Africa

By Anis Chowdhury and Jomo Kwame Sundaram
SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Apr 21 2020 (IPS)

Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro appointed medical entrepreneur Nelson Teich his new health minister on 17 April. The businessman quickly echoed his boss’ desire to resume business as usual regardless of its potentially lethal consequences.

Bolsonaro had fired his previous health minister, displeased by Luiz Henrique Mandetta’s public remarks on the need for lockdowns and physical distancing. Mandetta’s firing was met with outrage across Brazil. Locked-down citizens banged pots and pans, shouting “Bolsonaro Murder”.

Anis Chowdhury

In his final briefing as minister, Mandetta urged staff to challenge “denialism” and mount an “unyielding defence of life and science”. “Don’t be afraid”, he said, “Science is light … and it is through science that we will find a way out of this.”

Covid-19 apocalypse
Meanwhile, Brazil has begun digging large graveyards ahead of an anticipated peak of the national Covid-19 epidemic. In Sao Paulo’s Vila Formosa cemetery, the largest in Latin America, about 20 excavators are digging graves around the clock.

In an impassioned interview, popular former President Lula da Silva accused Bolsonaro of leading Brazilians “to the slaughterhouse” with his irresponsible handling of the crisis. Officially confirmed cases have soared to over 38,000, with close to 2,500 deaths as of April 19.

But these figures likely understate the gravity of the situation as Brazil’s states have no standardized testing method, and mainly test those hospitalized. A Brazilian research group estimates actual infections at 15 times the official number. Lula’s successor, Dilma Rousseff has asked: “Why is there no testing? What are they trying to conceal?”

Another study projects that without any action to stem the pandemic, Brazil could face more than 1.15 million deaths, and 529779 with only ‘enhanced social distancing’ for the elderly over 70. Even with extreme lockdown measures and widespread testing, the death toll would still be 44,200 due to late action.

Bolsonaro vs state governors
Despite the life-threatening risks, Bolsonaro has compared the C-19 threat to a “little flu” or “cold”, dismissing it as a media-hyped “fantasy”. He has dismissed preventive measures as “hysterical” and has repeatedly demanded that state governors withdraw their social distancing orders.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

On March 24, Bolsonaro emulated US President Donald Trump, claiming “those under 40 rarely die of coronavirus and that even he, at 65, shouldn’t be worried because he was ‘an athlete’ in the past”. On April 8, Bolsonaro passed the buck, “Each family has to protect its elderly people, not to throw that responsibility to the state.”

Bolsonaro has disregarded social distancing recommendations, urging others to also defy them. At a pro-government rally he called on March 15, he shook hands with the crowd while supposed to be in quarantine after 24 people who had travelled with him to the United States had tested positive for the virus!

The Brazilian president has also lashed out at Brazil’s state governors, who have ordered shops and schools closed to slow the spread of the pandemic that threatens to overwhelm the health system in Latin America’s largest nation. Nevertheless, Brazil’s 27 state governors have defiantly maintained restrictions.

Sao Paulo has been the epicentre of the outbreak in Brazil. Without offering a shred of evidence, Bolsonaro accused the state of exaggerating its Covid-19 deaths. Its governor Joao Doria has accused Bolsonaro of unleashing an “uncontrolled attack” against him for his strict measures in the economically crucial industrial state.

Bolsonaro vs courts, congress
The President’s March 20 executive order, stripping states of authority to restrict people’s movements, was revoked by Brazil’s Supreme Court four days later.

On March 23, Bolsonaro issued a presidential order suspending deadlines for government agencies to respond to public information requests, including his policies to address the health emergency. Brazil’s Congress rejected the decree.

On March 27, a federal court suspended Bolsonaro’s presidential decree the previous day exempting churches and lottery houses from state and municipal health regulations by classifying them as essential services, also barring the federal government from over-ruling social distancing measures enacted by states.

On March 28, a federal judge ordered the federal government to stop a publicity campaign urging Brazilians to flout social distancing recommendations, initiated by the president’s own communications office and his son, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro.

On April 1, Bolsonaro posted a video claiming shortages of food and other essential products because of Minas Gerais state government measures, which his own agriculture minister later admitted was false.

Military is back
Meanwhile, the Brazilian elite is losing faith in Bolsonaro as his handling of the crisis threatens to call into question the entire status quo. In response, Bolsonaro has appointed his Chief of Staff Gen. Walter Braga Netto to head a new crisis committee.

