SCHOLARSHIPS FOR LIFE

Author: Lesley Pocock

Child-Watch home page

A recent initiative of the Middle East Journal of Family Medicine (MEJFM) a sister publication to the MEJB, has seen the launch of Child-Watch (www.Child-Watch.org ).

This focus on the physical, social, emotional and psychological needs of all children is taking, primarily, an academic approach, with articles published on issues pertaining to child health and through the sharing of successful ideas, programs and projects.

While the practical needs of such children are overwhelming the C-W focus is on restoring the dignity of disadvantaged children, This includes ridding impoverished institutionalised children, of scabies, lice etc and providing then with basic personal needs.

The other main focus is on orphans in Iraq, as one of the most disadvantaged and imperiled groups of children. Living in war conditions is not ideal at the best of times, but those children who have lost family and who have lost touch with normal society are greatly endangered. The ongoing conflict affects public health, psychological health, and emotional health. Lack of amenities increase malnutrition, and susceptibility to
disease.

Washington post - Orphans in Iraq's Storm - washingtonpost_com.htm

Although there are seven orphanages in the capital, Baghdad, and another 16 in other provinces, "they aren't enough to provide assistance to all the orphans in the country," said Abeer Mahdi al-Chalabi, of Orphans Houses Department at the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs. She went on to point out that the increase in the number of orphans countrywide was an inevitable result of the bombings, assassinations and sectarian violence currently plaguing the country.

According to a 2005 report issued by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), there were some 5,000 orphans in the capital alone, many of whom have been ostracized by society and have little hope of finding education or shelter.

Iraq is one of the only three Arab countries (with Yemen and Comoros) in which the incidence of low birth weight exceeds 10%, chronic malnutrition is common, as in anemia in children.

Our main focus however is in giving children a future by giving them an education and with it a 'future' and the means to make a life for themselves, and this includes orphans and institutionalised children. For that reason we have set up "Scholarships for Life".

Our children are inheriting a greatly depleted and violent world and too often they are the easy targets and victims of traffickers, abusers, 'warlords', drug dealers, and even governments and society in general Our children should not be paying the price of adult's inability to create a safe and equitable global society. If we could bring up just one generation unharmed, then we may have the foundation on which to build a future for all humankind.

"Scholarships for Life" is therefore an initiative to 'buy' children out of slavery or forced servitude and supply them with the financial means to gain an education. This can mean purchase of children from enforced labour and getting them into school, and for those with family but forced to work from a young age to support that family, to provide the family with the wages the child would have earned if they had not been in school. As these are often the poorest families in society, the financial needs are comparatively not that great.

So the task of addressing the global needs of children would seem difficult on the surface but it is also an extremely easy problem to solve if children were afforded basic human rights and adults took responsibility for the world and society they have created.

Child-Watch is a Not For Profit NGO and all donations are tax deductible. Family doctors will assist in many of the national projects, such as identifying children in need.

Middle East members of our International Board include Dr Manzoor Butt, of Rawalpindi Pakistan, Dr Tawfik Khoja Director General, Health Ministers of the GCC States, Dr Abdulrazak Abyad, Editor of MEJFM and Dr Thamer Al Hilfy, College of Medicine, Baghdad Iraq.