Save the Children Philippines drew attention to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) recording 3,135 cases of adolescent pregnancies among young girls aged 10-14 in 2022, which was a 35 percent increase from the 2,320 cases recorded in 2021.

The organisation said this was an "alarming trend" and called on the government and families "to join forces in educating children about their rights and reproductive health."

The PSA has noted a concerning upward trend in teenage pregnancies under the age of 15 since 2017, it said in a March 1 statement ahead of International Women's Day.

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After Greenpeace, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch, Save the Children now finds itself unable to receive foreign funds under the FCRA, Asia News reported on Monday.

The FCRA license is crucial for NGOs to obtain financial support from abroad.

Operating under the name Bal Raksha Bharat, the Indian branch of Save the Children has been active since 2008, working across 16 states to address the health and education needs of children in underprivileged regions.

However, last year, the organisation drew government scrutiny for a malnutrition-focused fundraising campaign.

The Ministry of Women and Child Development contended that government schemes were already in place to address malnutrition effectively.

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Far from it. It's still a global health and welfare threat, WHO officials say.

We can expect the same devastating health and social consequences will continue to plague us. The virus keeps evolving and spreading.

Many vulnerable communities around the world remain unvaccinated. This raises the risk of death and ill health.

As Dr Mike Ryan from WHO's Health Emergencies Programme says: "There's still a public health threat out there."

He says WHO sees that every day in terms of the way the virus is evolving, its global presence and continued vulnerabilities in our communities.

These are "societal vulnerabilities, age vulnerabilities, protection vulnerabilities, and many other things," he says.

Children are particularly at risk. Save the Children is very concerned.

Governments across the world must give children's health, education and protection greater priority now the global emergency is over, Save the Children says.

Dr Zaeem Haq, Save the Children Global Medical Director, says while WHO's announcement is a "crucial milestone", the virus is here to stay.

There are still enormous challenges facing millions of children worldwide.

"Over the past three years, COVID-19 turned children's lives upside down.

"Hundreds of millions of children are still facing the effects of the pandemic every day and will likely continue to do so for years to come.

"COVID-19 and the resulting lockdowns, global economic shutdown and disruption to services brought on an unprecedented crisis for children, putting their physical and mental health, education, protection and economic wellbeing in jeopardy.

"This, combined with the effects of conflicts and the climate crisis, exacerbated existing inequalities and hit the most marginalised children the hardest."

He gives some nasty statistics.

An estimated 100 million additional children were driven into poverty and the risk of hunger increased worldwide.

Over 1.5 billion children had their education disrupted

Children suffered an increase in violence when schools were closed.

An estimated 10.5 million children lost a parent or caregiver to COVID-19.

The pandemic unleashed a global mental health crisis, with eight percent of children reporting an increase in negative feelings as a result.

Without urgent global action, years of progress for children will be permanently reversed. This will put the United Nations' 2030 Sustainable Development Goals beyond reach, says Haq.

"It's vital that all governments prioritise and invest in children's physical and mental health, nutrition, wellbeing, protection and learning.

"They must also commit to invest in early outbreak detection systems and robust pandemic preparedness, strengthen health systems and ensure universal access to healthcare.

"The announcement by the WHO serve as a stark reminder that we live in a highly unequal world, one that is failing to protect children and their rights. Global leaders must work together to prioritise and finance the work that must be done."

Source

• CNN
• Catholic Culture
• NZ Doctor

Save the Children, World Vision and Terre des Hommes Foundation said in a joint statement the government made a decision in April that dictated all structures made of materials other than timber and plastic sheeting will be knocked down in the border town of Arsal.

Syrians have until June 9 to make the necessary changes to their structures, after which they will be demolished, the statement said. Read more

Last August the United Nations (UN) found actions taken by the Saudi- and UAE-led coalition in Yemen might amount to war crimes. They include rape, torture and using child soldiers as young as eight.

Save the Children wants an immediate ban of Australian defence export licenses to Saudi Arabia and other parties to the Yemen conflict, as the Australian government has been underwriting weapons purchases.

These purchases include providing tens of millions of dollars to Electro Optic Systems (EOS), which has designed a remotely operated vehicle-mounted platform.

The platform holds cannons, machine guns and missile launchers.

Australian Defence officials have confirmed the government spent taxpayer funds to support developing weapons systems.

Save the Children Director of Policy and International Programs Mat Tinkler is concerned about Australia's weapons' exports.

"Australia is becoming increasingly isolated in our support for the Saudi-led coalition in this way," said Mr Tinkler.