Braga Netto was praised by Vice President Gen. Hamilton Mourão for “doing what we (the military) know, putting the house in order”, less than a week after Mourão celebrated the 1964 US-backed military coup that led to a 21-year military dictatorship, tweeting “56 years ago, the Armed Forces intervened to face the disorder, subversion and corruption that ravaged institutions and scared the population”.

Meanwhile, Army Commander Gen. Edson Leal Pujol issued a March 24 statement, warning: “The Strong Arm will act if necessary, and the Friendly Hand will be more extended than ever to our Brazilian brothers”, concluding “WE WILL FIGHT WITHOUT FEAR!”

It has been suggested that Braga Netto is now “operational president”, with Army support, at least for the duration of the Covid-19 crisis. On April 19, Bolsonaro joined demonstrations in Brasilia protesting coronavirus-related lockdowns, calling for a military coup outside Army headquarters!

The main objective of enhancing federal executive powers is expected to be preventing, and, if necessary, repressing an increasingly likely social explosion.

The post Covid-19: Brazil’s Bolsonaro trumps Trump appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Four women and a young child were detained at Ukiya Police Station in Cox's Bazar after police rescued them from being trafficking to Malaysia. Credit: Rafiqul Islam/IPS

By Rafiqul Islam
COX'S BAZAR , Apr 21 2020 (IPS)

Last week more than 396 starving Rohingyas were rescued off the coast of Bangladesh after being at sea for two months. At least 32 had died on the boat after it failed to reached Malaysia. While it was unclear at the time of the breaking news whether the refugees were from Myanmar, where they are originally from, or Bangladesh — where more than a million Rohingya Muslims live as refugees after fleeing violence in Myanmar in 2017 — the attempt to reach Malaysia is not a new one.

For years, Rohingya refugees have boarded boats, organised by traffickers, in the hope of finding refuge in Southeast Asia. Usually they make the 2,500 km sea voyage during the dry season from November to March while the waters are calm.

While there are no official figures from local police about the number of trafficking victims, a local crime reporter who asked not to be named told IPS that the numbers rank in the thousands.

“Around 350 people are trafficked from Cox’s Bazar in every trip. And there are six to seven such trips per month. About 1,500 to 2,000 people, on average, are being trafficked to Malaysia every month,” he told IPS.

• On Feb. 11, 15 Rohingyas, 11 women and four children, died as an overcrowded mechanised fishing boat illegally carrying 138 Rohingyas to Malaysia sunk in the Bay of Bengal, about 10 kilometres away from Saint Martin’s Island in Cox’s Bazar. 72 Rohingyas and three suspected traffickers were rescued alive.
• On the evening of Mar. 10, police rescued 15 Malaysia-bound Rohingyas, including six women and a child, from traffickers in Ukhiya, Cox’s Bazar.

The Rohingya are one of the most persecuted minorities in the world, they are denied citizenship in Myanmar and also restricted from freedom of movement, state education and civil service jobs.

• In 2017 more than 750,000 fled to neighbouring Bangladesh during what the United Nations later called genocide-like attacks by the Myanmar military. There had already been some hundreds of thousands Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh who had fled to the country prior this mass exodus. 

Some of those living in the Cox Bazar camps have attempted the irregular migration journey to Malaysia in the hope of earning an income and having a better life. But many of the so-called “work opportunities” they have been offered have proven to be trafficking scams.

A gang of human traffickers based in Malaysia have reportedly been luring Rohingya youth and young girls to the South Asian nation, working with local traffickers who visit Rohingya camps and identify possible targets.

“There is a section of people in Rohingya camps and they find the Rohingya girls, who look pretty, and those who could be trafficked,” Nurul Islam Majumder, a police inspector at Ukhiya Police Station in Cox’s Bazar, told IPS.

The Malaysian-based traffickers then call their targets and lure them into making the crossing to Malaysia by promising jobs or marriage. 

“And then they bring the victims to seashore though a specific route and they are trafficked to Malaysia by boats,” Majumder said.

Mukarrama was taken to Ukiya Police Station in Cox’s Bazar after police saved her with others who were attempting to travel irregularly to Malaysia. What they didn’t know was that they had been potentially caught in a human trafficking syndicate. Credit: Rafiqul Islam/IPS

16-year-old Mukarrama, how lived with her family in Bangladesh in the Kutopalong camp in Cox’s Bazar, was one of the young women who had been lured to Malaysia by the promise of marriage. But before she could leave the shores of Bangladesh she, and others with her, were discovered by authorities and returned to the camp. 

