Poor diets damaging children's health worldwide, warns UNICEF  
  October 29, 2019  
 

An alarmingly high number of children are suffering the consequences of poor diets and a food system that is failing them, UNICEF warned in a new report on children, food and nutrition.


The State of the World’s Children 2019: Children, food and nutrition finds that at least 1 in 3 children under five – or over 200 million – is either undernourished or overweight. Almost 2 in 3 children between six months and two years of age are not fed food that supports their rapidly growing bodies and brains. This puts them at risk of poor brain development, weak learning, low immunity, increased infections and, in many cases, death.


The report provides the most comprehensive assessment yet of 21st century child malnutrition in all its forms. It describes a triple burden of malnutrition: Undernutrition, hidden hunger caused by a lack of essential nutrients, and obesity among children under the age of five, noting that around the world:


    149 million children are stunted, or too short for their age,
•     50 million children are wasted, or too thin for their height,
    340 million children – or 1 in 2 – suffer from deficiencies in essential vitamins and nutrients such as vitamin A and iron,
    40 million children are overweight or obese.


The report warns that poor eating and feeding practices start from the earliest days of a child’s life. Though breastfeeding can save lives, for example, only 42 per cent of children under six months of age are exclusively breastfed and an increasing number of children are fed infant formula. Sales of milk-based formula grew by 72 per cent between 2008 and 2013 in upper middle-income countries such as Brazil, China and Turkey, largely due to inappropriate marketing and weak policies and programmes to protect, promote and support breastfeeding.


As children begin transitioning to soft or solid foods around the six-month mark, too many are introduced to the wrong kind of diet, according to the report. Worldwide, close to 45 per cent of children between six months and two years of age are not fed any fruits or vegetables. Nearly 60 per cent do not eat any eggs, dairy, fish or meat.

 

As children grow older, their exposure to unhealthy food becomes alarming, driven largely by inappropriate marketing and advertising, the abundance of ultra-processed foods in cities but also in remote areas, and increasing access to fast food and highly sweetened beverages.


As a result, overweight and obesity levels in childhood and adolescence are increasing worldwide. From 2000 to 2016, the proportion of overweight children between 5 and 19 years of age doubled from 1 in 10 to almost 1 in 5. Ten times more girls and 12 times more boys in this age group suffer from obesity today than in 1975.


The greatest burden of malnutrition in all its forms is shouldered by children and adolescents from the poorest and most marginalized communities, the report notes. Only 1 in 5 children aged six months to two years from the poorest households eats a sufficiently diverse diet for healthy growth. Even in high-income countries such as the UK, the prevalence of overweight is more than twice as high in the poorest areas as in the richest areas.


The report also notes that climate-related disasters cause severe food crises. Drought, for example, is responsible for 80 per cent of damage and losses in agriculture, dramatically altering what food is available to children and families, as well as the quality and price of that food.


To address this growing malnutrition crisis in all its forms, UNICEF is issuing an urgent appeal to governments, the private sector, donors, parents, families and businesses to help children grow healthy by:


1.     Empowering families, children and young people to demand nutritious food
2.     Driving food suppliers to do the right thing for children, by incentivizing the provision of healthy, convenient and affordable foods.
3.     Building healthy food environments for children and adolescents by using proven approaches
4.     Mobilizing supportive systems – health, water and sanitation, education and social protection – to scale up nutrition results for all children.
5.     Collecting, analyzing and using good-quality data and evidence to guide action and track progress.

 
   
  Panic in Pakistani City After 900 Children Test Positive for H.I.V.  
  October 26, 2019  
 

Nearly 900 children in the small Pakistani city of Ratodero were bedridden early this year with raging fevers that resisted treatment. Parents were frantic, with everyone seeming to know a family with a sick child.

 

In April, the disease was pinned down, and the diagnosis was devastating: The city was the epicenter of an H.I.V. outbreak that overwhelmingly affected children. Health officials initially blamed the outbreak on a single pediatrician, saying he was reusing syringes.

