25th May 2010, Johannesburg - Sub-Saharan Africa is struggling to meet the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of reducing child mortality but with greater access to prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission (PMTCT) services, some countries are slowly catching up.A new study by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington in Seattle, US, published on 24 May in the online edition of British medical journal The Lancet, compared mortality in children younger than five from 1970 to 2010 in 187 countries to chart progress towards reaching the goal.Worldwide child mortality had declined by 52 percent since 1970, but only 31 developing countries were on ...

21st May 2010, Niger - Some 7.8 million people in Niger are running out of food after erratic rainfall last year caused crops to fail. Facing its worst food shortages for years amid fears of acute malnutrition, and declaring the  country to be in a state of ‘critical food insecurity’, the new Government asked for international help in March. Launching an appeal for 190 million USD in Geneva in early April, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Niger, Khardiata Lo N’Diaye, noted that, ‘Over half the population are in a food insecure situation and part of the country is already suffering from malnutrition’.The Emergency Relief Coordinator, John Holmes, is visiting Ni...

16th May 2010, Angola  -  The children from the eastern Moxico Province, in representation of the minors of the country, defended on Saturday in Luena District more commitment by the Angolan government and civil society in the strong fight against all kinds of violence against children in the family.The children made this appeal through a message read during the national main event of the celebrations of the International Family Day, which was marked on Saturday, May 15.The children showed their concern about the tendency of the loss of love for fellow human-beings and true value of the family, a situation which brings about the violence against women and youths.According to them, ...

14th May 2010 Swaziland,  – At sundown, Thulani Gama tells his 10-year-old twin siblings to collect firewood while he grinds corn for their supper. At sunrise, he wakes the twins and tells them to wash. Without breakfast, all three children begin their hour-long walk to school in rural Swaziland.Thulani, 13, is the head of his small household. He and his siblings Samkelo and Samkelisiw look after one another since, like many parents, their widowed mother left home to look for work in Mbabane, Swaziland’s capital. Thanks to a new programme supported by UNICEF and the Government of Swaziland, Thulani and his siblings are now able to attend school.Children raising childrenThulani’s f...

10th MAY 2010, Geneva - Improving newborn care in the first month of life is essential for reducing child deaths in developing countries, according to a global update on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) released today in the World Health Statistics 2010. Globally, about 40% of deaths in children under five years old are estimated to occur in the first month of life, most of which occur in the first week. For the first time, this report provides the major causes of these deaths among newborns. The report also shows that deaths among children under five have dropped by 30% from 12.5 million in 1990 to 8.8 million in 2008. Improvements in health MDGsWith five years remaining to the MDG...

5th May 2010, Kampala — The East African Community (EAC) has signed an agreement with the One Lap per child initiative to avail laptops to children in the region.Juma Mwapachu, the secretary general of the East Africa Community, signed the deal."If you want to build a knowledge economy, you must have a computer literate population, starting from primary and secondary school children, all the way to university.This is a very ambitious project that we will have to partner with other people and institutions to mobilise the resources required to meet our objectives by 2015."Matt Keller, the vice-president of the project, said Tanzania had ordered for 30,000 laptops, while Rwanda is looking at ...