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Afghanistan:
Price Hikes Push Food Out Of Reach For Millions Of Children
Millions of children in Afghanistan could be pushed into severe hunger as a result of rising food prices, drought and displacement, Save the Children warned, after the UN reported the cost of wheat, rice, sugar and cooking oil has increased by more than 50% compared with pre-COVID-19 prices.
A survey of 630 newly displaced families in Kabul, carried out by Save the Children earlier this month, already found that all of the families had run up debts in order to buy food. Many families have been forced to sell their possessions, cut back on meals or send their children out to work in order to buy food.
Save the Children warned that people's ability to buy food is likely to be further limited by the lack of operating banks and ATMS, which prevents them from accessing their savings.
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URGENT NEED TO STOP THE
WAR ON CHILDREN
URGENT: STOP THE
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Enough is Enough. We urgently call for the violence to stop.
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STOP THE WAR ON CHILDREN
Afsana’s Story:
Growing Up In Bangladesh’s Largest Brothel
10-year-old Afsana* lives in Bangladesh’s largest brothel.
She’s tired because her mother Tuli*, a sex worker, entertains clients in the next room while she and her six-year-old brother try to sleep. Drunken men and women roam the dirty alleyways all night looking for drugs and alcohol, which are readily available in the brothel’s lanes.
But just a few hundred metres down the train tracks is another world – the primary school where Afsana gets to be a child again.
Save the Children and a local partner organisation founded the school for children from the brothel in 1997. At that time, local schools wouldn’t accept the children of sex workers, meaning girls like Afsana were left uneducated and vulnerable to following their mothers into sex work.
We need to ensure that there are educational programmes and healthcare support available to help every last child find their way out - and give them an opportunity for a better future for themselves and their families.
This is why we need your signature to help us in our efforts as we work towards providing them with:
Access to education
Access to healthcare and counselling
Assistance with re-integrating them into their community
With your support and alongside our partners, you can protect children and save girls in Bangladesh from a future in sex slavery.
Take action today and pledge to give children from a chance to an education and a life free from sex slavery.
Click the button below to sign the petition today!
Athena Rayburn, Director of Advocacy and Campaigns at Save the Children Afghanistan, said:
"The spike in prices will push food out of reach for many families, particularly those who have been displaced from their homes and are living on next to nothing. Conflict, drought and COVID-19 have already pushed millions of children into hunger and misery in Afghanistan - now they could be pushed even closer to the brink of famine."
Join the movement and take a stand for children in Afghanistan by giving them a new chance at life and break the cycle of poverty.
Every day Afsana goes to school, works hard and dreams of the day she and her mother can leave the brothel. Afsana is the second-best student in grade three and hopes to be a doctor when she grows up. “I want to be a doctor so that I can help my family if anything happens to them,” she says. But that dream will never become a reality without an education and the school Afsana attends is the place where children can get one.
Join the movement and take a stand for children in slum brothels by giving them a new chance at life through education and break the cycle of poverty.
*Names have been changed to protect identities.
Children are paying the heaviest price as violence in Gaza and Israel continues. Sign to show your support and make it clear that New Zealand backs the call for a definitive #CeasefireNOW.
WHAT IS THE SITUATION FOR CHILDREN?
Children in Gaza have nowhere safe to go. With civilian sites repeatedly attacked and all crossings out of Gaza closed, families in Gaza are trapped, with no safe place to go. The latest data from the Ministry of Health in Gaza shows more than 11,000 of Gaza’s 1.1 million children - or 1% of the total child population – have been killed since an attack on Israel on 7 October and the assault on Gaza that has followed.
Children have been cut off from the basics they need to survive. There is no clean water, leaving children at risk of dying from severe dehydration. Nearly all children in Gaza are at imminent risk of famine. Three months of constant bombardment and restrictions have created the conditions for an exponential rise in malnutrition, with extremely limited access to food and water. Pregnant women are not receiving the nutrition and healthcare they need.
There is no electricity or fuel, leaving hospitals unable to operate and thousands of lives at risk. The spread of diseases is intensifying. Overcrowding in shelters, a near-total collapse of basic sanitation and health facilities, a lack of medicine and medical supplies, the rising number of unburied bodies, and a scarcity of clean water is creating the perfect storm for major disease outbreaks and preventable illnesses to start also taking the lives of children. And now, children are facing yet another new threat as the cold, wet winter sets in.
The weaponization of aid must stop and every effort must be made to ensure children and civilians receive humanitarian relief immediately.
