21st April 2010, Pakistan - Schools across the conflict-zone in Pakistan’s northern areas are open, but many are damaged, and there are concerns about the quality of education and funding for schools for displaced children in camps. In Swat District, where Taliban militants destroyed 356 schools according to government officials, pupils are back in class. “My son’s school was badly damaged in 2009 by fire. Now the children sit outdoors, or on the floors of gutted classrooms that lack walls or roofs,” Imdad Hassan, 40, told IRIN from the town of Kabal in Swat. He said many schools operated in similar fashion after they were re-opened last year. The situation is also chaoti...

9th April 2010, Lebanon- From cluster bombs to child labour, Lebanese children have shed light on the issues affecting children in Lebanon in an unprecedented child-led report submitted to the UN Human Rights Council.Over a period of two months, children from Beirut, the Bekaa valley and Marjeyoun, Southern Lebanon came together to brainstorm about issues that affect children. They then analysed, debated and agreed on the information to include in their report.'In our Children's Council in Marjeyoun we decided to research about cluster bombs and landmines and how this situation affects the lives of children in Lebanon,' said a 13-year-old who helped write the report. 'We live in fear of clus...

8th April 2010, India - LifeSpring Hospitals to provide 82,000 women with affordable healthcare through Business Call to Action initiativeHyderabad, India ― The Business Call to Action (BCtA) today announced that LifeSpring Hospitals ― a chain of small hospitals providing low-income clients in India with access to maternal and child healthcare services ― has committed to provide an estimated 82,000 Indian women and their families with access to quality healthcare.  In the next five years, LifeSpring will increase the number of hospitals serving mothers and children throughout India from 9 to 200, which will improve overall standards of care and reduce rates of maternal and childho...

1st April 2010 - A ground-breaking Right to Education Act has come into force in India legalising the right to free and compulsory schooling for all children between the ages of 6 and 14. UNESCO welcomed the historic Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 which came into force on April 1. Apart from legalising the right to education, the act places the onus on governments and local authorities to provide schools and sets out standards and norms covering numbers of teachers, training and curricula. It includes a plan to train more than one million new teachers in the next five years and retrain existing teachers. “This act is an essential step towards improvin...