Adolescent Girls Struggle in Northern Mali

By Plan International 

Adolescent girls were extremely vulnerable during the 10-month occupation of Northern Mali by armed militias in 2012, but they have also been overlooked in the aftermath. Plan International has begun working with the victims of this conflict but, after speaking with many adolescent girls in Northern Mali, it is clear that more must be done.

Plan is calling for governments and humanitarian actors to recognize and address the specific needs of adolescents' girls before, during and after disasters.

For more go to http://plan-international.org

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Mohammed: Great cost to go to secondary school 

By Mohammed, a teenage boy living in Mentao refugee camp, Burkina Faso / Through Plan

 

Displaced by the Mali conflict, Mohammed’s family has borrowed all the money they can to send him to school, while they stay in Mentao refugee camp, Burkina Faso.

21 March 2013: I am extremely excited today, like every Friday afternoon. I am going back home to spend the weekend with my family. This is my life now here in Mentao.

Since we arrived in this part of Burkina Faso, fleeing the troubles in Timbuktu, I have been somehow parted from my parents. That was the only solution for me to stay in school. In the Mentao camp, where we live, there are no secondary schools - only primary schools run by Plan. The closest secondary school is in Djibo, about 50 kilometres from the camp.

At the beginning of the school year, we discussed it with my dad. He said I had to go to Djibo to study but that means I would have to become “more independent” and learn to be “on my own”.

Learning to survive

This is so new for me. With dad and other parents of the camps, we found a house to rent in Djibo. There are 6 of us in this small 3 bed house. The rent is paid by our parents and there is a woman from the camp who is coming once or twice a week to cook for us.

When we started living on our own, I just thought, ‘this is great, this is what I have always wanted to have - my own place’. Over the past months, I have learnt that there are strings attached to this gift.

The simple things I was not bothered to think about are now all mine. From turning the light off while leaving the house, to making sure doors are locked, taking care of bills and liaising between the landlord and my parents.

Education cost

My dad said it is a learning curve and that it is how I learn to become adult. Perhaps he is right. I don’t care that much because I strangely discovered a new passion for my studies here in Mentao.

I have always been quite good in school. But now I have a strong reason to be studious. My dad has paid over 140 000 FCFA (US$254) to get me and my brother into the private school I am attending. There was no place left in the overcrowded government-owned Lycée provincial in Djibo.

My parents sold a lot of our belongings and borrowed money from friends and relatives to make it happen. I feel there is an extra pressure on me to perform. I have been reading my lessons and doing my homework every day without failing.

So proud

I was so proud when I brought my first term results and I had so many good marks. I think my dad was relieved too. I heard my dad talk about next year and his worries about his ability to keep us in school, because of the high fees. I am worried too.

Many of my friends in Mentao camp don’t go to school anymore. They have dropped-out because there is no secondary school in the camp and their parents cannot afford the fees of the private schools in Djibo, plus the rent.

They spend all their days doing nothing in the camp. That is really sad. I know I am lucky. I often share my school experiences with them and I can see they envy me somehow. We all hope things will get better and all of us will be able to attend school.

Plan support

Like many secondary school teenagers in Mentao, my brother Abdul and I have applied for a bursary with Plan. We are praying we will receive the money to help our parents, who are clearly struggling to make ends meet.

My friend Muhammed, is hoping this bursary will help him go back to school - he hates staying at home all day long doing nothing.

The other day we were discussing about this school thing during our weekend stay in Mentao. A friend said he overheard his parents talking about a Plan project to build a new school building in the government owned Lycée provincial in Djibo, so that there are spaces for all of us.

Things are looking great thanks to all these projects going on. I now envy my friends who are enjoying a gap year in Mentao camp and will certainly be back to school when the new school year starts in October next year.

For more go to http://plan-international.org/
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Malnutrition aigüe : dépister encore et toujours plus

Par Eric Alain Ategbo, Nutrition Manager, UNICEF Niamey, NIGER

 

 

L’intensification d’un dépistage bien conduit constitue une étape essentielle pour le traitement réussi d’un enfant souffrant de malnutrition aigüe. Passif ou actif, le dépistage peut se faire en formation sanitaire ou au niveau communautaire.

 

Quelque soit la forme qu’elle prend, les acteurs au Niger sont fortement encouragés à intensifier la recherche des cas de malnutrition aigüe et leur référence afin d’assurer une prise en charge effective de la malnutrition au Niger.

Face à la récurrence des crises nutritionnelles auxquelles le Niger est confronté depuis des années, le pays avec l’aide de ses partenaires a mis en place un système de prise en charge de la malnutrition pour les enfants âgés de 6 – 59 mois. Ce système, dont la construction a débuté lors de la crise alimentaire et nutritionnelle de 2005, se renforce de jour en jour, et comporte deux grandes catégories. La prise en charge des cas de malnutrition aigüe modérée d’une part et d’autre part, la prise en charge de la malnutrition aigüe sévère, elle-même subdivisée en deux sous catégories, la prise en charge en ambulatoire des cas de malnutrition aigüe sévère sans complication médicale et le traitement en hospitalisation pour les cas de malnutrition aigüe sévère avec des complications médicales associées.

 

A ce jour, il existe plus de 2000 centres de prise en charge de la malnutrition aigüe au Niger dont 893 destinés au traitement des cas de malnutrition aigüe sévère. De même, plus de 1100 centres sont dédiés à la prise en charge des cas de malnutrition aigüe modérée.

