AMERICA:
In the last 30 years the U.S. childhood obesity rate has more than doubled for preschool children aged 2-5 years and adolescents aged 12-19 years, and it has more than tripled for children aged 6-11 years.
The current increase is especially evident among African-American, Hispanic and American Indian adolescents. With both sexes combined, up to 24 percent of African-American and Hispanic children are above the 95th percentile. Among boys, the highest prevalence of
obesity is observed in Hispanics and among girls, the highest prevalence is observed in African-Americans.
‘Institute of Medicine of the National academies ‘
India:
In India the exploitation of children for labour is an accepted practice. Carpet weaving industries pay very low wages to child laborers and make them work for long hours in unhygienic conditions. Children working in such units are mainly migrant workers from Northern India, who are shunted here by their families to earn some money and send it to them. Their families dependence on their income, forces them to endure the onerous work conditions in the carpet factories.
Child Labour :
It is estimated that 218 million children world wide are currently child labours. Most of these children work long hours with minimum pay Child labours are exposed to harsh working conditions, these might be dangerous or exploitive. Some of this hash work could be in mines, or working with chemicals and pesticides.
Latin America:
Child labor in Latin America is a big problem. There are an estimated 250 million child workers between the ages of 5 and 14 years old. Eighteen million of those child laborers are between the ages of 10 and 14. Out of all of the children in Latin America, an estimated 26% are forced to work. Children there often work long hours. Many work in agriculture. They often harvest and cultivate coffee. Some harvest bananas, sugar cane, sisal, tobacco, oranges, and other fruits and vegetables. Child labor is problem that continues to grow.
Asia:
In Asia, many child laborers, some as young as seven years old, are hidden. They work as household help, workers in farming and fishing industries, workers in quarries, mines, brick kilns, construction sites, and increasingly in drug trade. A lot more in many Asian societies live in full public view as scavengers, street beggars, and workers in small scale or home-based industries. Since these types of work are considered "informal," regulation of the industries does not exist and monitoring the presence of children in the workplace is not commonly done.
Africa:
Africa is the poorest continent on the face of the planet, and often considered the most effected by child labor. Over 70% of the region lives and works in extremely poor conditions. Of the 250 million children world wide, it is estimated that 32% work in Africa. In Africa, most of the children work in agriculture. A huge scandal arose after nearly half the chocolate purchased in the United States was linked to children producing it in cocoa fields in Africa.
Europe:
One European child in five is overweight or obese.
The highest levels are in the United Kingdom and Mediterranean region. In both Italy and the United kingdom there are nearly twice as many boys aged 5 to 17 who are obese than in Germany or the Czech Republic
‘British heart Foundation’
« If nothing is done to limit the increase in child obesity, France could reach the level of the United States by about 2020!”. »
‘Arnaud Basdevant head of the Nutrition Department, France’
AUSTRALIA:
Childhood obesity in Australia leveled around 1998 and has remained steady ever since, say researchers. However, obesity is still a massive problem. Nearly a quarter of Australian children are overweight or obese.
‘Sydney Morning Herald, 9 Jan 2009’.
NEW ZEALAND:
New Zealand faces a healthcare time-bomb as a new report ranks the country once touted for its outdoorsy, fit population as the third-fattest nation after Mexico and the US.
The Press/Stuff, 13 July 2009
SOUTH AFRICA:
17% of South African children between the ages of 1-9 years of age are overweight. At the same time as many as 19% of children are underdeveloped because of insufficient food intake. In South Africa, 25 per cent of girls in the 13-19 year age range were found to be overweight or obese, similar to the US average. However, the figure for boys in South Africa is lower at 7 per cent.
‘World Heart Foundation’
Child Obesity:
Obesity has reached epidemic proportions
The cause of obesity and overweight is an imbalance between calories consumed and calories used. Children are eating more high energy foods that are high in fat and sugars. They are physically less active; free time is used to watch television and or computer activities
Once considered a crisis in developed high income countries, overweight and obesity are dramatically increasing in children living in cities in traditionally under developed, low and middle income countries
Europe has very good education rates up until now. The largest drop in schools dropout rate. In Europe classrooms are overcrowded, run down buildings, poor teaching and language problems are seriously slowing down the education of lots of children. A report says that in Europe, Roma children are in the highest danger by a lack of access to proper education. Although the future looks grim or most children, although UNICEF is helping those that are uneducated not only get a education but a future.
Asia:
Many people in Asia have one dream as a child, to go to school. These children who dream of going to school do not have the requirements that are needed in a school such as books, pencils, erasers and paper. These children are ether to poor or they have been forced to take a job to help out with their family. Some of these students such as some in Cambodia have learned other languages other than their own to be tour guiders to earn some money. The ones who are lucky enough to be going to school still do not get a very good education as they have no stationary to learn with. Some volunteers have been taking money and stationary over to lots of schools like Cambodia and have been helping the schools to become better places to learn to live.