YES, I WOULD LIKE TO
PLEDGE MY SUPPORT
JOIN US TO STAND WITH CHILDREN AND CALL FOR
A definitive ceasefire agreed by all parties to the conflict.
The necessities of life must not be withheld from children including, food, water, medicines and medical care, and safe shelter.
Humanitarian assistance must be allowed to be delivered to children in Gaza, including fuel, and at a scale that meets the demands of the crisis. Aid must not be withheld from children.
All children affected by the violence in Gaza and Israel must be protected and supported to find safety.
All parties to the conflict must respect International Humanitarian Law, commit no further Grave Violations against children and ensure that there is accountability for those committed to date.
All hostages captured must be released immediately and unconditionally.
EVERY WAR IS A WAR AGAINST CHILDREN
In the six months since the 7 October attacks in which 33 children were killed, more than 13,800 children have been killed in Gaza and 113 in the West Bank, and over 12,009 children have been injured in Gaza and at least 725 children in the West Bank, according to OCHA and the Ministry of Health in Gaza.
Reports show at least 1,000 children have had one or both legs amputated, and about 30 out of 36 hospitals have been bombed, leaving only 10 partially functioning.
Save the Children condemns all acts of violence against civilians, including children, in the strongest terms. The killing and maiming of children, abduction, and attacks on schools and hospitals, are Grave Violations, and those responsible must be held to account for their actions.
Save the Children is calling for a definitive ceasefire and unfettered humanitarian access to meet the catastrophic situation unfolding in Gaza. Gaza's 346,000 children under the age of five are at the greatest risk of malnutrition as the situation rapidly deteriorates across the enclave. In the north, it is estimated that one in three children under the age of two are now suffering from wasting, the most severe form of malnutrition, compared to one in six children in January, according to The Global Nutrition Cluster - a group of humanitarian organisations focused on nutrition.
The Government of Israel must also allow life-saving medical equipment, supplies, teams, and medicine to enter the Gaza Strip at the speed and scale required to prevent more children from being killed by malnutrition and disease.
Give Young Children Growing Up In Slum Brothels A Chance For A Better Future.
Bangladesh’s largest slum brothel - just one of many in the region - is the size of a small city and houses over 1,500 women and 1,000 children.
These women and children live largely out of sight from mainstream society - facing exclusion from education, life-saving healthcare, and their communities. Needing to provide for their children, mothers who were likely sold or trafficked into the brothel to start with, find themselves unable to leave and forced to work to pay off debts.
Children live with their mothers in rooms smaller than most one-car garages. When their mothers bring their customers home, they hide under beds while their mothers are working or they are pushed into the alleyway to play. Customers will use them to run errands, like fetching alcohol or drugs, and in some cases, they are tasked with cleaning up after customers have left. Some will be groomed to be the future of the business like their mothers and grandmothers.
We are calling on the Government to consult with children before this Bill progresses further.
We can not continue to let these children suffer.
We call for an end to the cycle of sexual exploitation of children in Bangladesh.
Our target: 6,000
3,519 signatures added so far
10,700 have signed. Let's get to 11,000!
On the ground: We have been providing essential services and support to Palestinian children impacted by the ongoing conflict since 1953 and have had a permanent presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory since 1973. As of mid-January we have reached over 182,500 people, including over 94,000 children, working with local partners to distribute supplies within shelters and to households in Gaza, including over food baskets, water, hygiene kits, medical supplies, cash assistance and psychosocial support. As soon as access is possible and fuel is available, we are ready to scale up our response further in Gaza.
In Aotearoa: We are continually raising awareness about what is happening to children in Gaza and Israel and calling for action to stop the conflict. In addition to joint advocacy efforts to Government led by the Council of International Development, Save the Children New Zealand has written direct to the Prime Minister and all New Zealand Political parties to:
Call for a definitive ceasefire, de-escalation of the conflict and protection of civilians;
Use their voice and influence to insist that International Humanitarian Law be upheld;
Demand expanded and continuing safe humanitarian access for the delivery of humanitarian aid;
Guarantee the protection of children;
Release additional financial support for the humanitarian response.
Enough is Enough. We urgently call for the violence to stop.
Photo Credit: Ali Jadallah/Anadolu Agency
#StopTheWarOnChildren
WHAT IS SAVE THE CHILDREN DOING FOR THE CHILDREN CAUGHT IN THIS CRISIS?
All parties must commit to protecting children and abide by International Humanitarian Law.
