Ghana – Since 2002, IOM has rescued 684 children who had been trafficked to work with fishermen in Ghana, West Africa.
The children, trafficked for forced or bonded labour into fishing communities in Kete-Krachi and Yeji along the shores of Ghana’s Lake Volta had been sold for little money by impoverished parents in the belief that the children would be adequately fed, educated and taught a useful trade. Continue reading Another 36 Trafficked Children Rescued by IOM and its Partners→
Somalis carry sacks of food aid distributed by the World Food Program near Mogadishu in 2008. Global food production, already under strain from the credit crunch, must double in the next four decades to head off mass hunger, the head of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation said. (AFP/File/Abdurashid Abikar)
ROME – Almost five million children under the age of five die of malnutrition every year in the developing world. Food aid – which mainly contains nutrient-poor carbohydrates – does little to address the absence of a diverse diet that would prevent the condition.
Humanitarian relief organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is therefore urging policy makers to boost food security and improve the quality of food aid that feeds the world’s hungry. To fight malnutrition in the long-term, however, African governments need to invest in small-scale farming to create food autonomy.
More than 20 million children suffer from severe, acute malnutrition in the developing world. Half of the 9.7 million deaths of children under five each year are caused by the condition, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). It will cost $5 billion a year alone to feed children under the age of three in developing countries, MSF said. Continue reading No Quick Fix for Malnutrition and Hunger→
Background: On March 26, 2009, Senators Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Richard Lugar (R-IN) introduced the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act (DREAM Act) (S.729). A nearly identical bill (H.R. 1751) was introduced in the House by Representatives Howard Berman (D-CA), Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL), and Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA). The DREAM Act permits certain immigrant students who have grown up in the United States to adjust to temporary legal status and eventually obtain permanent resident status provided that they attend college or enter the U.S. military. Continue reading Action Alert: Call and/or write Congress and Tell Them to Support the DREAM Act→
Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation 