Afghanistan 'worst place to be a mother'

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Agence France-Presse

Afghanistan 'worst place to be a mother'
– 22 mins ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Afghanistan is the worst place in the world to be a mother and Norway is the best, with stark differences in conditions for women and children in the two countries, a report released Tuesday says.

In Afghanistan and the nine other countries at the bottom of the Mothers' Index, compiled by the nonprofit group Save the Children, mothers and their children endure "grim conditions," with one in six kids dying before age five and one in three suffering from malnutrition.

Nearly half the population in the worst countries to raise kids lack access to clean water, and only four girls for every five boys are enrolled in primary school.

Most of the other bottom-ranked countries in the index are in sub-Saharan Africa. From worst to less bad, they are Niger, Guinea-Bissau, Yemen, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Mali, Sudan and the Central African Republic, the index says.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110503/hl_afp/womenchildrenhealtheducation

[valerief]

1. Interesting, but not unexpected, at who is missing in the top ten. Top 30, actually.

The top 10 countries, in order, were the five Nordic nations of Norway, Iceland, Sweden, Denmark and Finland; followed by Australia, New Zealand, Belgium, the Netherlands and France. Women and children enjoy excellent health, education and economic conditions in these countries, the report says.

Germany, Spain and Britain ranked just outside the top 10 of the index, while the United States was 31st, just above Luxembourg and Belarus.

[Quantess]

4. The USA is 31st

Go USA!

[Turborama]

2. "only four girls for every five boys are enrolled in primary school" Only?

Under the Taliban it was 0 girls for every 5 boys.

[VWolf]

3. Pretty crappy place to be a US soldier too

Can we leave, please?

[valerief]

5. You poor babies! I hope you come home soon.

:grouphug: