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Love and care Every child in the world needs love and care. |
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Families come in all shapes and sizes. Children can live with moms and dads, step-parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, foster parents, adoptive parents, parents’ girlfriends/ boyfriends, with friends, or in a home like an orphanage. | |
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Millions of children live alone on the streets in cities all around the world. | |
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War – One in every 512 people on the planet is a refugee – most due to war. | |
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During the 1990s, more than 2 million children died in wars , and 28 million women and children had to flee their homes. | |
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Today, around 300,000 children are fighting in wars in 41 countries worldwide. | |
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An AK-47 rifle can be stripped down and reassembled by a child of 10. | |
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In Uganda, children can volunteer for military service at the age of 13. | |
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In Congo Kinshasa, 40% of children receive no schooling, and 15% take part in armed combat. | |
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Work 73 million children under 10 have to work. |
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Sometimes children as young as 8 years-old are taken to other countries to work | |
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More than 210 million children between 5 – 14 years old work for a living. More than half of them work in dangerous jobs. | |
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Between 1990 and 1999, thousands of children in Sierra Leone were abducted and forced to fight as soldiers. The Leonenet Street Children Project rehabilitates some of the 60,000 children affected by war. E-mail p.mc-cann@sierratel.sl | |
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War – and famine – have made 150,000 children homeless in Ethiopia. Save the Young Ethiopian Organization focuses on helping these children. SYEO, PO Box 81213, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, tel +251 1 117401 | |
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The Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers is working to prevent the recruitment and use of children as soldiers. www.child-soldiers.org | |
Love
and care
Every child needs the support and protection of caring adults. Usually
parents take care of a child, but not always. Adults who care for kids
should do whatever is best for the child. Every child needs an adult who
has their best interest at heart, who cares for them, comforts them, and
who can teach them about the world.
This next section is only presented in assemblies to older students.
War
Innocent children always suffer in war. Although no child has ever started a war, war is a fact of life for many children. War uproots families and destroys communities. After a war, children need help rebuilding their lives. Wars have made millions of children homeless – and in effect, these children have no childhood. No child should have to live through a war.
Landmines
Around the world, landmines kill or injure nearly 30 children everyday – or 10,000 children each year. Long after a war is over, landmines buried in schools, playgrounds and fields continue to wound and kill children and adults. Children are at risk from landmines in 90 countries. A landmine can cost only $3 to make – and $1000 to find and dispose of safely.
Work
In many countries, children must work because of poverty. Work can be fun and instructive, but should not take the place of play and learning. Kids everywhere need protection from work that could harm or exploit them. They need time to play, learn and to have a childhood.
Keywords
- Care
- Child soldiers
- Confusion
- Danger
- Destruction
- Exploitation
- Landmines
- Long hours – low wages
- Love
- Protection
- Refugees
- Safety
- Support
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All kids need protection from war |
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All kids need protection from
poverty and crime. (Nicaragua) |
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| This boy lost his leg when he stepped on a landmine. (Cambodia) |
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| Aziz can help at her parent's foodstand and still have time to go to school and play. But all kids need protection from work that exploits them.
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