precious child

Child bridesHe’s forty, she’s eleven. And they are a couple – the Afghan man Mohammed F.* and the child Ghulam H.*. “We needed the money”, Ghulam’s parents said. Faiz claims he is going to send her to school. But the women of Damarda village in Afghanistan’s Ghor province know better: “Our men don’t want educated women.” They predict that Ghulam will be married within a few weeks after her engagement in 2006, so as to bear children for Faiz.During her stay in Afghanistan, it consistently struck American photographer Stephanie Sinclair how many young girls are married to much older men. She decided to raise awareness about this topic with her pictures. Particularly as the official minimum age for brides in Afghanistan is sixteen and it is therefore illegal to marry children.Early marriages are not only a problem in Afghanistan: worldwide there are about 51 million girls aged between 15 and 19 years who are forced into marriage. The youngest brides live in the Indian state of Rajasthan, where 15% of all wives are not even 10 years old when they are married. Child marriages are a reaction to extreme poverty and mainly take place in Asian and African regions where poor families see their daughters as a burden and as second-class citizens. Already in their younger years, girls are given into the “care” of a husband, a tradition that often leads to exploitation. Many girls become victims of domestic violence. In an Egyptian survey, about one-third of the interviewed child brides stated that they were beaten by their husbands. The young brides are under pressure to prove their fertility as soon as possible. But the risk for girls between the ages of 10 and 14 not to survive pregnancy is five times higher than for adult women. Every year, about 150,000 pregnant teenagers die due to complications – in particular due to a lack of medical care, let alone sex education.For her project, Stephanie Sinclair also traveled to Nepal and Ethiopia. She wants to do research on the topic of child marriage in other regions as well and then publish a book on the issue.

Child Labor in BangladeshAccording to UNICEF estimates, about 3.3 million children in Bangladesh are involved in child labor – almost 20% of the working population, despite efforts during the 1990s to ban child labor in the textile industry. Many children are forced to carry out hazardous work with dangerous chemicals in paint shops, workshops and tanneries. A child worker receives 60 Taka per day (less than 1 Dollar), about one-third of the regular wage for adults. Factory owners prefer to employ children, thereby keeping trade unions out of their factories. By entering the labor market at such an early age, children have no chance of getting an education and consequently no chance of getting better-paid jobs.The photographer G.M.B. Akash grew up in Bangladesh and has been working as a professional photographer since 2002. He first and foremost watches people on the margins of his country’s society. With his camera, he tries to document their right to exist, hoping that his pictures give them dignity and raise awareness for their difficult situation.

Smokey Mountain – Children of a charcoal burners’ camp in ManilaOn her ninth birthday, Annalyn S.* was photographed by German photographer Hartmut Schwarzbach, happily jumping on a red sofa that she had found on the garbage dump near the city of Manila (Philippines). It has been three years now that Annalyn and her family have lived beside Manila’s enormous garbage dump called “Aroma Smokey Mountain”. That’s where her family lives in a charcoal burners’ camp.Like most other children in this camp, Annalyn has to search for wood among the garbage every day, bring it to an oven and monitor the charcoal production amidst acrid smoke and unbearable heat. Together with her siblings and parents, she has to bring thousands of liters of water to extinguish the fire and collect the finished charcoal. The family has to hand over most of their yield to the local mafia.Like almost all children here, Annalyn is malnourished and thus much too skinny and small for her age. She looks like a five-year-old. Many of the children can neither read nor write and do not attend any school. One day, Annalyn wants to be a teacher.

Crimes and their results“The soldier came at night. He said I was not the first he had raped. He was brutal. He pierced my leg with a spear and then raped me for four hours. He came again on six nights in a row. Why I love the first daughter more is because I gave birth to her as a result of love. The father was my husband. The second girl is a result of an unwanted circumstance (rape).” Joseline I.* (37, HIV+) with her daughter Leah B.* (12)“I never loved the child. I have to force myself to love him. But he makes it impossible. He behaves like a street child. He is a bad boy. I don’t tell him that I don’t love him. It’s in his blood…” Claudin M.* (26) and her son Jeandediue U.* (12)“When I was pregnant, I wanted to die. I tried to kill myself. Then I became afraid. I thought about having the baby and then killing it. But when he was born, I immediately loved him. He was so beautiful. I could not kill him. I will always love my son. Annasalie M.* (34, HIV+) and her son Prince R.* (12, HIV+)For his project, Jonathan Torgovnik wanted to find 50 women who were raped during the Rwandan genocide 13 years ago and who gave birth to a child as a result of that rape.Photo: Jonathan Torgovnik, Israel, Newsweek Magazine and IPC New York