"The world over, nations have taken steps to end arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the UAE in light of the UN's finding of possible war crimes".

The Australian Government announced in January 2018 its ambition to become a top 10 defence exporter in the world.

The Australian Department of Defence's Senate Estimates confirm the government had granted export permits to an Australian company that sold 500 weapons mounting systems to Saudi Arabia.

Tinkler says the fact that Australia is "still exporting defence equipment to Saudi Arabia and the UAE raises serious questions about what role we're playing in prolonging this war, in prolonging the suffering of children in Yemen.

"Many Australians would be rightly be shocked to learn that Australia could potentially be contributing to the world's worst humanitarian crisis."

Australian news outlet, ABC, claims it has seen confidential EOS board minutes which describe signing a Letter of Intent for the sale of 500 remote weapons systems units destined for the Saudi Ministry of Interior.

Following the ABC's report, Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne told a Senate Estimates hearing that a ban on the sale of weapons to Saudi Arabia was under review.

Source

• Save the Children
• ABC
• Image: www.alarby.co.uk

Using data compiled by the UN, Save the Children evaluated mortality rates for untreated cases of Severe Acute Malnutrition. Read more

Last month, four newborns in incubators fought for their lives in a small hospital in Aleppo, the besieged Syrian city. Then a bomb hit the hospital and cut off power—and oxygen to the incubators. The babies suffocated.

In a joint letter to President Obama this month, fifteen doctors described the infants' deaths: "Gasping for air, their lives ended before they had really begun."

The doctors are among the last few in the eastern part of Aleppo, the historic former commercial center where a hundred thousand children are now trapped.

"Young children are sometimes brought into our emergency rooms so badly injured that we have to prioritize those with better chances, or simply don't have the equipment to help them," the doctors wrote.

Only a trickle of food is making it through a land blockade imposed by the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

"Whether we live or die seems to be dependent on the ebbs and flows of the battlefield," the doctors said.

More than a third of all casualties in Aleppo are now kids, according to Save the Children.

Among them is Omran Daqneesh, the toddler with the moppish Beatles haircut whose picture captivated the world this week.

He was shown covered with blood and dust after being dug from the debris of a bombing in Syria on Thursday.

Rescuers placed him, alone, on an orange seat in an ambulance. His stunned, dazed expression mirrored the trauma of a war-ravaged generation.

(On Saturday, we learned that Omran's older brother Ali, who was ten, had died from wounds sustained in the attack.*)

In June, Osama Abo El Ezz, a general surgeon in Aleppo, described a rocket attack on an infant-care ward.

"Nine newborns were rushed to the basement of the hospital for safety, their incubators destroyed," he wrote.

Source

• The New Yorker
• Image: www.bbc.com

The Australian government has granted the welfare contract to the multinational, Transfield Services.

Transfield Services has received $1.5bn from the Australian federal government since being contracted in October 2012 to manage Australia's detention centres on Manus Island and Nauru.

There have been 47 violations of international law at the centres since Transfield took on the contract three years ago, according to the report by not-for-profit group No Business in Abuse.

Charities working in Australia's asylum seeker detention centres have been asked to pay multi-million dollar bonds that can be forfeited if they speak out against government policy.

Fairfax Media reported that aid agencies, including Save the Children and the Australian Red Cross, were asked by the immigration department to offer "performance security" during contract negotiations.

Save the Children Australia chief executive Paul Ronalds said his organisation refused to sign the bond agreement, interpreting it as a gag clause.

But other organisations, including the Red Cross and Transfield Services, agreed to pay.

"We're incredibly proud of what we've achieved, the education we've been able to deliver to asylum seekers and refugees, the support we've been able to provide," said Rolands.

"On the other hand, we are very concerned that with Save the Children leaving, it means there's even one less voice on Nauru to speak out for children and their families."

There needed to be far greater transparency and oversight of Australia's offshore processing centres, which have been condemned by human rights groups and the United Nations, he said.

Source

• radionz.co.nz
• theguardian.com
• Image: theguardian.com

It is understood that police seized electronic items such as phones and laptops during the raid on Saturday, with the operation believed to be related to stories leaked to media in Australia. Continue reading

Working with the Every Child Counts campaign (a group of NGO's including Plunket, Save the Children and Barnados), Business New Zealand's Phil O'Reilly says that "Businesses first and foremost are interested in successful communities, and if you think about some of the most pressing issues today, they are around children."

In an article in the Dominion Post, Catherine Harris reported that the first meeting was to be at Te Papa last night.

• Read Catherine Harris's article
• Image: Yahoo NZ News