Her journey first started in 2019, when a man called her mobile and introduced himself as a Rohingya named Jubair. He was living in Malaysia, he told the young girl, and wanted to marry her.

What Mukarrama and her family did not know then was that he was part of a human trafficking syndicate. Jubair may not have been his real name.

Since her family’s escape from Myanmar, the family of five had been living in a single-roomed makeshift house without basic amenities. Built on a hill slope, the home is in a precarious position and vulnerable to destruction during the landslides that inevitably occur during the monsoons here.

Mukarrama and her family wanted a better life. So when Mukarrama told her parents about the call with Jubair, they agreed to the “proposal”. 

“With permission of my family, I got married with my husband over the phone one year ago,” Mukarrama told IPS while she was at a one-stop policing centre in Cox’s Bazar. She needed the legal services of the centre to re-enter the camp.

Since her “marriage”, Mukarrama was desperate to go Malaysia to join her husband. On Mar. 9, Jubair phoned her and said a local man would call her over the phone and ask her to follow him as he would help her travel to Malaysia.

“A person phoned me the next day morning and asked me to come to the gate of the Rohingya camp immediately. And when I came to the camp’s gate, he took me inside an auto-rickshaw…there were also two Rohingya girls and two youths in the rickshaw.

“We were taken into a jungle along the coastline in Cox’s Bazar to send us to Malaysia by a wooden boat on the rough sea route,” Mukarrama remembered.

“A group of brokers gathered us in a jungle and just before [we boarded] a boat for sending us to Malaysia, we were rescued by police.”   

Local brokers often gather the persons to be trafficked, particularly adolescent girls and boys, at isolated places along shores.

Mukarrama had been fortunate. As there have been reports of extortion and physical assault of the victims before they board the boats. 

“Before putting us on a boat in a night, they (local brokers) had tried to rape us in an isolated place. And that’s why we started screaming. Hearing our crying, local people recovered us and handed over to police,” a trafficking survivor who did not wish to be named told IPS.

Local crime reporter Mahmudul Haque Babul told IPS that once in Malaysia the abuse continues: “Once Rohingyas reach Malaysia, traffickers demand a big amount of ransom from the family members of victims. If the families of women victims fail to give the ransom, the women are sold for prostitution abroad.”

According to the Global Sustainability Network (GSN), trafficking remains an issue globally as “there are many incentives for people to exploit others for financial gain and as a result many people profit. It’s therefore a thriving business with a strong hold in countless sectors and at multiple levels. It will be defended with vigour”.

Rasheda Begum (19), another trafficking survivor, told IPS that she had married fellow refugee Mohammd Ilias when she was only 15. He left for Malaysia shortly after via the irregular sea route.

“Since then, we have not united and that’s why I wanted to join my husband any way,” she said, revealing that her long-cherished wish was to join her husband in Malaysia.

Recalling the dark days when the Myanmar military burnt their houses and killed Rohingyas in Rakhine State, Begum said: “Nothing remains in my life. Brokers lured me to help go Malaysia and meet my husband.”           

But fortunately she and the others being trafficked with her were discovered by authorities and returned to Cox’s Bazar.

Citing official statistics, Majumder said that so far in 2020 five cases linked to human trafficking were recorded with the Ukhiya Police Station, adding that law enforcement agencies were doing their best to combat the crime.

“If the authorities concerned do not install strong boundary fences around the Rohingya refugee camps, it would be very hard for the law enforcing agencies to check human trafficking here. Deploying only 300 to 400 police personnel around the refugee camps, it would be quite impossible to bring forcibly displaced Rohingyas under surveillance,” he added.    

In a recent statement, the U.N. Refugee Agency said they, along with the Bangladesh government, had been working to raise awareness among the refugees and local people on the issues of trafficking and risks they face. The U.N. is also supporting the strengthening of law enforcement capacities to address smuggling and trafficking, while support is also available to trafficking survivors, the statement read.

This is part of a series of features from across the globe on human trafficking. IPS coverage is supported by the Airways Aviation Group.

The Global Sustainability Network ( GSN ) is pursuing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal number 8 with a special emphasis on Goal 8.7 which ‘takes immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking and secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including recruitment and use of child soldiers, and by 2025 end child labour in all its forms’.

The origins of the GSN come from the endeavours of the Joint Declaration of Religious Leaders signed on 2 December 2014. Religious leaders of various faiths, gathered to work together “to defend the dignity and freedom of the human being against the extreme forms of the globalisation of indifference, such us exploitation, forced labour, prostitution, human trafficking” and so forth.