A Mother’s JourneyCyndie F.* life in Sacramento (California) was never easy: five children, three divorces. In November 2004, 39 year-old Cyndie was told that her youngest son Derek (10 years) had been diagnosed with cancer. Little Derek was suffering from Neuroblastoma, a cancer that begins in the nerve tissue and then spreads through the whole body. From this day on, Cyndie developed unbelievable strength. Until Derek’s death in May 2006, she accompanied him on his difficult journey – with love, courage and the almost inexhaustible power of a mother.The American photographer Renée C. Byer accompanied the single mother on her difficult journey. In 2007, she received the renowned Pulitzer Prize for her work.Photos: Renée C. Byer, USA, The Sacramento Bee

A House of HopeThe British/Canadian photographer Finbarr O’Reilly was in the city of Kinshasa in crisis-ridden Congo (DRC). After another tense day of photographing riots, mob violence and gun battles, he accidentally comes across a home for girls and boys crippled by polio. It is a quiet house, almost introspective. For him it is like an oasis of hope, unity and optimism in a vast country marked by despair.The children listen to music at ear-splitting volume and run around the courtyard on their crutches chasing a lump of old rags sewn together to be used as a football. The photographer puts down his camera to join in. “Woah, mondele (white man) you must play harder!” the kids taunt him.At night, most of the children sleep curled together without blankets on hard tiles. But at least they are safe. The “International Polio Victims Response Committee” uses its limited means to take care of the approx. 100 children.On the last day of his visit, the photographer throws a party for the children. Using a digital projector, he gives the kids a slideshow of photos he has taken. Their cheers are the reward for his work. The laughter, dancing and singing go on late into the night.In some countries, polio still threatens the life and health of children, although there has been widespread success in the fight against the virus thanks to mass vaccinations. In order to fully eradicate the virus, it is of vital importance to vaccinate in particular children in remote or conflict-ridden areas.Photo: Finbarr O’Reilly, United Kingdom/Canada, Reuters

The governments of Mediterranean countries are turning the sea between them into a "wild west in which human life has lost its value and people in danger are left to fend for themselves", a UN official said yesterday.Laura Boldrini, a Rome-based spokeswoman for the UN's high commissioner for refugees, was speaking as Libya, Malta and Spain continued to wrangle over the fate of 26 migrants from Africa, more than two days after they were plucked from the Mediterranean. The three governments were refusing to take in the migrants, who were stranded on a Spanish vessel last reported 80 miles south of Malta, about halfway between the island and the Libyan coast. Ms Boldrini said she understood that, like 27 migrants saved by Italian rescuers at the weekend, the members of the latest group were found clinging to tuna nets on the high seas."That appears to be the case," said Ms Boldrini, who noted that a further 57 migrants photographed by Maltese rescuers last week had since disappeared without trace and were thought to have drowned.The approach of summer has seen a upsurge in the number of fragile open boats setting off from the shores of Libya in the hope of a landfall on Italian territory. Those rescued at the weekend were taken to the Italian island of Lampedusa where they told officials yesterday they had spent six days at sea and three days on the rim of the tuna nets, which were being hauled by a Maltese-owned boat.Pictures of the migrants holding on to buoys supporting the nets of the vessel yesterday provoked indignation in Italy. Tana de Zulueta, a Green party MP, said: "The oldest of all humanitarian laws, that of rescue at sea, is being ignored."

13 year old Yana finds her way from Moldova to the Ukraine. Her father, an alcoholic, died early; her mother was sent to jail when Yana was eight years old. Since, she has been living on the street, recently in Odessa. By injecting drugs, she gets infected with the HI-Virus. During Christmas 2004, she feels very sick, crawls into a hole and dies in the winter cold. The Scottish photographer David John Gillanders is working on a project about street children in Odessa since three years. His attention is directed towards a lost generation: Children who grow up without parental protection in the States of the former Soviet Union. Hundreds of thousands of them are homeless. They wash cars, collect bottles or sell stolen goods. Many of them work as prostitutes or take drugs. More and more kids continue to become infected with HIV. Yana’s story is not an exception. Even more, it is typical for the hardships a growing number of children and teenagers has to endure in Eastern European States. Nowhere in the world is the virus spreading as fast as in this region. Since 1995, the number of people infected with HIV increased from 160.000 to 1.4 million. In the Ukraine, the rate of infections is even twentyfold higher than five years ago. Meanwhile, 360 000 are HIV positive. AIDS is a silent disaster that had been pushed aside also in Eastern Europe for too long. The virus spread almost unnoticed, mainly by drug abuse. Addicts share dirty needles and infect each other. In the meantime, the virus threatens all parts of the society. In particular young people are affected: 80 percent of all HIV-infected persons in Eastern Europe are younger than 30 years – ten percent of them are children. Women are especially vulnerable. In the Ukraine, 40 percent of all people living with HIV are female.