 

Dépistage de la malnutrition au Centre de Santé de Routgouna
dans la ville de Mirriah, Niger (Olivier Asselin / Niger / Unicef)

 

De quelques dizaines de milliers de cas traités par an pendant la période 2005 - 2009, la capacité de prise en charge de la malnutrition aigüe au Niger a rapidement augmenté, pour atteindre plusieurs centaines de milliers de cas traités par an depuis la crise nutritionnelle de 2010. Ainsi, près d’un million d’enfants ont été traités contre la malnutrition aigüe sévère au Niger entre 2010 et 2012 (330.000 en 2010, 299.000 en 2011 et 369.000 environ en 2012). La prise en charge de la malnutrition aigüe modérée a atteint sa vitesse de croisière en 2011 avec en moyenne 460.000 cas traités chaque année.

 

Il importe d’assurer le maintien de ce système qui a fait ses preuves et d’assurer un accès équitable à tous les enfants touchés par la malnutrition. Une identification active et précoce, et une référence effective des cas identifiés vers les centres de prise en charge constituent une chance pour chaque enfant de survivre à la malnutrition aigüe ; cette maladie ayant une forte corrélation avec la mortalité.

Pour que l’effort de dépistage soit bénéfique aussi bien aux enfants qu’au système de santé, il est impératif d’assurer une bonne coordination avec le service de prise en charge dans la localité concernée et de mettre en exergue les cas identifiés qui sont déjà dans le programme de prise en charge, lors de la restitution des résultats.

 

Pour plus d'informations visitez http://www.unicef.org/wcaro/

Suivez Unicef Niger sur Twitter

 

Malian Children in Exile: Mohammed, The Guitarist

By Plan

A story about Mohammed, a refugee from Timbuktu, who was forced to leave his home and guitar behind due to the conflict in Mali. Learn more about how Plan is helping Malian children in exile by visiting www.plan-international.org/maliconflict

 

 

For more go to  http://plan-international.org/

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Why we should not forget about Mali ?

By Maria Mutya Frio, Communications Manager, World Vision West Africa

 

The French army is leaving soon, the media is now more interested in the Pope and in Pistorius, and the displaced people of Mali are thinking of going back home. Why should we still care about Mali?



More than 10 million people will go hungry in Mali, one of whom is Natasha Kounta, a widower and mother of three children. She fled Timbuktu last year and settled in the capital Bamako along with her cousin and children. Natasha’s plight is no different from the thousands who fled the armed conflict: she was caught unaware of gunshots just outside her home, she gathered her children, took a lorry with very few belongings, traveled for a week and finally settled in Bamako. She and her family live by whatever food she can get for the day.

Last year’s food and nutrition crisis that gripped the Sahel region including Mali is not over yet. The recent armed conflict disrupted markets, harvests were dismal, food prices continued to skyrocket and household food supply dwindled as displaced people were taken in by generous Malian families. And as the next planting season approaches, farmers who lost their livelihoods can no longer afford to buy seeds (or have gone into debt last year), or humanitarian and food assistance remains constrained due to insecurity. FEWSNet predicts that with these factors, Mali could face another food crisis as early as April, particularly in the northern regions.

Displaced Malians were taken in by other families,
straining an already dwindling food supply. Credit: WVI

 And as it stands, about a million children are still highly vulnerable to food insecurity. UNICEF estimates that at least a quarter of all children in Mali under the age of five suffers from malnutrition. No child should ever have to lose his or her life over a disease that is preventable and treatable. One life lost is one too many.

The cycle will go on. The Sahel region has been hit three times in the last seven years by food and nutrition crises primarily due to a “resilience deficit.” Communities lack the capacity and the structures not only to bounce back from chronic hunger caused by low agricultural production and armed conflict, rather they lack the ability to address the structural causes and adopt strategies to withstand shocks.

Children caught in armed conflict need to be protected. We’ve all heard the stories about children being abducted as child brides who were raped or young boys enlisted at rebel camps. Amnesty International’s initial assessment of human rights violations indicated evidence of child soldiers: “These children were carrying rifles. One of them was so small that his rifle was sometimes dragging on the ground.”

Whether children fall into Government custody or integrated back into their communities, it is imperative that they receive appropriate psycho-social support and that their rights as a child be respected. The same goes for children who were exposed to violence, those who fled, whose schooling were disrupted, and those separated from their families. More child protection specialists should be sent on the ground to train communities, health professionals, educators, volunteers and families.

The education of 700,000 children had been affected and 200,000 are still denied access according to UNICEF. That’s boys and girls in various levels whose schooling were disrupted due to the conflict, and are still fearful to go back or with no educational system to go back to. At least 115 schools in the north were closed, destroyed and looted, some of which indicated the presence of unexploded ordinances. Many teachers have not yet returned to work. This has overcrowded schools in the south with the influx of newly displaced children from the north.

As the narrative on Mali fades in the public eye, let’s not forget that our engagement is not over yet. Now more than ever that the Malian people need humanitarian assistance that will hopefully, eventually transition into recovery and further development, with a hope and a prayer that peace and security be restored once again.

For more go to http://www.worldvision.org

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Minimum Standards for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action 

By the Education Cluster Unit

Exploitation, violence, separation and sexual abuse are but a few of the hardships children suffer in emergency situations. In 2010 the members of the global Child Protection Working Group agreed on the need for child protection standards in humanitarian settings.

The Minimum Standards for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action were developed between January 2011 and September 2012. The process of drafting the Minimum Standards involved over 400 individuals from 30 agencies in over 40 countries, including child protection practitioners, humanitarian actors from other sectors, academics and policy makers.

Watch the video:

More information