Haitian children face greatest challenges to life in Western Hemisphere -

[Judi Lynn]

Haitian children face greatest challenges to life in Western Hemisphere - UN

22 March 2006 – More children are likely to die during early childhood in Haiti than in any other country in the Western Hemisphere, with one in eight likely to succumb before the age of five, according to a United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) report released today.

“There are few more challenging places to have a healthy childhood than Haiti,” UNICEF’s Country Representative in Haiti Adriano González-Regueral said of the report 'Child Alert: Haiti.’

“While Haiti accounts for only two per cent of births in Latin America and the Caribbean, it accounts for 19 per cent of deaths for children under five. It has by far the highest death rates for children under five, with 117 children dying for every 1,000 births,” he added.

Thousands of Haiti’s children lead lives of daily struggle and youngsters in rural areas lack even the most basic services, often walking for hours just to reach the nearest health centre or water source, and in cities violence and abuse lock children in a cycle that is almost impossible to break, according to the report, the second in a UNICEF series of papers on the core challenges facing children in a particular crisis location.
(snip/...)

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=17893&Cr=Haiti&Cr1=UNICEF

[seemslikeadream]

1. Child-abuse, yeah, child-abuse yeah,

:hi:



Until the philosophy,
Which holds one race superior
And another inferior,
Is finally and permanently
Discredited and abandoned,
Everywhere is war.

WAR

Until there is no longer first class
Or second class citizens of any nation.
Until the color of a man's skin,
Is of no more significance than
The color of his eyes,
I've got to say "war".

WAR

That until the basic human rights,
Are equally guaranteed to all,
Without regard to race,
I'll say "war"

Until that day the dream of lasting peace,
World-citizenship and the rule of
International morality will remain
Just a fleeting illusion to be pursued,
But never obtained.
And everywhere is war.

Until the ignoble and unhappy regime
Which holds all of us through,
Child-abuse, yeah, child-abuse yeah,
Sub-human bondage has been toppled,
Utterly destroyed,
Everywhere is war.

War in the east,
War in the west,
War up north,
War down south,
There is war,
And the rumors of war.

Until that day,
the african continent will know no peace
There is no continent,
Which will know peace.

Children, children.

Fight!

We find it necessary.
We know we will win.
We have confidence in the victory
Of good over evil
Of good over evil

Fight the real enemy!