Ayad Ali Brissam Karim was born in Baghdad in 1991. In 2003, during the Gulf War, the farm of his parents gets into the frontline and is attacked by US-American helicopters. His uncle Mohammad loses his leg. His grandmother Telba is injured, too, when trying to help Ayad. Ayad’s face is badly burnt and his right eye becomes blind.“He left school because the other boys teased him”, says his 42-year old father, Ali Brissam Karim. “He can speak, however, he cannot read. He cannot help us with field work.”Worse than the physical injuries are the psychological consequences. „Many times a day he asks the same question and becomes aggressive for no obvious reason“, his mother says. In the meantime, Ayad has undergone medical treatment in the US, however, his eyesight could not be recovered.

South Africa is on the brink of another crisis. The number of sexually abused children continues to rise in an alarming way. The children concerned urgently need protection and shelter. In the first nine months of 2001, 15,650 cases of child abuse were registered. According to the police this figure represents 20 per cent of all cases. Some of the offenders are still minors.

On 10 October 2003, nine year old Saleh Khalaf who lives in a small Iraqi town is on his way home from school. At the roadside he lifts a small device which looks like a toy. Seconds later it explodes, rips his hand off his arm, tears a hole in his abdominal wall and destroys his left eye. His brother dies.Saleh’s father Raheem managed to convince the doctors of the U.S. Air Force to operate his son – the beginning of an international relief operation for the boy who was called Lion Heart because he had been so brave.Saleh was treated in the children’s hospital in Oakland/US. After many months and several operations his condition stabilized, however, his sadness did not go away. Every day Saleh prayed to see his mother Hadia and his younger brothers and sisters.The boy and his father were given a residence permit for the United States. In December 2004, his mother as well as brothers and sisters were allowed to enter the US.The US-American photographer Deanne Fitzmaurice who works for the newspaper „San Francisco Chronicle“ has pursued the fate of Saleh for many months and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize this year.

A nine year old boy stands on the ruins of the house his family had lived in before it was destroyed by the Tsunami wave. The Indonesian province Banda Aceh was hit hardest of all regions.Rina Hendiamin, eight months old, from Tuan in West Aceh is treated in the Zainal Abidin hospital; after the flood patients can be accommodated there again since 12 January. Rina lost her mother and is looked after by her grandmother.In the Indonesian province alone, more than 130.000 people died, 40.000 are still lost. Families looked for their dependants desperately – too many times without success. “Dicar” means “missing” in the Indonesian language. Many children were left orphans.In mid-January 2005, the German photographer Christoph Bangert travelled to Aceh, on his own risk, without the help of a magazine or agency ensuring funding or logistics.

Hadia has three kids together with her husband. But only she and her little son Parvin survive the heavy earthquake in October 2005, the biggest natural disaster in Kashmir. More than 80.000 people die, more than three million become homeless. Parvin receives medical emergency assistance in the hospital of Muzaffarabat. His mother remains under shock for days. Both are brought to an emergency hospital by helicopter. These are the first pictures the Greek photographer Pilos took of victims of the earthquake after having travelled to the severely struck region on day four of the disaster. The overwhelming suffering the earthquake caused had been one of the most shocking experiences in his career as a photographer, Pilos said. Even weeks after his trip, he could still smell the rotting odour of dead bodies.

A would-be immigrant crawls after his arrival on a makeshift boat on the Gran Tarajal beach in Spain's Canary Island, May 5, 2006. The scene on Gran Tarajal beach was a stark, unforgiving reminder of the desperation that drives people to leave their homes and loved ones and cross dangerous seas for unknown shores. Nearly 10,000 illegal immigrants from Africa have arrived this year in the Canary Islands -- a palm-fringed sunseekers' haven and outpost of Europe off Africa's coast. That's already twice as many as last year. Around 1,000 have died on the way. Picture taken May 5, 2006. REUTERS/Juan MedinaTwo homeless, addicted children sniff glue in the presence of a nonchalant female beggar. They sleep in hammocks hanging from a gigantic tree by the Siem Reap river. Many homeless children in Siem Reap, Cambodia try to escape from the pain of hunger and harsh reality of street life by using drugs. Over the last six years, UNICEF has been collaborating closely with Cambodian monks, nuns and local elders all over Cambodia in the fight against HIV/AIDS. These religious leaders disseminate information when they visit communities and when people visit temples.