 

Related Articles

• Concerns for the Nearly 400 Rohingya Refugees Rescued off the Coast of Bangladesh
• Little Hope of Justice for Rohingya, Two Years after Exodus

The post Dying for a Better Life – How Rohingya Refugees Risk their Lives to Cross into Malaysia appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Last week almost 400 Rohingyas were rescued off the coast of Bangladesh after being at sea for two months after their boat failed to reach Malaysia. But the case is not a new one as each month thousands board boats from refugee camps in Bangladesh in an attempt to irregularly migrate to Malaysia.

The post Dying for a Better Life – How Rohingya Refugees Risk their Lives to Cross into Malaysia appeared first on Inter Press Service.

British-Somalis have been badly hit in both economic and human terms.

Thomas Thabane has been accused of being involved in the murder of his estranged wife.

By Fahmida Hasan
Apr 20 2020 (IPS-Partners)

While one-fourth of the world’s population is under home-quarantine to contain the spread of the novel Covid-19 pandemic, another crisis is brewing behind closed doors—domestic violence.

Research shows that in emergencies be it conflicts, economic crisis or during disease outbreaks, there has been a repeat pattern of increase in domestic abuse, therefore abusers and their partners having to self-isolate together at home may lead to a rise in new and pre-existing abusive behaviour and violence.

The warning signs were first shown in China where domestic violence reports more than tripled. A similar pattern was reported in Singapore (33 percent increase), Australia (40 percent increase), Brazil (40 percent increase), and India (100 percent increase). With the spread of the pandemic to Europe, there is a surge in the “shadow pandemic” (as UN termed domestic violence) as reported by Italy (13.6 percent increase), Spain (18 percent increase), France (30 percent increase), and Cyprus (30 percent increase). The UK reported an increase of 25 percent and the USA reported upto 35 percent increase in cases.

The situation undoubtedly is no different in Bangladesh if not worse. On April 15, the country saw its first domestic violence fatality since the lockdown began, when Obaidul Haque Tutul brutally murdered his wife, Tahmina Akhter, 28 with a sharp weapon at home while streaming on Facebook Live in Sadar upazila of Feni district. Obaidul then turned himself to Feni Model Police Station and confessed to the killing.

Violence against women and girls has always been a social, cultural and economic problem in Bangladesh. Nearly two-thirds of women have experienced gender-based violence during their lifetime. According to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, 54.2 percent of married women face physical and sexual intimate partner violence. Bangladesh enacted the Suppression of Violence against Women and Children Act in 2000 targeting rape, trafficking, and kidnapping and the Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Act in 2010 criminalising domestic violence. Despite having legislation in place the implementation of the laws largely remains complex.

It is well-documented that isolation is generally used by many perpetrators as a “tool of control” and the conditions created by the pandemic is the perfect opportunity for domestic abuse to flourish. In addition to physical violence, which may not be true in every abusive relationship, spending concentrated periods of time with the abuser potentially means constant surveillance and further restricting their freedom.

As reported by Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK), between January and March 2020, 42 women were murdered by their husbands in Bangladesh. Manusher Jonno Foundation (MJF) notes that more than 300 incidences of domestic violence, and 36 rape incidents occurred in March in three districts alone, namely, Bogura, Jamalpur and Cox’s Bazar.

In response to mounting domestic violence cases, Italy launched a new app that will enable victims to ask for help without making a phone call and ruled that the abuser must leave the family home, not the victim.

The United Kingdom introduced contacting options for help through websites which ensures no record of the attempt is left on the phone and anyone in immediate danger can call 999 and press 55 on a mobile if they are unable to talk. There have been calls to turn underused hotel chains and university halls into emergency accommodation and need for increased public messaging, through supermarkets, pharmacies and other appropriate avenues, to provide information on the means by which victims can alert the police for help; and special police powers to evict perpetrators from homes and for authorities to waive court fees for the protection orders. There are campaigns in the UK (#Listeningfromhome) and Germany that advises and educates people to be vigilant and encourages them to seek help if they hear or observe incidents indicating domestic violence.

In China, women in dire need of fleeing their homes were able to access permits to leave the city and escape their abusers—with the hashtag #AntiDomesticViolenceDuringEpidemic trending on social media. India campaigns “Suppress corona, not your voice,” and have launched a new domestic violence helpline and engaged female officers to handle cases.

The lockdown pertaining to the prevention of the covid-19 spread in Bangladesh has essentially shattered support networks, making it far more difficult for victims to get help or escape their aggressor. One immediate effect of being confined with the abuser is not only are women more vulnerable to domestic abuse but are also less likely to be able to make an emergency telephone call in fear of being overheard by the abusers.

