Children in Africa <Part 1>

Can you hear their cries?

According to "The State of the World's Children 2009" by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), a child under the age of five dies every 3.4 seconds in the world. Half are children who live south of the Sahara Desert in Africa. In this area, about one in seven children die before they reach the age of five. The causes of death are such problems as war, starvation, and infectious diseases which are no longer common in Japan.

We interviewed Toshiyuki Niwa, 69, former Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF, about the problems that children in Africa face. We researched the particularly serious problems and reached out to hear the voices of children and mothers in Africa, via aid organizations working there. In this issue, and the next, we will share our findings.

Africa may seem far away. However, the children of Africa were born on the same Earth as us. Let's look at their lives and try to imagine if you were a child there or if these children were yours.

Interview with Mr. Toshiyuki Niwa, former Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF

Donor countries' support should be better coordinated

Mr. Niwa (left) discusses children's lives in Africa.

Despite rich natural resources, countries in Africa suffer from problems of poverty and starvation. What difficulties do children there face? We interviewed Toshiyuki Niwa, former Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF who was born in Fukuyama City and now lives in Malaysia.

The problems in countries located south of the Sahara Desert are especially serious. Mr. Niwa pointed out five issues that have become grave problems: 1) The high mortality rate of infants and children under five ; 2) Infectious diseases including HIV/AIDS; 3) Sanitation, such as the lack of clean water; 4) The low rate of school attendance; and 5) The abuse of children's rights, such as child labor and child trafficking.

Mr. Niwa was particularly shocked by the situation involving HIV/AIDS during a visit to Swaziland. In 2006, there were an estimated 56,000 AIDS orphans and he found that more than half of the children in school had lost both parents and were being cared for by relatives.

Assistance for Africa began being provided around 1950 and grew more extensive in the 1960s when many African countries became independent. UNICEF was established in 1946, its original mission to deliver emergency relief for children affected by war. Today, UNICEF has widened its mandate and now also stresses aid for development, such as building schools and digging wells.

A number of Japanese non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are involved in providing support, too. Compared to NGOs of other countries, their activities are smaller-scale and they tend to focus on specific fields in certain countries.

In order to bolster their effectiveness in providing aid, Mr. Niwa believes "It is important to strengthen their cooperation and work together, rather than providing support separately."

However, aid cannot be properly delivered unless conflicts stemming from ethnic strife or claims over natural resources are resolved. Some countries, in fact, are even now engaged in war. Mr. Niwa stressed that "Support for countries trying to create a peaceful society is needed, too." (Reika Konno, 14, and Manami Yamamoto, 14)

High mortality rate for children under 5

One in five children die of disease or malnutrition

According to UNICEF, in Burkina Faso in West Africa, one in five children die before they reach the age of five. The main causes for this are diseases like malaria, disorders like dysentery, and malnutrition.

Hunger Free World (HFW), a Tokyo-based NGO, has been engaged in providing assistance for the improvement of nutrition in Burkina Faso. Through HFW, we were able to send email to mothers there who are receiving support from the organization.

Pauline Ouedraogo, 50, who lives in the village of Koubri, had nine children but lost her second and third sons due to malaria eight years ago and three years ago, respectively. When they died, one of the boys was one-and-a-half and the other boy was five.

Awa Zagre, 45, who lives in the village of Tamse lost one of her ten children due to illness. Another child contracted polio and still can't walk well. She has another child who contracted meningitis, a contagious disease.

A child receives a health check from HFW. (Photo courtesy of HFW)

HFW says that in Burkina Faso one in three children under the age of five doesn't meet the standards of height and weight that the World Health Organization has set. The reasons include: 1) Poor harvests due to a lack of rainfall; 2) Selling their food to increase the family income, resulting in a lack of food for themselves; 3) According to tradition, fathers are able to eat first so there isn't enough food left for the children.

To help with these problems, HFW works with Burkina Faso's national healthcare center to conduct weekly health checks on children to determine their nutritional needs. They provide food for infants and children as well as medicine. They also focus on educating mothers about caring for their children, such as teaching them how to make nutritious meals. (Aoi Otomo, 14, and Manami Yamamoto, 14)

AIDS orphans

11.6 million AIDS orphans are subject to prejudice and discrimination

UNICEF estimates that there are about 15 million children in the world who are under the age of 18 and have become orphans as a result of their parents' deaths from AIDS. Approximately 77% of these, or 11.6 million orphans, live south of the Sahara Desert in Africa.

Since the total number of orphans in this region is estimated to be 47.5 million, as of 2007, AIDS orphans thus account for 24% of all orphans. Considering that in 1990 the proportion of AIDS orphans was only 1%, it's clear that the number of AIDS orphans has increased dramatically in a relatively short period of time.

Staff from PLAS's partner organization in Kenya provide information about AIDS. (Photo courtesy of PLAS)

To find out more about this situation, we contacted a student volunteer from an organization based in Tokyo called "AIDS Orphan Support NGO PLAS." Kaoru Hattori, 23, is working in Kenya.

She told us that AIDS orphans often become targets of prejudice or discrimination, eliciting fears that AIDS can be contracted by touching these children. In many cases, in contrast to other types of orphans, AIDS orphans lose out on the opportunity to go to school because their relatives force them to work.

One of the AIDS orphans Ms. Hattori works with is named Derrick. She first met him in 2006 when he was 7 years old. After his parents died and he was abandoned by relatives, residents in the area found him lying in the road. Today he lives with other orphans in a PLAS-sponsored school.

In Kenya, there are believed to be about 1.1 million AIDS orphans. The area where PLAS provides support--called Ukwala in Nyanza Province, western Kenya--has 7,000 AIDS orphans, more than a quarter of the entire population.

Still, in spite of this terrible situation, Ms. Hattori says that the children hold onto hopes and dreams. To her question about their dreams for the future, the children told her, their eyes bright, "I want to be a doctor" and "I want to be a teacher for orphans." (Nao Tatsugawa, 17)

Tragedy results from endless conflict

Rumiko Seya, 31, secretary general of the Japan Center for Conflict Prevention, explains that there are three major conflicts in Africa now: in Somalia, in Darfur in Sudan, and in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The source of these conflicts is a complicated mix of ethnic and tribal strife and disputes over rights and interests.

The situation in Somalia is particularly distressing. Since 1991, the country has been mired in civil war and anarchy with over 300,000 deaths in the first year alone.

When children are affected by conflict, they may grow weak from a shortage of food and fall ill due to this lack of physical strength. Conflict also deprives children of the chance to attend school since school buildings are often closed and the roads become dangerous to travel.

What's more, they are sometimes even threatened into becoming child soldiers, forced to take part in the fighting.

The competition for natural resources, like diamonds or petroleum, often triggers a conflict. When negotiations fail, leaders stir up ethnic resentments and goad their people to fight.

To resolve such conflicts, the leaders of both sides must be willing to talk and consent to a ceasefire. For example, in Sudan, where a confrontation between north and south was rooted in a dispute over petroleum, the United Nations and international agencies, including NGOs, stepped in to help resolve the conflict. The result was a peace accord which specified the distribution of resources and assured autonomy for each side.

Conflict resolution, Ms. Seya noted, also involves other important factors such as providing emergency relief to victims in the form of food, medicine, tents, and related necessities, collecting arms from soldiers, and selecting political leaders through fair elections. (Reika Konno, 14)