Kids2day! Campaigns To Help Eradicate Violence Against Women and Children

Kids2day! is supportive of and a participant in the 16 days of activism against violence against women and children.

As part of the advocacy, we are posting pictures from prior events that sought to send the same message.



Observing 16 Days of Activism Against Violence Against Women and Children

Also as part of this observance, Kids2day! is drawing attention to these points posted by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA):
http://www.unfpa.org/public/News/events/16days/

16 Forms of Gender Violence & 16 Ways to Stop It
Violence against women takes many forms: sexual assault, child marriage, incest, wife beating, prostitution, female genital mutilation, dowry-related violence, trafficking, sexual violence during wars, femicide, sexual harrassment, 'honour' killings, forced sterilization, date rape, pornography and bride kidnapping. Violence against women may also take many forms of psychological abuse, intimidation and harassment.

All are unacceptable violations of human rights. Together they form a huge obstacle to gender equality and genuine human progress.

Each year, for 16 days, bookended by the International Day to End Violence Against Women (25 November) and Human Rights Day (1 December), groups from around the world join together to speak out against gender violence. Because all too often, it is covered up or tacitly condoned.

This year's theme is one of empowerment: Commit. Act. Demand. We CAN End Violence Against Women. It reflects the fact that gender violence is increasingly being recognized as a stain on humanity and something that must and can be dealt with.

Sixteen Ways UNFPA Works to End Gender Violence
1. Uniting against the problem

Through the Secretary-General’s UNiTE to End Violence against Women campaign, UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, works with a host of United Nations agencies and offices to galvanize action across the United Nations system to prevent and punish violence against women. See also the statement of the Executive Director of UNFPA.

2. Generating empowering conversations about the issue

UNFPA provides a social media space where people can bring their experiences, research and insights to the question, “How can we overcome this pervasive violation of human rights?”

3. Documenting successful approaches

Gender-based violence is a deeply rooted problem that demands strategic, comprehensive and culturally sensitive approaches. In ten countries, UNFPA has applied such approaches and documented the experiences for development practitioners as well as other interested parties. See the multi-media exhibit. See also these new case studies.

4. Presenting positive images of men as role models

Any successful effort to end violence against women must involve the men who commit or tacitly condone it. A new photo exhibit commissioned by UNFPA shows men as positive role models at home, in the community and in the workplace.

5. Using the power of popular culture to prevent couple violence

The Chilean band Kudai, hugely popular with Latin American youth, has teamed up with UNFPA to spread the message that hurting your partner is decidedly not cool.

6. Calling attention to sexual violence as an instrument of war

Congo/Women, an international photography exhibition and educational campaign, compels viewers to acknowledge and respond to the suffering endured by women and girls in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and to recognize the human faces behind it. See also this documentary.

7. Partnering with men to end violence against women

A new publication features five case studies from Eastern Europe and Central Asia of programming that has been successful in changing men’s attitudes. A global forum in Rio de Janeiro sought to redefine ideas of masculinity that permit gender violence, and the city’s programming is experimenting with therapeutic approaches. See also this roundup of ongoing activities to partner with men in the Asia and Pacific region.

8. Speaking out against female genital mutilation/cutting


Over 100 million women have been subjected to female genital mutilation/cutting, a practice that still puts up to 3 million additional girls at risk each year. UNFPA, in partnership with UNICEF, has launched a $44-million programme to end this harmful traditional practice within a generation. Read about UNFPA's holistic approach to the issue.

9. Addressing the needs of women in refugee camp

Refugee camps are intended to be safe havens – but displaced women often face many forms of gender-based violence. UNFPA is part of an interagency team that sends gender advisers to humanitarian settings to ensure that women’s needs are being addressed. The Fund has also partnered on an interagency field manual that includes guidelines for addressing sexual and gender-based violence in refugee camps.mps

10. Highlighting the injustice of child marriage and too-early pregnancy

Child marriage is a health issue as well as a human rights violation. Because it takes place almost exclusively within the context of poverty and gender inequality, it also has social, cultural and economic dimensions, including high rates of maternal mortality and injury. See the award-winning video about child marriage in Ethiopia and read about the consequences of adolescent pregnancy.

11. Partnering with others to end sexual violence against girls

UNFPA has partnered with many organizations through the Clinton Global Initiative to take a new approach in addressing the rights violations and health impacts of sexual violence against girls. According to the World Health Organization, in 2002 approximately 150 million girls experienced some form of sexual violence.

12. Working with religious leaders to end tolerance for gender-based violence

UNFPA values the influence of religious leaders in preventing violence within families and reducing maternal mortality.The Fund works hard to build bridges between faith-based practitioners and development practitioners.

13. Publicizing the issue of acid burning and other unusual forms of gender violence

Every day, women are subjected to violence in many forms, such as acid attacks. Last year, the Fund publicized five stories that the global media might have ignored, under-played or simply been unaware of. Read the news release and related features from the Russian Federation and Tajikistan.

14. Offering alternatives to ‘survival sex'

In the capital of Haiti, which is plagued by political and social unrest, 11- and 12-year-old girls trade sexual favours for spending-money. A drop-in centre offers them other options. Read the feature story.

