New York — Africa’s health agency has called for urgent action on sickle cell disease, warning that most of the 300,000 babies born with the condition each year on the continent die before their fifth birthday, despite cheap and effective treatments. “Sickle cell disease has silently devastated families across Africa for generations,” said H.E. Dr….
Gavin Butler, Muhamad IrhamBBC Indonesia, Jakarta and Yuli SaputraBBC Indonesia, West Java Yuli Saputra Thousands of school children have suffered food poisoning from a controversial free lunches programme since January More than 1,000 children have fallen ill from free school lunches in Indonesia this week, according to authorities – the latest in a string of…
Ensuring the safety of children in digital spaces — which are becoming increasingly dangerous — is a responsibility shared between governments, academia, civil society, businesses, and families. So says Dr Linda Ncube-Nkomo, CEO of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund, who was speaking at the second International Conference on Children’s Rights, recently hosted by the Nelson…
A new report by the World Bank and UNICEF has revealed that despite global progress in reducing extreme child poverty, Sub-Saharan Africa has seen no improvement in the past decade, with more than half of children in the region still living below the poverty line. The report, ‘Child Poverty: Global, Regional and Select National Trends’,…
Amman — “The escalating military offensive in Gaza City is having devastating consequences for over 450,000 children, already traumatized and exhausted by nearly two years of unrelenting war. They are teetering on the edge of survival as both famine and deadly violence spread. “UNICEF is warning of an impending catastrophe as the military operation expands….
Cairo, Egypt — Children benefiting from national school meal programmes across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) increased by 22 percent in the past two years alone, despite conflict, economic downturn and the region’s complex humanitarian landscape. Now reaching 23.5 million children, these programmes are emerging as a strategic investment in education, nutrition, and…
School meals are a crucial way out of poverty into “a new world of learning and opportunity,” according to the World Food Programme (WFP) executive director Cindy McCain. The number of children receiving school meals through government-led programmes has gone up by 20 per cent since 2020, found the latest edition of the WFP‘s flagship…
In South Africa, 27% of children — about 1.7 million — are stunted due to malnutrition, a crisis that robs them of their ability to learn and thrive. For these children, hunger makes education an uphill battle. It’s for this reason that The Love Trust and Soul Food, two faith-based non-profit organisations, have renewed their…
DAKAR/JOHANNESBURG/NAIROBI: Twenty million more children in Sub-Saharan Africa are now receiving school meals through government-led programmes than in 2022, according to the latest edition of the State of School Feeding Worldwide, a flagship global biennial report released today by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). The African continent has seen the most significant rise…
For the first time, there are more children in the world who are obese than underweight, according to a major study by children’s charity Unicef. Around one in 10 of those aged between five and 19 years old – around 188 million children and young people – are now thought to be affected by obesity….
