husband is in jail.
Classes foster independence
Fifty women, on average, come to the shelter every month. They usually stay between six months and four years, and attend classes in tailoring, literacy and carpet weaving.
“I may never be independent, but at least I know that I could earn money for myself if I got a chance,” said Arzo, 25, who fled to the shelter with her daughter after being beaten by her husband.
For those women who stay longer in the shelter, Ms. Popal and her co-workers find small jobs for them. Depending on their level of education, the women are employed as cleaners, cooks or secretaries. When a man is interested in establishing a relationship with one of them, his offer goes through the Ministry of Women’s Affairs.
The shelter is a glimmer of hope for women like Haidary, Fariba and Arzo, yet they represent just a fraction of the women who face domestic violence in the region. In response, UNICEF and its partners are working to give hope to all Afghani women facing abuse with expanded shelter programmes and widespread education campaigns.
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