FSU College of Law Research Center Blog

The LRA and the "Night Commuters"

                                                                                                                                                     

During the course of the 20-year conflict in Northern Uganda, over 30,000 children have been brutally tortured and forced into years of servitude as child soldiers and sexual slaves.  The rebel  Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) abducts children from their villages and controls them by forcing them to watch and participate in the killing of family members and other children, usually those who've attempted escape.  They  must kill or be killed themselves.  In an attempt to elude capture by the LRA, every night thousands of children walk miles to crude shelters established in larger towns.  These night commuters are protected by volunteers overnight -- then at daybreak return to their home villages. "When the Sun Sets, We Start to Worry," a Web Special publication by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, gives a voice to the young victims of this horrific abuse, as does this Human Rights Watch report and photo essay.

UNICEF is sponsoring night shelters in the towns of Gulu and Lira, and WorldVision has established the "Gulu Children of War Center" to nurture and rehabilitate children severely traumatized by their experiences.  Follow the links to support these efforts, and add your voice to the declaration that "Children Should Never Be
Soldiers."

Posted by Patricia Bingham-Harper

Saving Newborn Lives

Each year, 4 million babies die before they are a month old.  To help stem this global heartbreak, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has donated 60 million dollars to Save the Children's "Saving Newborn Lives" initiative.  This money will enable the program's expansion into 18 African and Asian countries, bringing midwifery, treatment for infections, vaccines, and education about infant care and nutrition to mothers and their babies.  Visit the Save the Children Website http://www.savethechildren.org/news/releases/release_120205.asp to read about the work that's being done to help women and children around the world.

Posted by Patricia Bingham-Harper

Doctors Without Borders

  Voices from the field:  a surgical nurse setting up a trauma center in Haiti;  an American doctor fighting to save severely malnourished children in Niger;  a nurse from Colorado providing support to survivors of sexual violence in Liberia;  a Somali pharmacist reflecting on the changes war has brought to daily life in Mogadishu;  an Australian midwife teaching HIV/AIDS prevention in Uganda;  a trauma surgeon from New York describing the horror of Congolese children with machete and gunshot wounds.

These are the voices of volunteers with "Doctors Without Borders," a non-governmental, non-sectarian humanitarian organization that provides emergency aid to people affected by war, epidemics, and natural or man-made disasters.  Workers from around the world run hospitals, vaccination clinics, and feeding centers.  Click www.doctorswithoutborders.org to read their stories, and find out how you can use your voice to help suffering people.

                                                                            Posted by Patricia Bingham-Harper

State of the World's Mothers 2005

Mothers are the first teachers of the next generation, yet in many developing countries there are barriers to the education of the young girls who will become those mothers.  Poverty, cultural norms and religious customs can discourage girls from learning the role education can play in breaking the cycles of poverty, malnutrition and disease.  "Save the Children,"  one of the world's premier humanitarian organizations, has issued the 6th annual "State of the World's Mothers,"  a report that this year focuses on "The Power and Promise of Girls' Education."  For an overview of the report, see http://www.savethechildren.org/news/releases/release_050305.asp?stationpub=i_hpos_050305&ArticleID=&NewsID=  From there you can follow further links to download the entire report, and find out more about "Save the Children's" global education programs.

Posted by Patricia Bingham-Harper