Everyday one child falls prey to landmine and UXOs in Afghanistan, mine clearing agencies estimate.

The government of Afghanistan and the UN Mine Action Center for Afghanistan (UNMACA) have launched an awareness campaign to educate more than six million schoolchildren countrywide about the risks of landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO), the Ministry of Education (MoE) and UN said.
The country is replete with landmines and UXO, which kill and injure about 60 people, almost half of them children, every month, according to UNMACA, IRIN reported.
On 10 November, 125 trainers from 34 Afghan provinces started a three-day course in Kabul, the capital, covering a new educational method designed to boost public awareness, particularly schoolchildren’s knowledge, about landmines and other risky unexploded devices.
“These 125 trainers will train teachers in their respective provinces across the country who will then share their lessons with other teachers and finally teachers will teach students in classrooms,“ said Ahmad Jan Nawzadi, a UNMACA public information officer in Kabul.
Officials expect that by the end of 2008 all schoolchildren in the country will have basic awareness about the risks of landmines and UXO. More than 17 million Afghans have been educated about landmines and UXO hazards in the past two decades, mine clearing agencies say.
However, children and returning refugees are considered particularly vulnerable to the risks. “We plan to include landmine awareness as a temporary element of our national educational curriculum,“ Siddiq Patman, deputy minister for the MoE told IRIN.
“We want to make sure every child in Afghanistan at least knows what landmines are, where they can be found, what they look like and how they can be avoided,“ Patman added.
Afghanistan has one of the highest landmine casualty figures in the world, according to mine clearance agencies, although the overall number of landmine victims has seen a marked reduction as the country makes steady progress towards its commitment for a landmine-free status by 2013.
About 70,000 Afghans have either been killed or disabled by landmines in the past two decades, UNMACA’s statistics show.

Downstairs at the village school there is one class for “whites“, upstairs a separate class for “blacks“. The two never mingle, the apartheid is entrenched. The parents or the buses collecting the infants from school are instructed to come at different times to solidify the racial separation.
The scene is not from the American deep south of 40 years ago or from South Africa 20 years ago, but from contemporary Europe, from an EU member state where racism, segregation and discrimination are outlawed but practiced systematically nonetheless, said Guardian.co.uk.
The “blacks“ are the Roma children from Europe’s biggest and most persecuted minority, the place is eastern Slovakia, home to one of the densest concentrations of Roma or Gypsy communities in Europe. The educational plight of the Roma children in Slovakia and across central Europe is little short of disastrous.
“If I open a Roma class, I will lose all the white children. They are not clean enough, nor do I have space for them,“ a head teacher told Amnesty International in a report on the persistence of schooling apartheid. “I don’t think you would let your child go to a Roma class if you lived here as your child would have everything stolen.“
In a landmark ruling last week, the European court of human rights in Strasbourg found the Czech Republic guilty of racism and discrimination against the Roma minority for dumping the children in “special schools“ for those with learning difficulties, and segregating classes between Roma and Czechs.
It was the first time an EU member state had been found in breach of the European convention on human rights because of educational discrimination against the Roma. The ruling is being closely watched for its impact across central and south-eastern Europe, where the vast majority of Europe’s estimated 8 million Roma live.
But studies from Amnesty International and the philanthropist George Soros’s Open Society Institute (OSI) confirm that similar discrimination is rampant in Slovakia. “Segregation happens in two ways,“ said Amnesty. “Huge numbers of Roma continue to be segregated into Roma-only schools and classes. Many are also inappropriately placed in ’special schools’ for children with physical and mental disabilities ... As many as 80 percent of children placed in special schools in Slovakia are Roma.“

New research suggests a stressful family environment may lead to young girls hitting puberty earlier.
The study from researchers at the University of Arizona and the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that young girls who came from families that were more supportive and had less marital conflict tended to hit puberty later than their counterparts in less supportive family environments, reported CTV.ca.
The researchers sought to test a theory proposed by researcher Jay Belsky, a child development expert at the University of London. According to Belsky’s theory, children’s early experiences affect how they mature, with certain family life stressors creating conditions that speed puberty.
These stressors include marital conflict, negativity and coercion in parent-child relationships, and lack of support between parents and children. According to the theory, children adaptively adjust their sexual development in response to the conditions in which they live.
To test this theory, the US researchers examined the families of 227 preschool children. Specifically, they looked at the families’ socioeconomic conditions, marital conflict, parental depression, and supportive versus coercive parenting, through interviews with both mothers and fathers.
The study then followed the children through middle school, testing for the first hormonal changes of puberty--the awakening of the adrenal glands--in 120 of the children (73 or whom were girls) when they were in Grade 1. They then tested for the development of secondary sexual characteristics in 180 girls when they were in Grade 5.
They found that children living in families with greater parental supportiveness, and less marital conflict and depression (reported by fathers only) experienced the first hormonal changes of puberty later than other children.
In addition, children whose mothers had started puberty later (a genetic factor), whose families were better off when the children were in preschool, whose moms gave them more support when they were in preschool, and who had lower Body Mass Index (BMI) when they were in Grade 3 developed secondary sexual characteristics later than their peers.
“Quality of parental investment emerged as a central feature of the proximal family environment in relation to the timing of puberty,“ according to lead author Bruce J. Ellis, associate professor of family studies and human development at the University of Arizona.
Ellis says the findings hint at an interesting evolutionary link between sexual maturation and stress. He says children who grow up in environments that are dangerous and unpredictable tend to grow up faster.
“In the world in which humans evolved, danger and uncertainty meant a shorter lifespan, and going into puberty earlier in this context increased chances of surviving, reproducing and passing on your genes,“ he explained to ABC News.
Ellis says it is still too early to make solid conclusions based on the evidence. But he notes the findings are significant because early puberty in girls has been found to negatively affect these teenagers’ health in areas such as mood disorders, substance abuse, and cancers of the reproductive system.