 

Since then, about 1,100 citizens have tested positive for the virus, or one in every 200 residents. Almost 900 are younger than 12. Health officials believe the real numbers are probably much higher, as only a fraction of the population has been tested so far.

 

When officials descended on Ratodero to investigate, they discovered that many of the infected children had gone to the same pediatrician, Muzaffar Ghanghro, who served the city’s poorest families and appeared to be at the center of the outbreak.

 

Mr. Shaikh panicked — that was his children’s pediatrician. He rushed his family to be tested, and his 2-year-old daughter was confirmed to have the virus, which is the cause of AIDS.

 

“It was devastating,” said Mr. Shaikh, a 44-year-old television journalist in Ratodero, a city of 200,000 whose residents are some of Pakistan’s poorest, with high illiteracy rates.

 

Mr. Ghanghro was the cheapest option in this city, charging 20 cents a visit for the many parents here who earn less than $60 a month.

 

 
   
  Training Session for Teachers of centers for street children, and SPARC schools  
  October 20, 2019  
     
 

A comprehensive teachers’ training session was conducted to enhance the capabilities of teachers working with the various centers for street children and newly started SPARC schools. The training was based on innovative teaching methodologies. Teachers participated in various interesting teaching and learning activities. The purpose was to make the learning process more interesting and useful for those who do not possess enough resources to buy expensive learning materials. Teachers in return will be able to deal with children based on their multiple intelligences as well as to design their lesson according to the local context.


After this training session teachers started applying participatory approaches in their classroom management while ensuring effective involvement of communities and parents. It was reported that the children also showed enthusiasm when teachers involved them in various interesting activities. Some of the kids and parents are now very helpful in making the overall environment conducive for learning.

Training of Children clubs on child rights programming
in coordination with the project team of Child Rights Movement training was conducted to involve children to understand the process of child rights programming. Training was highly participatory using a variety of effective learning activities.

A follow-up visit to Government girl’s primary school Saraye Salah, Haripur
Project sustainability can clearly be seen by visiting schools assisted by SPARC under the project, “learning is fun.” The first phase of the project, from 2014 to 2018, was efficiently executed in 60 identified schools of Abbottabad and Haripur districts. To make the interventions sustainable SPARC’s training and program teams keep continuous coordination with the trained teacher and higher management. The team recently visited one of the schools and captured some glimpse for sharing.

 
   
  Distribution of School Uniforms for Out-of-School and Drop-Out Children   
  October 18, 2019  
     
 

Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) and SPARC signed a Letter-of-Understanding (LoU) to collaborate on protection and care to the children and enrollment of street children in government schools working under the ambit of Federal Directorate of Education in Islamabad. A detailed work plan was devised to provide 400-500 out-of-school/drop out children (Including 150 children in SPARC’s two Non-Formal Education centers) in Islamabad. As per LoU, SPARC is providing these children with pre-enrolment non-formal education and complete school uniforms to prepare them for schools, whereas FDE under its special initiative enrolls these children in schools.


FDE provided a list of 250 children as first trench of out-of-school children in Urban-1 and Urban-2 education areas. Out of which, after assessment SPARC selected 137 children in Urban-1 for the first trench of uniform distribution. As per direction of Assistant Director Innovation and Collaboration, Ms. Parveen Akhtar (Coordinator, Area Education Office – Urban-1) and in consultation with SPARC’s project team devised a distribution plan for these 137 children in 6 schools of sector I and sector G of Islamabad.


SPARC procured 137 uniforms and school shoes for these children as per gender, sizes, and specifications provided by AEO’s office and distributed them among children at 6 schools as per plan.


In addition to that, SPARC has already provided 60 children of its NFE centers with same uniforms items, therefore the total number out-of-school/drop out children provided with uniforms is 197 as of the date.

 
   
  Workshop on Child Rights with Elected Representatives   
  October 11, 2019  
     
 

The event was organized at the Pearl Continental Hotel, Bhurban. Chief guest Ms. Mehnaz Akber (Chair SDGS Committee on Child Rights) delivered the keynote address at the conference. She mentioned the initiatives of the present government, likewise, the Parliament of Pakistan has demonstrated its support and commitment to SDGs by establishing the National Parliamentary task force on SDGs. Interestingly Pakistan is the first country that established Parliamentary task force on SDGs.