Marcus Bleasedale has now spent more then five years covering the brutal conflict within the border of the Democratic Republic in Congo and his work was published in his book „One Hundred Years of Darkness“. In his outstanding photography he has shown the tragedy of the deadliest war in the world today.An estimated four milion people have died since 1998. Different militia groups and government forces battle it out on a daily basis in the east of the country for control of the mineral rich areas where they can exploit Gold, Coltan, Cassiterite and Diamonds. There are 18 major natural resources in DRC all of which at some stage have proved to be a curse on the people of DRC. In his new work Bleasdale raises the question “Today’s Children, Tomorrow’s Leaders?”. He wants to make us aware of the disastrous situation in the DRC and therefore documented different lives of street children in Kinshasa.Some children’s care centres in Kinshasa take on street children in exchange against light labour. In these centres the can enjoy a shower and get basic schooling, food and lodgings. There are some centres that have been criticised for being abusive to the children.Sometimes children are thrown out from their homes by family members, who think they bring bad spirits home. This can happen when a family member dies, usually of AIDS and economies dictate that there are too many mouths to feed. Sorcery is therefore an excuse.

Hajira (8 years old) recycles thousands of batteries, by bursting them using a simple hammer, one at a time. She works with her mother and also helps to look after her siblings Mumtaz (3 years old, girl) and Yasmin (1 year old). They get Taka 6 for cleaning 1000 carbon rods. Hajira cleans between 1000-3000 carbon rods per day. During a short break from her work, Hajira laughs standing on the door of the workshop. She is carrying her sister Mumtaz in her arms. Her face is blackened with carbon dust from recycled batteries. On the outskirts of Dhaka by the river Buriganga, several workshops specialize in recycling different materials found in dumpsites. One such industry deals specifically with the recycling of D-size dry-cell batteries. They employ hundreds of women and children. For all day long they break thousand of used batteries to get tiny pieces of metal out of them. During recycling process, these women and children inhale millions of toxic dust from batteries throughout the day. Depending on how much work they do, they earn between 6 to15 Taka (10 to 25 US cents) per day. “ I am not against child labour. I know, how many important opportunities it provides. It can change lives. For many children, earning a living or supplementing family’s income is a matter of survival. However, there is a difference between a child who works in a garment factory or in a restaurant and one who is exploited in a hazmat recycling ghetto or a brothel, “ Shezad Noorani says, who himself grew up as childworker in Bangladesh and lives now in the USA

On April 18, 2006 eight years old Vika Chervinska goes with her mother to the children hospital in Kiew. On April 26, 1986 – long before her birthday – Chernobyl suffered the worldwide worst nuclear catastrophe. Vika suffers from cancer and gets her treatment at the hospital. Her case is not the only one. Many children in the Ucraine have cancer. The twenty-six years old photographer, Oded Balilty, from Israel documented the long way of suffering of the little girl.The main reason for illnesss caused by radiation is - according to scientists - the damage of the inherited material, the DNA. The human cell possesses a whole lot of possibilities to repair itself, but sometimes the system is overextended. The question, if radioactive radiation has damage the DNA in these cases is scientifically unsettled. The consequences of longterm health problems are still disputed. While some fear millions of longterm victims from the Chernobly fall out, others see no further thread. A difficult situation.

The five year old Rahila is all smiles. She is a patient of the Red Cross Hospital in the northern Pakistani city of Muzaffarabad. An extension bandage covers her legs because she broke her lower leg and thigh during the devastating earthquake of 10/8/2005. But nevertheless she is all smiles, as if she was perfectly fine.Three weeks after the earthquake Danish photographer Jan Grarup traveled to Pakistan. He took a flight to Muzaffarabad, the capital of the Pakistani part of Kashmir. The earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale almost completely destroyed the city. More than 70,000 inhabitants of the Kashmir region died in the earthquake, 18,000 of which were children. 3.3 million Kashmiris lost their homes and after one full year 30,000 people are said to still live in emergency camps.Rahila was one of many gravely injured girls and boys in the children’s department of the local hospital. The doctors covered her multiple fractured legs with an extension bandage. In order to give her medical treatment she had to be evacuated by helicopter from her village. The flight that saved Rahila’s life took half an hour.“I was so impressed by her smile amidst all the grief and despair”, says Grarup, a second time winner of the UNICEF award. “The little girl is living proof of the strength that lies in children.”

..thank you small still voice....

People sign the names of the deceased on a wall of 1600 Fleur De Lys, representing those who died during Hurricane Katrina, at the Ringing of the Bells ceremony marking the first anniversary of the hurricane in New Orleans, REUTERS/Sean GardnerFAIR USE NOTICE: This site may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. This material is distributed without profit.***