11 minute read
International
INTERNATIONAL
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KATHY KIM
Five years of civil war has left Yemen decimated since March 2015, where children have become the most vulnerable collateral damage in a war fought by adults. The onset of COVID-19 in Yemen means they face a pandemic with alarming shortages in clean water and soap, on top of existing epidemics of cholera and vaccine-preventable diseases.
UNICEF released a report in June describing Yemen as the “worst humanitarian crisis in the world”. Over 35 frontlines remain active across the country as violence persistently blights lives, leaving 12.3 million children in desperate need of humanitarian aid. A global pandemic is just one emergency layered upon the reality that Yemen’s health services are on the verge of collapse as 10.2 million children do not have access to basic healthcare and health workers are going unpaid for 3 years amidst a ravaged economy.
The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health revealed that more than 6,600 children under the age of five in Yemen could die over the next six months from preventable conditions such as diarrhea, respiratory tract infections and malnutrition, as COVID-19 weakens already fragile health systems and disrupts life-saving services.
UNICEF is currently the world’s largest development. humanitarian response program in Yemen, Dwyer argued that the solution is twowhere the very services keeping children fold. First, a longer-term peace resolution alive are facing an economic crisis. must be sought. In the meantime, urgent
Yemen suffered the world’s worst humanitarian programs need to be concholera outbreak in April 2017 with more tinued in the communities. than 2.39 million suspected cases and “We need every country in the world, over 3,795 deaths. The disease remains all of the global community, to make pervasive today, where a quarter of those sure that we continue to advocate for a affected are children under the age of five peaceful solution to the war in Yemen years old. and making sure that the experiences of
Vaccine-prevent- children are given able diseases such as the attention that diphtheria and mea- “Jabra is seven years old. She is they deserve,” Dwsles have resurged learning the correct way to wash her yer said. in waves over the hands. She is also learning about “While that past five years. Due Coronavirus. She is learning how to takes place, we to the coronavirus prevent the spread of Coronavirus, and need to be able to pandemic, current what to do if someone is infected with keep providing disruptions in global supply chains pose it.” [children] with the life-saving a threat to vital vac- assistance that’s cination campaigns, as much-needed vials keeping them alive. And for that, we may never reach the country. need funding.”
Plagued by one the world’s worst A global pandemic amidst a civil war food crises, 2 million children under the poses an emergency on top of an already age of five are malnourished, including dire situation in Yemen, where children life-threatening severe acute malnutrition. with devastating odds to survive have Chronic malnutrition has stunted 45% gone ignored for half a decade. What’s of children under the age of five, leaving left is the perfect storm as COVID-19 them too short for their age and with threatens to wipe out a vulnerable health irreparable damage to their cognitive system in a country where clean water and soap have been scarce for years. UNICEF spokesperson Harriet Dwyer reflected on how Yemen has long been a forgotten war in the political consciousness of world leaders and the wider global populace. “People really haven’t acknowledged the gravity of the situation there for many, many years, but we all have a responsibility to,” Dwyer said. “I know everyone is facing chaos and crisis in their own countries right now, but the scale of suffering there needs the world to pay attention.”
You can still give to the Yemen Appeal: https://www.unicef.org.au/ appeals/help-children-in-yemen.
World Vision Australia
The awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to the World Food Programme (WFP) is a greatly deserved acknowledgement of the organisation’s work to combat hunger and foster peace in the world’s most vulnerable communities. The accolade also highlights the Herculean task for aid organisations currently combatting hunger and malnutrition fuelled by the COVID-19 pandemic that is ravaging livelihoods worldwide. World Vision Australia acting CEO Graham Strong said as a partner of the WFP for 30 years – and its largest implementing partner for the past 16 years – World Vision was delighted by such a highly respected recognition of the WFP’s work. “We partner with the WFP in many of the world’s toughest places, where the meal children receive through our school feeding programme is often their only source of nutrition,” Mr Strong said.
Refugee Council of Australia A coalition of refugee organisations has condemned the federal government’s decision to slash support to people seeking asylum in the 2020-21 Budget. This decision, they say, puts over 100 000 people, including around 16 000 children, at further risk of homelessness and destitution. The organisations, which represent a coalition of over 200 others, have been running the Nobody Left Behind campaign since May this year. The campaign has repeatedly called for ongoing support to be provided to 100,000 people seeking asylum who have been left without lifelines during the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent economic fallout. The Budget, however, not only failed to
“Hunger robs children of their potential, gnaws away at hope, plunges millions into an uncertain future and can also fuel conflict in vulnerable communities.
“But working alongside the WFP, I’ve seen children’s lives transformed with more energetic, happier students, better results and a chance to succeed in life.”
Mr Strong said he hoped the award would shine a light on the growing task of combatting hunger as the COVID crisis cruels family incomes and complicates the logistics of food supply.
“Earlier this year the WFP warned the number of people facing acute food insecurity was likely to double from 135 million to 265 million in 2020, due mostly to COVID-19 which has compounded the impact of conflicts, poverty and climate-related shocks.
“If governments of advanced economies and the world’s mega-wealthy – many of whom have prospered under COVID – do provide support during this time of crisis, but halved the existing amount allocated for support for this group. This indicates that more people will be excluded from support and left without a safety net over the coming 12 months. The Federal Government’s recent decision to release people brought to Australia for medical care into the community, cutting them off from support in the process, is an indication of this, already increasing this cohort by 500 people. They are now expected to find work in the middle of a recession, despite many having ongoing serious health issues, a lack of professional networks and/or a low level of English, having been denied access to English language programs. People seeking asylum are ineligible for JobSeeker and JobKeeper and many were not act quickly and substantially, it will take organisations like ours decades, not years, to help these people recover.”