SPARC Executive Director Mr. Sajjad Ahmed Cheema welcomed the guests at the event. Mr. Cheema informed the participants about SPARC’s vision to promote and protect children living in underprivileged communities. The purpose of this workshop was to bring the contemporary issues related to child health, Child labor and Child abuse into the notice of policymakers.


For this reason, SPARC joined hands with CRM and make efforts to end the vulnerabilities of children in Pakistan. CRM is the only platform where all the civil society organizations come together to raise voice for Child rights.

Leading Human Rights Activist Mr. Iqbal Detho gave a presentation on the history of child rights and the UNCRC status in Pakistan. He shared findings highlighting the gaps and challenges faced by the UNCRC implementation.

Parliamentary Secretary Health Dr. Nausheen Hamid spoke on “Actions Taken by the Government to improve the state of Child Rights in Pakistan.” She assured the participants that the government is sensitive about important issues and committed to achieving the global agenda like SDGs.

She briefly explained the maternal health issues and the role of mother childcare in a household. Undernourishment and malnutrition is an important aspect of the government agenda to end hunger in the country. The increasing population is adding pressure to the available scarce resources, reminding the essential role of family planning to parliamentarians she stressed to mobilize civil society organizations in this area as well.

In the last session, parliamentarians were engaged, in general, discussion and question-answer session. All the representatives were humbled to be mobilized on such acute matters. They all said that organizations like CRM and SPARC would bring findings to politicians and definitely we will accept the whole of the proposal whole-heartedly and work together to utilize the available resources.

Ms. Fazila Alinai, Board Member SPARC, delivered the concluding remarks and thanked all the distinguished participants and the organizers who made the event a great achievement.

 
   
  International Day of the Girl Child    
  October 1, 2019  
     
 

SPARC and CRM held a seminar titled “Demand to ensure implementation of Laws” to commemorate the International Day of the Girl Child at Islamabad Hotel. Chief guest Ms. Mehnaz Akber (Chair SDGS Committee on Child Rights) delivered the keynote address at the conference.


“The rights of all the children, including the girl child are enshrined in our constitution. As an equal participant, it is her right to equal access to opportunities to develop her full potential,” said Ms. Mehnaz Akber.


SPARC Executive Director Mr. Sajjad Ahmed Cheema informed the participants about SPARC’s vision to promote and protect children living in underprivileged communities. Speaking at the occasion, he said that as many as 22.8 million children are out of school and 56pc are these are girls.


Pakistani cyclist, Samar khan said, “Girls are equal to other members of society and need care and attention.” She talked about herself and how she challenged the patriarchal mindset and representing her country on various national and international forums. Moreover, she is the first women in world to ride cycle on 45000 meters biafo glacier in the Karakoram Mountains of Gilgit Baltistan.


Guest speaker, Human activist and Educationist Jannat Ul Firdous,  stressed to educate the young girls to become the responsible citizen of both the Pakistan and the world. She narrated a famous proverb that “if you educate a man you educate an individual, but if you educate a woman you educate a nation.” Besides attaining formal education one has to be taught, happenings in the society and teachers should make community support a major activity of curriculum in schools said, Firdous.


Ms Abiha Haider and Ms karishma Ali were also among the guest speakers. National Manger CRM, Mamtaz Gohar, delivered the concluding remarks and thanked all participants making the event a mere success. He also shared information about CRM initiatives and elaborated challenges faced by children and particularly girls in male dominated society.

 
     
  Media workshop on "Tobacco consumption trends and civil society's demands from the government"   
  September 12, 2019  
     
 

Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC) organized a media workshop on “Tobacco consumption trends and civil society’s demands from the government” on February 13 at Islamabad Hotel, Islamabad.

 

     
 

 

 
 
   
   
       
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