- Make children the cornerstone of urban decision-making, urges Unicef, By Mark Tran, February 28, 2012, The Guardian: “Unicef has urged governments to put children at the heart of urban planning – and to improve services for all – since the majority of the world’s children will grow up in towns or cities rather than in rural areas. In its report, The State of the World’s Children 2012: Children in an Urban World, the UN agency said hundreds of millions of children who live in urban slums are being excluded from vital services, from clean water to education…”
- Split between rich and poor greater in cities, UNICEF reports, By Leslie Scrivener, February 28, 2012, Toronto Star: “Five-year-old Kiara appears well cared for – nicely dressed, well-fed and loved. Her hair shines. But she has worked with her family since she was three, selling trinkets in the subway trains of Buenos Aires. There have been mishaps: she has fallen onto the train tracks while playing, and last year she broke her arm in a train door. Almost half the world’s children live in cities. Their families are lured from their rural homes, hoping to find jobs for themselves and education for their children. It doesn’t always work out that way. ‘It’s heartbreaking for parents,’ says David Morley, president and CEO of UNICEF Canada. ‘They don’t want their children working on the street. They wish they had enough.’ In its annual report, released on Tuesday, UNICEF explores the struggles faced by families raising their offspring in the world’s slums, where one in three city-dwellers now live…”
- World’s slum children in desperate need, UNICEF says, By Robyn Dixon, February 28, 2012, Los Angeles Times: “You see them, night and day, in nearly every African city. They are ragged children dodging between the cars: beggars, shoeshine boys, teenage prostitutes, petty traders and porters carrying loads on their heads with thin, pinched faces and anxious eyes. They tap on car windows, begging, and wait by the highway desperate to sell their goods. Around half the people in the world live in cities and towns, a billion of them children, as the urban population spirals. Millions of children live in slums and shantytowns and they’re dying of the same illnesses that kill the rural poor, according to UNICEF: hunger, diarrhea and disease caused by poor sanitation and overcrowding…”
Month: February 2012
Teen Pregnancy – England
- Teen pregnancy rate lowest since 1969, By Michelle Roberts, February 28, 2012, BBC News: “The teen pregnancy rate in England and Wales has reached its lowest since 1969, new data shows. Figures from the Office for National Statistics show conceptions in under-18s fell to 34,633 in 2010 compared with 38,259 in 2009, a drop of 9.5%. Pregnancies in under-16s also went down – by 6.8% to 6,674 in total from 7,158 the previous year…”
- Teen pregnancies at lowest level since 1960s, By Stephen Adams, February 28, 2012, The Telegraph: “The teenage pregnancy rate has fallen to its lowest level since the 1960s, according to official figures released on Tuesday. The rate for girls aged 15 to 17 in 2010 – the most recent period for which figures are available – was 35.5 per 1,000 – the lowest since 1969. The number of pregnancies in under 18s fell almost 10 per cent between 2009 and 2010, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Family planning organisations claim the drop is due to better sex education…”
Drug Testing and Assistance Programs
Plans to drug test welfare recipients get momentum, By Ben Neary and Ivan Moreno (AP), February 26, 2012, Deseret News: “Conservatives who say welfare recipients should have to pass a drug test to receive government assistance have momentum on their side. The issue has come up in the Republican presidential campaign, with front-runner Mitt Romney saying it’s an ‘excellent idea.’ Nearly two dozen states are considering plans this session that would make drug testing mandatory for welfare recipients, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. And Wyoming lawmakers advanced such a proposal this week. Driving the measures is a perception that people on public assistance are misusing the funds and that cutting off their benefits would save money for tight state budgets – even as statistics have largely proved both notions untrue…”