Kart racers in a competition in Tehran last Friday.

A major government survey has revealed widespread under age drinking and drug abuse among schoolchildren in UK.
At least one in seven secondary school pupils has tried illegal drugs while a fifth of 10 to 15-year-olds regularly get drunk, according to the Ofsted study.
Researchers questioned more than 100,000 pupils across England and found the biggest worry for most children was their exams. Ofsted’s chief inspector of education Christine Gilbert urged ministers and schools to “look hard“ at the findings, reported The Press Association.
“The survey presents much that is positive about life for children and young people today,“ she said. “However, it is also clear that more needs to be done to address children and young people’s worries and concerns about how safe they feel, exams and tests, and what would help them learn better.“
Ipsos Mori questioned 111,000 children in years six, eight and 10 at school for the “TellUs2“ survey. The research was conducted for Ofsted and the Department for Children, Schools and Families, and the results will form the basis for inspections and government targets.
Among the key findings researchers found that 15 percent of children aged between 12 and 15 said they had experimented with illegal drugs, most often cannabis, but also heroin, cocaine, LSD and ecstasy.
Nearly half of 10 to 15-year-olds (48 percent) said they had consumed alcoholic drinks, with one in five claiming to have been drunk at least once in the past four weeks, while one in six 14 and 15-year-olds admitted to getting drunk at least three times in the previous four weeks.
The survey also revealed that children have mixed views about the quality of their own education. The vast majority--79 percent called for more fun and interesting lessons.
Four out of 10 pupils said they wanted quieter and better-behaved classmates and many were stressed about their schoolwork.

A game designed to teach children how to stay away from sexual predators and other dangers lurking on the Internet was unveiled at a UN forum in Rio de Janeiro that addressed cybercrime.
The Wild Web Woods uses familiar fairy tales to guide children through a maze of potential dangers, so they can safely reach the magnificent “e-city.“
The game, designed for children aged seven to 10, was launched by the Council of Europe at the UN Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Rio de Janeiro. It is available on the Internet in English, with 12 other European languages to follow, reported AFP.
The 47-nation council said the game is a key step in its efforts “to curb grooming of children by abusers through the Internet.“
“Internet is a major concern in relation to the sexual exploitation and sexual abuse of children,“ said the council, echoing the feelings of many of the 1,700 participants at the November 12-15 gathering in Rio.
Council of Europe Deputy Secretary General Maud de Boer-Buquicchio stressed children represent one of the main categories of Internet users.
“The Internet empowers them, but it also creates new threats to their safety. Sexual exploitation of children is, of course, one of such threats,“ she told delegates from about 100 countries.

China has 18 million more men of marriageable age than women, the result of sex-selective abortions in a country that has traditionally placed more value on boys.
China has about 119 boys born for every 100 girls, but that figure rises to about 122 in rural areas, Xinhua news agency quoted Zhang Weiqing, director of the National Population and Family Planning Commission, as saying.
Ultrasound checks to determine the sex of babies are illegal in China but many expectant parents pay for the service, a habit Zhang said the government would continue to crack down on.
China has also warned that the gender imbalance--the surplus of men is forecast to swell to 30 million by 2020--could raise the risks of anti-social and violent behavior among men who cannot find wives, contributing to instability.

Pediatricians are urging governments in Asia to bolster national immunization programs with vaccines against the rotavirus, the most common cause of severe diarrhea in young children.
Rotavirus kills about 611,000 children worldwide a year, or a child every minute. Africa and Asia account for 90 percent of these deaths, with more than 180,000 occurring in Asia, reported Reuters.
Experts said the high costs of rotavirus vaccines (US$50 for each of 3 doses) should not be an obstacle.
“In Mexico and Chile, they decided it would be cost effective (to have all children vaccinated against rotavirus) and data show a decrease in mortality and morbidity,“ said Usa Thisyakorn, president of the Pediatric Society in Thailand.
The World Health Organization said it recommended the inclusion of rotavirus vaccination into national immunization programs in places where its efficacy has been proven, but it gave a word of caution.
“To date, the clinical efficacy of rotavirus vaccines has been demonstrated mainly in the United States, Europe and Latin America. Experience with several other oral vaccines has demonstrated that in terms of vaccine safety and efficacy, considerable regional differences may exist,“ it said.
“Clinical trials are currently ongoing in Africa and Asia, where rotavirus disease burden is very high and where the need for more data on vaccine efficacy is particularly urgent.“
The Global Alliance for Vaccine and Immunization (GAVI) has funded the use of rotavirus vaccines in some countries in Europe and Latin America with a gross national income of under US$1,000 per capita.
“To further expand new vaccine use in other countries such as Philippines not currently covered by GAVI, other donors and foundations should also come forward,“ the WHO said.
Rotavirus affects nearly all children before they turn 5 and 70 percent are 11 months old or younger.