Additional financial burdens due to increased unemployment, salary cuts, looking after children full-time and more hours at home with increased household labour adds insult to injury. Amid social distancing requirements, restricted mobility preventing relocation to family homes in other areas, and pressing financial constraints, staying with friends or relatives became impracticable. Research suggests that the heightened domestic tensions and concern of financial uncertainty brought by the pandemic only adds to the burden of violence. Victims could be denied medical attention and made to feel guilty for falling ill. Emotional and mental abuse may soon turn physical.

It is likely that in times like this, support groups and police would not be of much help to victims and will ask them to tolerate the violence reasoning this period of lockdown to be not the right time. It is an expected response as a pandemic such as this is unprecedented and the law enforcement agencies are overburdened. However, as with the response to the virus itself, delays mean that irreparable harm may already have occurred. Police need to train and transfer resources in emergency situations especially because it is extremely difficult for women trapped and controlled at home to reach out for help. The recent media coverage of police and military beating and punishing people who were out on the streets may also act as a deterrent to stepping out to report by victims.

Experts warn that as the lockdown continues, the danger is likely to intensify- fear of the perpetrator inside the house and the virus outside. Soon homicide cases, like Tahminas will escalate amidst personal crisis.

It is therefore imperative that the Bangladesh government step in to provide leadership in this area. Urgent steps have to be taken to ensure that anyone experiencing domestic abuse can seek protection during this Covid-19 crisis and be placed in a safe place. The government should say loud and clear that people should leave home if they need to do so for their safety and that services are open for them.

Dedicated and responsive emergency helpline numbers and websites need to be launched. Domestic violence services should be classified as “essential” and support workers should be classified as “key” workers. Organisations providing domestic violence support and services must get an emergency financial package from the government to ensure shelters and other support services remain operational. Avenues for help including helpline numbers and websites need to be advertised widely at all media platforms including social media platforms, electronic and print media, public messaging, through supermarkets, pharmacies and other appropriate areas.

This must also include simple ways to contact and alert the police of the need of urgent help, such as text messages or online chats, and the use of code words with doctors or pharmacists. Law enforcement agencies need to lodge complaints and take immediate and effective measures while maintaining confidentially and safety of victims. Cooperation between authorities, law enforcement agencies and support workers cannot be understated to tackle this crisis. Local authorities should turn vacant hotels and public university halls to emergency accommodation where victims could quarantine safely. The women and children who show signs of physical or sexual abuse or domestic violence need to be provided with medical treatment, psychological counselling, and other assistance, like legal aid.

In rural and remote areas of Bangladesh, where possession of mobile phone by households are uncommon or are limited to men, lighter-touch interventions, like less regular community meetings, and check-ins will curb the abusive behaviour of intimate partners as they would believe that they are likelier to get caught if they are abusive. These kinds of programmes are also fairly inexpensive and like the lockdown itself, these could be lifesaving measures.

Being stuck at home because of coronavirus is difficult for everyone, but it becomes a real nightmare for victims of domestic violence. A crucial safety net therefore must be offered to some of the most at risk women, children and anyone vulnerable to abuse in order to triumph over the immediate and long-term impact of this corona virus crisis.

Barrister Fahmida Hasan is a practicing lawyer in the UK specialising in immigration, asylum and human rights laws.

Email: hasanfahmida87@gmail.com

This story was originally published by The Daily Star, Bangladesh

The post Addressing the rise in domestic violence during lockdown appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Jan Lundius
STOCKHOLM / ROME, Apr 20 2020 (IPS)

Epidemic diseases are not random events that afflict societies capriciously and without warning, on the contrary, every society produces its own specific vulnerabilities. To study them is to understand the importance of a society’s structure, its standard of living, and its political priorities. […] Epidemics are a mirror, they show who we really are: Our ethics, beliefs, and socio-economic relationships.
                                                                                                                                                          Frank Snowden 1

After contagion, the symptoms of the Ebola Virus become evident between two days and three weeks – vomiting, diarrhoea and rash as victims begin to bleed both internally and externally, an average of 50 percent of the afflicted will die. The disease was first identified in 1976. The largest outbreak to date was in West Africa, between December 2013 and January 2016, with 11,323 deaths.2

A two year-old-boy, Emile Ouamono, used to play with his friends in a huge hollow tree close to Meliandou, a small village in Guinea. On March 14, 2014, the tree caught fire and ”a rain of fruit bats” descended on the village, they had apparently been living in the old tree. Six months later, Emile was dead from Ebola. After investigating bat spilling, collected from the site of the burnt down tree, researchers could establish that they were the original cause of the deadly infection.3 The bats had originally been living in dense jungle canopies, though when the huge trees had been cut down to make way for oil palms the bats had been forced to move closer to human dwellings.

