World Touch Archives - Page 13 of 71

Child Abuse

Costing Asia-Pacific US$209 Billion a Year

The maltreatment of children costs countries in East Asia and the Pacific US$209 billion per year, the equivalent to 2% of the region’s GDP, according to a newly-released study by UNICEF. The report drew on more than 360 studies of child maltreatment produced across the region since 2000, with emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, and neglect, the witnessing of domestic violence and death from maltreatment, all given an estimated cost.

UCA News

Desertification

World’s Water Resources are Declining

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warns that two out of every three people in the world could be living under stressed water conditions in 10 years. The warning came as the U.N. marked the World Day to Combat Desertification last June 17 FAO said land degradation and desertification undercut human rights, starting with the right to food and water.

www.news.va

South Sudan

Food Crisis Deepens

Through 17 months of conflict, tens of thousands of people have been killed in South Sudan and two million more displaced. Schools, health centers and markets have been looted and destroyed. It took a $1.8 billion humanitarian response last year for the country to avoid a famine. And it’s about to get even worse.

Irin News

Asia

Enforced Disappearances Remain a Major Problem

Families across Asia continue to await information about loved ones who have forcibly disappeared while thousands of such individuals languish in unknown prisons around the region. “Asia has the most number of cases of enforced disappearance around the world,” said Mary Aileen Bacalso, secretary general of the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearance (AFAD), on the occasion of this year’s observance of the International Week of the Disappeared. Bacalso said that, in Kashmir alone, some 8,000 young men vanished in the 1990s, most of whom are believed to be buried in unmarked graves.

UCA News

Global

Humanitarian Aid Hits Record High

Global humanitarian assistance rose to record levels in 2014, reflecting the scale and scope of prolonged crises such as the conflicts in Iraq and Syria, as well as increased contributions from Middle Eastern donors, according to a study by the non-profit organization Development Initiatives.

The Guardian

Burundi

On the Brink of Civil War

With the looming threat of a tragic return to the past, Burundi risks sinking into another civil war. The news that is coming from missionaries based in the capital Bujumbura is certainly not reassuring. The situation is very tense. Schools, markets and shops are closed. People are scared, especially those who have taken part in demonstrations against current President Pierre Nkurunziza who is running for a third term. He has been in power since 2005 and having led the CNDD (National Council for the Defence of Democracy) rebel group, he now wants to run as its candidate for the presidency in the elections on 26 June this year at all costs.

Luciano Zanardini

Africa/Asia

Human Trafficking in Southeast Asia

Human trafficking continues to be a very serious problem in Southeast Asian countries. Criminal networks extend from the west of Burma, crossing the coastal areas of Bangladesh, to the southern coast of Thailand. According to the method used by traffickers, money from emigrants is required on arrival in the country of destination, often in Malaysia, where most of the Rohingya, a Muslim minority persecuted in Burma, and the Bengalis fleeing misery, hope to find refuge.

www.fides.org

Philippines

Ending Recruitment of Child Soldiers

The publicity surrounding an 11-year-old communist rebel reported to have surrendered to the Philippine military this month has served as a harsh reminder of the work still to be done to rid the South East Asian country of the scourge of child soldiers. The boy, referred to in news reports by his nickname Dodong, was recruited at the age of six into the New People’s Army (NPA), which has been waging a Maoist insurgency in the southern Philippines for decades.

Irin News

World Touch

Catastrophic Situation

The humanitarian situation in Yemen has become catastrophic, relief officials stated, as a coalition of Arab countries led by Saudi Arabia, rattled by what they saw as expanding Iranian influence in the Arabian Peninsula, is trying to stop Houthi fighters and loyalists of former President Ali Abdullah Salah taking control of Yemen. But the air campaign has had little success and vital aid was reported to be being held up by both sides. Houthis were stopping convoys of trucks reaching the southern port city of Aden, and an arms blockade by Saudi-led coalition navies, searching ships for weapons, was holding up food deliveries by sea.

The Guardian

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