In Malawi, child rape is a tough case

Jan 23 2012 under malawi | Leave a comment

A version of this article was originally published at Canada’s Toronto Star website on December 19, 2011.

Dr. Neil Kennedy recently told me he sees an average of 20-25 cases of child sexual abuse a month referred to Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital (QECH) in Blantyre, Malawi.

I wasn’t sure I heard him correctly.

“Yes, that many,” he confirmed. “I was working a shift last month when I saw three in one day.”

Our conversation was part of a discussion on sexual violence in Malawi. Kennedy, head of pediatrics and child health at the University of Malawi’s College of Medicine, proceeded to dispel any doubts about the scale of this problem.

He called attention to a report titled “Suffering at School: Results of the Malawi Gender-Based Violence in Schools Survey,” which was published in October 2005 and based on interviews with more than 4,400 youth from various segments of society.

“Almost one in four children have been forced to have sex against their will,” the document states. “Repeat victimization is common.”

Indicating that little has changed in the six years since that report was published, Malawi’s Daily Times newspaper recently reported that it carried 16 stories covering 22 cases of child sexual abuse for the months of August and September 2011 alone.

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Censored: Palestinian children’s crayon drawings too real for American kids

Sep 13 2011 under caught online | Leave a comment

This is a collection of artwork created by children living in the Palestinian Territories’ Gaza Strip. It recently went viral after the Museum of Children’s Art in Oakland, California, cancelled an exhibition originally scheduled to open on September 24.

According to the museum, the show, entitled “A Child’s View from Gaza”, was called off because the works could not be displayed in manner accesable to the entire community. Or something like that. You can read MOCHA’s full release for yourself.

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The Independent: A grotesque symbol of starving Africa

Jul 17 2011 under caught online | Leave a comment


Photo Per-Anders Pettersson / Save the Children.

The latest on the drought and humanitarian disaster currently unfolding in the Horn of Africa. A tragic story at Independent.co.uk, with each paragraph more horrific than the last. Posted on July 17, 2011.

Increasing numbers of children are dropping dead on the long trek to refugee camps. Those who do get there are more severely malnourished than ever before. And, says the UN, the number of people under threat has now reached 11 million – equivalent to every man, woman and child in Belgium facing starvation. Thus, the chronic food crisis of the Horn of Africa edges with every hungry day towards full-blown famine.

One image captures the degrading awfulness now facing millions. It is not that of a wide-eyed, swollen-bellied child crying for food – although there are countless numbers of them. It is the sight of mothers using rope to bind their stomachs so they will deaden the pangs of hunger as they give what little food they can get to their children – a grotesque parody of the gastric bands used for slimming in the West.

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Nancholi kids remind me of something

Jul 12 2011 under malawi | Leave a comment

Kids are cute. I’ve seen ‘em on five continents and trust me, they’re always cute. And when you’re in a country like Malawi, in Africa, kids are great little things to photograph and send pictures of back to friends and family in countries far away from the village you’ve got your camera in.

But kids are also why a lot of us—volenteers, humanitarians (ya right), colonists, white people, journalists (in my case), or whatever—are working abroad. Without irony, it’s for the kids. It’s their planet, on loan to us for the time being. I believe that. And I try not to forget it, the way the parents of my generation have.

The photographs here were taken on the outskirts of Blantyre in an area called Nancholi. We were visiting a village to check out a community-based organization—very different from an ngo, a colleague ensured I understood—that carries out a variety of programs related to youths and HIV/AIDS.

Known simply as Nancholi Youth Organiaztion (NAYO), the group’s small management team and roughly 175 volenteers work in 16 villages in the rural areas surrounding Blantre. In the cbo’s own words, it works to “implement activities related to HIV/ AIDS, human rights, environmental protection, and sporting activities.”

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