I have been in the library today working on a paper for my Child Rights, Poverty and Development course. I have been exploring what the realisation of Articles 26 and 27 of the Convention on The Rights of the Child would mean for children in poverty. It basically requires that all children are given access to social security- essentially it is a childs right to be free from poverty. All countries in the world have ratified this treaty apart from, get this, Somalia and, yes, America.
Anyway, my readings today have been so powerful. I have been reading Child Poverty in the Developing world a report by Gorden et al (2003) that measures 8 deprivation indicators - deprivation of sanitation, education, food, information, water, access to basic services, shelter and health. This report found that one third of children in developing nations are in absolute poverty deprived totally of two or more of these things , and a half are severely deprived with no access to one or more of these. In sub sahara Africa the percentages reach 65% and 80% respectively. That is HUGE. I was quite overwhelmed visualizing these statistics.
How are we in this state? Economic growth across the globe has been momentous, yet millions and millions of beautiful children are left entirely behind.
What are we to do?
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3 comments:
Rob Bell makes a comment on one of his video's that the USA spends more money on ice cream each year than is needed to ensure that everyone in the world could have fresh running water!!!
Wow thats so shocking eh. I do think the old Salvation Army peeps were on to something with the "Self Denial appeal". To think that giving up one little pleasurable luxury could redistribute funds so significantly as to really impact vulnerable lives....
You are writing some good stuff Lucy, and reading some tough stuff. The problem I find is that I can quote statistics and plead justice 'till I am blue in the face - but until people see 'their' faces and hear their stories it doesn't begin to be real.
How do we make it real? Keep up the writing and studying we need people like you guys to be giving us a kick up the pants.
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