BACKGROUND
Between October 1, 2018 and September 30, 2019 alone, the WFP-World Vision partnership reached 10.7 million of the world’s most vulnerable, across 29 countries. More than 50 per cent of beneficiaries were children. Of the WFP’s support, 70 per cent was used to improve the lives of children and their families in the top 10
fragile contexts where World Vision works. World Vision CEO welcomes Del Irani as Goodwill Ambassador
World Vision Acting CEO, Graham Strong, welcomed award-winning journalist and presenter, Del Irani, as the organisation’s newest goodwill ambassador in October. “We’re excited to announce that Del Irani will be working with us to raise awareness of our work with children in some of the world’s most dangerous and hard-to-reach places,” Mr Strong said. “Del Irani’s background and insights make her an ideal global champion for our work, shining a light on the work that our teams do in working alongside local communities. Her public profile is also a wonderful platform to give a voice to the forgotten, ignored, marginalised and disadvantaged members of our global society.” Ms Irani was born in India and regularly visits her home. She is eager to use her storytelling skills to empower women and children to break the cycle of poverty. “My ultimate goal as Goodwill Ambassador is to inform, educate and empower people to participate in the global projects by World Vision Australia,” Ms Irani said. “Ms Irani’s relationship with World Vision began by participating in initiatives like the 40-hour famine.” cut off from the SRSS payment when the government changed the eligibility criteria in 2018. Thousands have lost work since the start of the pandemic, particularly given they are largely employed on temporary and casual contracts in heavily impacted industries, such as hospitality. Excluded from most federal government support, many have relied on charities and others in their community to eat and pay the rent. Crucially, many have only been able to maintain property rentals thanks to state and territory moratoriums on rental evictions, which have recently ended in most of Australia. Service providers across the country have reported at least a 300% increase in the need for emergency food and rental relief for people seeking asylum since the pandemic began. This demand has only inCable internet brings both opportunities and risks to millions of children and young people in the Pacific, new report reveals ChildFund Australia
ChildFund Australia, Plan Inter- tion, grooming and cyber-bullying in the national Australia and the Young Pacific. Now is the time to act, to invest in & Resilient Research Centre of the protective frameworks and programs Western Sydney University that will prevent children and young people released a ground-breaking new report in from being harmed online. October that shows how the rollout of cable “The levels of violence and abuse against internet systems across the Pacific opens up children, and in particular women and girls, unprecedented learning opportunities for are already disproportionately high in the children but also exposes them to new risks Pacific Islands. Without proper investment of harm. and planning, it could be exacerbated by The organisations have joined forces increased uptake of digital technologies,” to launch the Online Safety in the Pacific she said. report, in order to fill the research gap This research will inform ChildFund and map the challenges and opportunities Australia and Plan International Australia’s the onset of new cable internet technolo- child protection work across the region into gy presents for children in the Solomon the future. It will build on existing programs Islands, Kiribati and Papua New that increase the self-protective beGuinea. haviours of children, equip parents Among the children sur- to be partners in online safety and veyed for the report, 77% said provide governments with tools the risk of accessing inappro- required to prevent and respond priate content such as horror to online abuse and exploitation. movies and pornography, was “The opportunities that contheir greatest fear, followed nectivity provides are paramount by cyber-bullying (38%), while for children and young people across parents and carers identified a lack of the Pacific. However, we must be vigilant control over what children were accessing in taking adequate measures to keep them as their greatest fear. safe. A single response will not combat the Participants in the study generally far-reaching risks and impacts of the online believe girls are more at risk than boys to world. A whole of community approach, online abuse and less capable of managing which empowers children and their families risk, leading to girls’ access to online spaces to safety navigate the online world is crubeing limited by their parents. cial,” Margaret Sheehan, CEO of ChildFund “The Pacific is home to some of the International, said. highest rates of sexual and physical violence ChildFund Australia and against women and girls anywhere in the Plan International Australia consider this world and this is now being reflected in the work as urgent given the convergence of the online space. These fears are also limit- onset of the COVID-19 and the arrival of ing girls’ access to online opportunities,” cable internet across the Pacific. Susanne Legena, CEO of Plan International Australia, said. “As Australia invests in the Coral Sea Cable to promote greater internet connectivity it must also invest in combatting the
growing risk of online child sexual exploitacreased as time has passed. Even in states which have maintained a low level of virus transmission, the demand has continued to grow as people have been unable to regain former employment, with charities unable to sustain the level of need. Emergency relief committed by state and federal governments falls short of providing people with the support needed to pay for rent and food until the crisis passes. A recent report predicted that almost 19,000 refugees and people seeking asylum would lose their jobs in the course of the economic downturn, and that unemployment in this cohort would double. The report predicted that as a result, 14,000 people seeking asylum would become homeless. The report outlines significant social and economic costs for the country as a result, including a potential bill of $200 million/year for state governments. With fresh cuts announced last month, the number of people affected will only increase. INTERNATIONAL Paul Power, CEO of the Refugee Council, said: “Australia is at risk of an impending homelessness crisis, which the Federal Government has failed to prevent. Since the pandemic hit, we – and many others – have repeatedly warned our political leaders of the impact that this is having on refugees and people seeking asylum.”