15. Calling attention to a new form of slavery

UNFPA works closely with governments to address the ever-widening threat posed by human trafficking and supports women and girls in their recovery and return home.

16. Assisting survivors of domestic violence

Most violence against women occurs in the home. But women often stay with abusive partners because they have no other place to go. UNFPA-supported shelters offer an alternative. Read the feature story, view a related video and learn more about programming approaches to the issue.

Saving the Children like How? ... From Daily Observer

A damaging report put out this week by Save the Children, an international charity organization which concerns itself about the rights of the child, has indicted orphanages in Africa as fraudulent organizations set up to exploit and abuse little children, instead of providing them with the necessities of life they lack as orphans.

The report notes that some institutions coerce or trick poor parents to give up their children. Millions of children are put at risk through living in an institution, and face rape, trafficking and beatings.

The report goes on to name Liberia as one of the African nations where orphanages have become a big business, citing that in the last two years the number of orphanages has doubled.

The author of the report writes that “it is a myth that children in orphanages have no parents. Most are there because their parents simply can’t afford to feed, clothe and educate them.”

We are in partial agreement with the findings of Save the Children report. This is one of the legacies of the 14-year civil war started by Charles Taylor, who promised Liberians a better life but in the end created a generation of former child soldiers, wayward children and teenage mothers. These orphanages became necessary to save abandoned children and were not intended for exploitative purposes.

However, child traffickers found Liberia to be a major shopping ground for their exploitative aims as a consequence of the war. They came and fell in league with institutions here, making glowing promises of taking the children away for adoption in America. This has created a national scandal. The Government of Liberia eventually stepped in and placed a ban on adoption by foreigners.

It is a historical shame that the people on the other side of the Atlantic continue to make this part of West Africa a shopping mall for their nefarious game in human trafficking. The report says children have become “commodities” in a growing industry and that “unscrupulous institutions are known to recruit children in order to profit from international adoption and child trafficking.” This is condemnable.

Orphanages are new in Liberia. Therefore Save the Children ought to have offered help to the government in the form of strict monitoring of the children’s institutions. They ought to have offered more aid and assistance in training, etc. Now that they have packed up and left, they want to decry the lame efforts of those here engaging in the public exercise. We are not unaware of those who are profiting in this international child trafficking business. They will be dealt with.

The author of the report notes that “most recently,” she has seen children living in “atrocious” conditions in Liberia, where the number of orphanages has multiplied tenfold in the past 10 years.

She cites cases of numerous children sharing a single bed, of 30 children sleeping in a flooded dormitory, and still others being forced to work in the orphanage instead of going to school. Some homes host children and their families. This is one reason why the government is stressing Poverty Reduction Strategy. And with the help of conscientious officials in government, the strategy will succeed.

These are revelations to which, we hope, the Liberian Government will pay keen attention and tie them to the Poverty Reduction Strategy by regulating and improving our orphanages.

Copyright Liberian Observer - All Rights Reserved. This article cannot be re-published without the expressed, written consent of the Liberian Observer. Please contact us for more information or to request publishing permission.
Publication Date: November 25, 2009 - 9:41am

Pictures from Children Day

Participants in Bo.

Children Day Activities in Pictures

Participants at the observance at Bo Waterside.

Kids club member performing an activity in Tienii

Children Day Pictures

Kids doing a skit on Children Rights and Responsibilities at the International Children Day celebration in Tienii

Kids2day! Host Children Day Events in Cape Mount

November 21, 2009: Several Children Clubs under the auspices of the children development organization, Kids2day! have participated in events marking International Children’s Day in Bo and Tienii, Grand Cape Mount County.

The anniversary was held on Saturday, November 21, as students in the region were scheduled to sit school exams on the actual day of November 20.

International Children's Day, held in observance of the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC), was held to express the progress that have been made in the situation of children across the globe.

The Kids2day! observances included lots of games and play, led by children from various Children Clubs in Bo, Gbesseh, Mambo, Tienii, Wuilor and Ngandohn.

At separate events in Bo and Tienii, children showed out dramas and skits which pointed out their understanding of the convention and the issues related to them.

Speaking at the separate events, the Chairman of Kids2day! Abdullai Kamara, called on the communities to recognize the talents shown by the children, and work with them in making the communities better for all.

"If we work with these children now, we will be making them better for their future , and helping to make this world better for all."

Mr. Kamara added that as the future leaders, children's voices and concerns need to be considered now, so that they can learn their self worth, and participate in national decision making.

The Kids2day! chair also encouraged the children to truly understand the lessons of rights and responsibilities they have learned from the convention and practice them in their daily lives.

Some 200 children participated in the events at both locations, and the events were witnessed by community leaders from both towns.

The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1989 as a measure of ensuring that the child should be fully prepared to live in society, and brought up in the spirit of the ideals proclaimed in the Charter of the United Nations, especially in the spirit of peace, dignity, tolerance, freedom, equality and solidarity.

Among other things, the CRC lives up to basic Principles, which state among others that "all children have the same rights and are of equal worth; Every child has the right to have his or her basic needs fulfilled; Every child has the right to protection from abuse and exploitation; and Every child has the right to express his or her opinion and to be respected."