ORPHAN and CHILDREN NEWS

Not even a year has elapsed since Vincent Mai made his commitment to Ubuntu Education Fund at the 2006 Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting, and it is making a resounding difference in the lives of the orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) of Port Elizabeth, South Africa.

The numbers are remarkable and telling: Ubuntu has reached 111 OVC and families and created five nodes of care support schools since last September. But the impact of Mai’s commitment is most evident in the fact that now thanks to the assistance of Ubuntu, 17 year-old Ntombizethu Ngceza — who goes by the name of Zethu (see picture)-- is making her own commitment.

Zethu is an orphan—she lost both parents to HIV/AIDS. Since her parent’s death, Zethu has become mother and father, raising her two siblings. With the help provided by Ubuntu Education Fund, Zethu’s life has been turned around. Thanks to the support provided to her, Zethu was inspired to join the ranks of some of the most powerful and influential people in the world by making a CGI commitment.

Zethu's commitment is: to spread the spirit of Ubuntu to orphaned girls who are younger than me by creating a support group of ten girls to discuss the issues that they are facing and to help them cope, and then meeting with one of Ubuntu's counselors after each support group meeting.

Zethu’s commitment shows the true potential of CGI to catalyze a chain of commitments to better our world. What will your commitment be? Visit CGI’s personal commitments site to make your own commitment.

The government of Eritrea has abolished the arcane custom of female circumcision, describing it as threatening the lives of women. "Female circumcision is a procedure that seriously endangers the health of women, causes them considerable pain and suffering besides threatening their lives," the government proclamation said.

Anyone who requests, incites, promotes or witnesses female circumcision is subject to a fine and imprisonment, Eritrea's Information Ministry said. The ban was imposed on March 31.

With age-old cultural roots, female circumcision, or genital mutilation as it is known, is practised today in parts of sub-Saharan Africa and Egypt and other parts of the Arab world such as Yemen and Oman. The mutilation usually involves removal of the clitoris. Those who practice it believe it tames a girl's sexual desires, maintains her honor and increases her marriageability. It is practiced by both Muslims and Christians. The U.N. estimates up to 130 million women worldwide have undergone circumcision.

Knives, razors or even sharp stones are usually used, according to the U.N. The tools often are not sterilized, and often, many girls are circumcised at the same ceremony, leading to infection. It is unknown how many girls have died from the procedure, either during the cutting or from infections, or years later in childbirth.

Rural Chinese children increasingly risk being sold or forced to become beggars, petty thieves or sex workers as their farmer parents flock to cities looking for work, an international rights group said. China has a thriving black market in girls and women who are sold as brides, as well as babies who are abducted or bought from poor families for sale to childless couples or those who have one child and want more.

The government says that it has cracked down harshly on such cases, and that the trend is decreasing.

[Photo: Police officers hold two week old babies, while investigating two suspected baby traffickers, at right, in a police station in Zhuzhou in central China's Hunan province. The two women, a mother and daughter-in-law, were caught on a train to Hebei, and admitted buying the babies for a total of 7800 Yuan (US$1,006.) from a woman in Haikou, on southern Hainan Island. The two had arranged to sell the babies for 10,000 yuan (US$1,290) to an infertile couple in Hebei province, but were caught by railway police on their journey to Hebei. Rural Chinese children increasingly risk being sold or forced to become beggars, petty thieves or sex workers as their farmer parents flock to cities looking for work.]

But Kate Wedgwood, Save the Children's country director for China and North Korea, said there are no reliable figures for the number of children being trafficked and the continued mass migration from farms to cities is sure to make the problem worse. "We already know the risks (of child trafficking) are exacerbated by migration, so I think the likelihood is that it will increase," she said.

In recent years, an estimated 150 million to 200 million people have moved from the countryside to urban areas where their labor in factories and on construction sites has fueled China's breakneck economic growth. Several hundred million more are expected to leave China's vast rural hinterland over the next 15 to 20 years.

Poor rural children from ethnic communities are the most at risk because they have limited command of Mandarin Chinese and often don't know their rights, Wedgwood said. Disabled kids and children of parents with HIV/AIDS also face increased risk of being trafficked and are sometimes forced into panhandling.

Wedgwood estimated that there are tens of thousands of boys from far western China's Xinjiang region who have been bought or kidnapped by gangs who force them into pick-pocketing and other non violent crime in China's eastern cities.

“Ethnic minority girls from Yunnan province and the Guangxi region in the south are at risk of being forced into the sex trade within China and also in Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand and Malaysia,” she said.

Children left behind in villages are vulnerable because they are often looked after by grandparents -- who often need care themselves -- or by institutions that lose track of the children. However, those who migrate with their parents are also in danger because they are thrust into unfamiliar surroundings with limited social services, and their parents are often busy working.

Wedgwood wants China to redefine child trafficking to include victims up to 18 years of age and children who are forced into work to pay off family debts. China currently defines victims of child trafficking as kids up to 14 years old who are sold or kidnapped.