Africa
Over 38% of school aged children (most of them are girls) do not attend school. Many children’s families in Africa are to poor to pay the smallest fee to send there children to school. Some other families parents might have died forcing the children to work to stay alive having no time to go to school. But the poorest of families that have run out of money to buy food, have had to get a loan from money lenders. Money lenders loan money to families to help them buy food, but have very high interest rates, most of the time being to high for the families to pay back. This results in being bonded to labour. When bonded to labour you, can’t go to school as you work for most of the day, get low amounts of money, so little that you end up being bonded for years and get beaten up if you arrive late or go home early. But there is hope for these children as over the past decade groups such as the USAID and UN have been strengthening Africans education systems and have been eliminating the school fees as well as freeing bonded labourers.
More than 43 million children living in war-ravaged and corrupt countries are being left without the chance to got to school.
According to the International Save the Children Alliance, an independent children’s right group, there are various factors keeping children out of school, one of the biggest factors, and the most difficult to solve, is war.
Cultural norms are also contributing, mainly in Africa, where in lots of countries, girls are unable or denied education. One of the main reasons for this is because there is the risk of being abducted by armed militia groups and forced to become soldiers wives.
During wars, young people are denied schooling opportunities, during may be at higher risk of military recruitment and/or other involvement in the war. They may be driven to become a destabilising and destructive force, continuing cycles of violence and vulnerability.
A report says that education can be a positive force for peace and help to prevent of further conflict. Children that are denied education because of war or cultural reasons are not only at a disadvantage in life but can also have a serious effect on the child's future.
“Child soldiers” overview
Currently, there are approximately 300,000 children being used in combat all around the world. A child soldier is any human being under the age of 18 who have joined the army, by force or by other means.
Child soldiers aren’t just found in 3rd world countries. The US Pentagon sponsors programs that teach 400,000 high school boys and girls to march, shoot, act and think like soldiers. Also, in the United Kingdom, 128,000 children between the ages 10-16 were sent to training camp around the country. Also, Children often volunteer to join the army to protect themselves from family violence. But the real problem lies in places like Iraq and Iran. For decades, Iraq had had many military training programs. These programs are for both boys and girls, some as young as 10.
Europe:
Most of the European child soldiers have fought enemies in Chechnya, Dagestan, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Nagorno-Karabakh. In Chechnya, Russian Commanders are struggling with the fact that they are now faced with younger opponents. As a Russian Colonel commented, “In the bands there are more and more youths, ages 14-16. They place the mines, they fire at the checkpoints. An adolescent does not even understand what he is being killed for.” It is Turkey, where you can find the largest amount of child soldiers in Europe. It was in 1994 when the PKK (the Kurdish Workers’ Party) began recruiting children. They even created child-only regiments.
Iran
:Child Soldiers were first used in the Iran/Iraq war, but ironically, Iran had laws that forbade children under 16 joining the armed forces. But a few years into the war, when Iraq started to gain the upper hand, Iran began to ignore its own laws, and in 1984, Iranian President Ali-Akbar Rafsanjani declared that “all Iranians from 12 to 72 should volunteer for the Holy War.” Thousands of children were then pulled out of school, brainwashed about the glory of martyrdom and were sent to the front lines with only 1 or 2 grenades and 1 magazine in their guns. The children mainly charged forward in the first wave of attackers and cleared paths through mine fields and overwhelmed Iraq’s defenses.
Iraq:
Iraq also started using children in their armed forces during the Iran/Iraq war. Suddam Hussein built an entire system to bring children into conflict. During the war that ended Saddam Hussein’s regime, American forces engaged with Iraqi child soldiers in the fighting in at least three cities (Nasariya, Karbala, and Kirkuk). As well as this, the American soldiers often encountered armed children who were being used as human shields.
South America:
Since 1990 in America, child soldiers have fought in Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico (in the Chiapas conflict), Nicaragua, Paraguay, and Peru. The most child soldiers are in Columbia. There, over 11,000 children are being used in conflict, meaning 1 in every 4 soldier is underage. These children were on both the rebel’s side and on the National Liberty Army’s side. At least 2/3 of these child soldiers are under the age of 15.
Africa:
Africa is often considered the first country to start using child soldiers. Armed forces that use child soldiers scatter all around the continent. The places that child soldiers are used are the same places that are the world’s worst war zones. In Somalia, boys 14-18 regularly engage in combat. Also, the United Nations estimated that over 20,000 children soldiers took part in Liberia’s war.