COVID-19 was apparently also spread by forest-living bats. In this case they had probably infected ant-eating pangolins, which meat was sold at wet markets in Wuhan. Everything indicates that it is humanity’s ruthless abuse of earth’s forests and their resources, coupled with an ever-progressing globalization, that is the most significant cause of the current proliferation of COVID-19.

Some years ago, I flew across the Congo basin. Looking down at the jungle deep below I could not discern any roads. Occasionally a village could be glimpsed by the brink of one of the many waterways, which meandered through the compact greenery. Kinshasa, proved to be completely different. With a population of approximately 15 million, growing at a speed with at least one million per year, it had except for some skyscrapers and villas the appearance of being a gargantuan shanty town. Most of the metropolis’s exceptionally straight and long streets were lined with makeshift hovels. The contrast between the lack of roads in the jungle and the grid of paths, streets and main roads in Kinshasa, where it lay spread out on the southern banks of the wide, sluggishly moving Congo river, could not be greater. This made me remember the opening lines of Ben Okri’s The Famished Road – ”In the beginning there was a river. The river became a road and the road branched out to the whole world. And because the road was once a river it was always hungry.”4

The Famished Road constitutes a bewildering reading experience. A magic mirror which accurately depicts the world we live in, though seen through the eyes and mind of a boy who is far from being a common child. Azaro is a spirit child, an abiku, who divides his existence between a West African shanty town and the Spirit World. Due to the love Azaro has for the family of mortals he has been allotted to stay with for a while, he decides to remain with it, acting as a son to his poor parents. He neither forgets, nor severs his ties with the Spirit World. However, the spirits constantly keep summoning Azaru to return to their realm, though he resists all their attempts to lure him back.

Ben Okri who lives in London, though he spent his childhood and youth in Nigeria, explains that: ”We all have an Africa within […] but this Africa has been made sick by the economic, political and ecological troubles of the Africa outside, [severed from] the Africa of myths and legends, storytelling and playfulness; the Africa of paradox, proverbs, and surprise; the Africa of magic, faith, patience and endurance; the Africa of a profound knowledge of nature’s ways and the secret cycles of destiny.”5

In Yoruba mythology, where Okri finds much of his inspiration, the forest is associated with magic and other supernatural manifestations. It is where the spirits dwell. The great Yoruba author Amos Tutuola told in his My Life in the Bush of Ghosts from 1954 about a small boy lost in the jungle and through his experiences Tutuola explored a world inhabited by spirits, demons and gods. A threshold existence between our concrete, visible communities and The Other World, dwelling place of mysterious and innumerable stories.

The Famished Road takes place in an unnamed African country, where globalization and neocolonial exploitation expose the fragility of our natural environment. Azaro tells his story in a straightforward and deceptively naïve manner. It is a visionary, poetic tale, filled to the brim with verbal pictures of a cruel, beguiling, strangely tender and poor community, harassed by corrupt politicians, thugs, profiteers and parasites. Passions explode in violence, or heart-felt empathy, while everything is engulfed in poverty and a constant struggle for survival.

The Famished Road that apparently describes a West African society by the beginning of the 1960s predicts a future where human agency will destroy nature in an irremediable manner. Azaro’s position between a concrete, visible world and a vanishing invisible Spirit World unfolds in a strangely repetitive way. The tale may occasionally appear as a poetic chant that induces its reader in something akin to a meditative state of mind. The cycle of birth, death and rebirth of the abiku Azaru and his continuous threshold existence between childhood and youth, as a celestial being and a suffering human, seems to depict a state of perpetual hardship, a Culture of Poverty marked by endless repetition and arrested development. It appears as if not much is happening in the novel. However, while the reader is gently rocked into the novel’s dreamy atmosphere s/he soon discovers that the society Okri describes in reality is undergoing violent transformations – politically, culturally and above all ecologically. Events seem to be circular, though they are actually spiralling towards disaster.

The dirt and violence which characterize life in the ghetto where Azaro spends his perpetual childhood are depicted as a consequence of colonial and neocolonial policies pushing the community towards a chaotic and mindless urbanization. The forest is destroyed and cut down. It will soon cease to be an abode of resistance against alienating commercialism and rectified thinking. It will no longer be a domain of vegetal power and natural energy opposing human greed, violence and inanity. Azaro spends most of his time wandering around in his ghetto, occasionally walking into the nearby forest, or sitting in Madame Koto’s bar, while constantly bearing witness to a slowly changing scenery; the rivalry between The Party of the Poor and The Party of the Rich, both equally manipulative, and increasingly wealthy people who promote deforestation and a building frenzy accompanied but a constant destruction of nature.

The forest is Azaro´s second home. He calls it ”an overcrowded marketplace” and it is swarming with shape shifting animals, monsters and spirits, so numerous that they mutate, continually changing appearance and voices. Insects, lizards, snakes, spirits and birds are moving into the shanty town, some of them are carrying messages to Azaro, others attack him. He is aware that his entire world finds itself in a state of anomaly. Humans´ ruthless onslaught on nature will eventually destroy everything. The fragile balance between humans and nature is already irreversibly upset. The future will bring disease and alienation: ”Steadily, over days and months, the paths had been widening. Bushes were being burnt, tall grasses cleared, tree stumps uprooted. The area was changing […] In the distance I could hear the sounds of dredging, of engines, of road builders, forest clearers, and workmen chanting as they strained their muscles. Each day the area seemed different. […] The world was changing and I went on wandering as if everything would always be the same.”6 Azaro’s father tells him:“Sooner than you think there won’t be one tree standing. There will be no forest left at all. And there will be wretched houses all over the place. This is where the poor people will live […] This is where you will live.”7

This is where we all live. Everything is interconnected; the fate of the poor is also the fate of the wealthy. What we are doing to nature is now affecting us all, global warming is one result, epidemics another. The only way to stop this is to act in unison – our future depends on it; especially that of our children and grandchildren, and all generations following them.

The bleak future depicted in The Famished Road is already here. For a long time, we have known that anomalies caused by humans generate natural disasters – inundations, draughts and epidemics, still we remain unprepared to meet the consequences. What happens if COVID-19 hits the poor people living in mega cities in the Southern Hemisphere, cites like Kinshasa, or São Paulo with its 22 million inhabitants, Dhaka (20 million), Mumbai (18 million), Lagos (14 million), Jakarta and Manila with 11 million?

Since Ben Okri wrote his novel, most of Nigeria’s forests have disappeared. Last year, the Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF) reported that Nigeria has lost 96 percent of its natural forest cover and deforestation rate is at an alarming 11 percent per annum.8 Thousands of animal species have lost their habitat. This is happening all over the world, for example has Indonesia since 2001 lost 37 percent of its rain forests, while Brazil lost 45 percent.9 The spread of epidemics may be only one indication of the hardships that might be in store for us all if we continue with our overexploitation of natural resources.

1 Snowden, Frank (2019) Epidemics and Society: From the Black Death to the Present. New Haven CT: Yale University Press.
2 https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/ebola-virus-disease
3 https://www.bbc.com/news/health-30632453
4 Okri, Ben (2016) The Famished Road: 25th Anniversary Edition. London: Vintage, p. 3.
5 Okri, Ben (2011) A Time for New Dreams. London: Rider, pp. 134-135.
6 Okri (2016), p. 122.
7 Ibid, p. 42.
8 https://economicconfidential.com/2019/03/challenge-of-deforestation-nigeria/
9 https://news.mongabay.com/by/ongabay-com/

Jan Lundius holds a PhD. on History of Religion from Lund University and has served as a development expert, researcher and advisor at SIDA, UNESCO, FAO and other international organisations.

The post Haunting Forest Spirits – is Mother Nature Striking Back? appeared first on Inter Press Service.

ActionAid Vanuatu conducted COVID 19 awareness and TC Harold early warning preparedness for islanders. Cyclone TC Harold made landfall on the South Pacific island nation this month. Courtesy: ActionAid Vanuatu

By Neena Bhandari
SYDNEY, Apr 20 2020 (IPS)

Sitting atop a banyan tree branch, Fiona Robyn had a cell phone tightly clasped in her fist raised high to get a signal. She was impatiently waiting for the SMS weather alert from the Women’s Wetem Weta (Women’s Weather Watch (WWW)) hub in Port Vila as cyclone TC Harold raged towards the Republic of Vanuatu in the South Pacific Ocean on Apr. 5.

No sooner had she received the message, Robyn, a WWW leader in Eton on the eastern coast of Efate island in Vanuatu, immediately swung into action. She began mobilising other women and youth to help widows, the physically challenged and older people secure their roofs, store food and clean water, secure documents in air tight containers, and move those in unsafe houses to the local school serving as an evacuation centre.

When natural disasters strike, women are the first responders for their families and communities. The WWW programme is giving women in remote areas access to appropriate timely information, and building their capacity and confidence to communicate complex scientific weather and climate information from the Meteorological Department in simple “disaster ready” warnings to prepare for cyclones, floods, droughts and volcanic eruptions.

“Women in my community are taking lead in disaster preparedness, emergency and humanitarian crises situations. Our husbands are beginning to acknowledge this transformation,” Robyn told IPS. She is one of about 60 WWW leaders aged between 18 and 33 years, who are working on the frontline in Erromango and Tanna islands in Shefa province, and in Efate island in Tafea province of Vanuatu, which is recognised as one of the most vulnerable countries to the impacts of climate change and disasters in the world.

In 2015, Cyclone Pam had seriously harmed the livelihoods of over 40,000 households and resulted in economic damages accounting for 64 percent of the country’s GDP. This month, TC Harold made landfall at Category 5 causing wide scale damage to infrastructure and vegetable and food gardens.

Global women’s rights organisation, ActionAid is collaborating with Shifting the Power Coalition (StPC), a regional alliance of 13 women-led civil society organisations from six Pacific Forum member countries, WWW, Women I Tok Tok Tugeta (WITTT), a coalition of women leader groups, and the National Disaster Management System in supporting local women through training, network building and research to ensure women’s rights and needs are addressed in climate change and humanitarian disaster response.

“Some of our women are dealing with six crises currently – COVID 19, drought, scarcity of potable water, and volcanic ash, acid rain and sulphur gas as we have several active volcanoes,” ActionAid Vanuatu’s country programme manager, Flora Vano told IPS from the WWW hub in the country’s capital, Port Vila.

The hub is a message bank, where information received from the Meteorological Department and women leaders is stored and shared.

“It is a two-way communication process which is enabling women to become leaders in disaster planning and adaptation. For example, women leaders will message the hub that a cyclone is approaching and we don’t have water supply. We relay this information to the Department of Water so they can help the community.

“Similarly, women will message about crops being damaged by a pest. We convey this information to the Department of Agriculture, who in turn informs us of what the community needs to do or they will send officials on the ground to ensure food security,” Vano said.

The messaging service, a combination of SMS and in-person for remote areas, has reached 77,000 people or nearly a quarter of Vanuatu’s population.

“Each woman leader looks after three to four villages and in each village, the women convene their own sister circles. They communicate weather alerts in local languages so women can understand and take requisite action. For example, if there is a gale force wind warning, we explain that this level of wind speed means it can move a thatched roof house or if there is a mango or coconut tree near the house, there is high probability of it falling and damaging the house,” Vano added.

When natural disasters strike, women are the first responders for their families and communities. ActionAid Vanuatu conducted COVID 19 awareness and TC Harold early warning preparedness for islanders. Courtesy: ActionAid Vanuatu

WWW, which is recognised as the gender best practice by the World Meteorological Organisation, is an inter-operable information and communication system that was adapted for Vanuatu by Sharon Bhagwan-Rolls, technical adviser of StPC, based on the Fiji Women’s Weather Watch.  Bhagwan-Rolls developed the system with and for rural women so that they could access meteorological information to enhance disaster preparedness, and have their own channels of communication to share reports to ensure local and national disaster response is inclusive and accountable to women of all diversities. 

StPC focuses on strengthening the collective power, influence and leadership of Pacific women in responding to disasters and climate change. It shows how local information becomes not just national, but also regional and it has given women the opportunity to participate in national and international forums and influence the agenda on disaster preparedness and climate change adaptation.

“The new Pacific Young Women Responding to Climate Change programme supported by the Australia Pacific Climate Partnership, which we are rolling out shortly, is engaging with young women and looking at demystifying climate science and information in a way that it not only boosts disaster preparedness plans, but also how information from meteorological/weather office can be used to improve planning of health programmes, food security and women’s leadership in new livelihood initiatives offering economic alternatives,” Bhagwan-Rolls told IPS.

“It will build the capacity of young women while utilising the traditional, indigenous knowledge of older women and marrying it with science to use climate service information a lot better. In Pacific Island countries, the traditional village development planning committees tend to be led by men. Through collaboration of the StPC, women leaders are learning how to engage with traditional leaders, and faith leaders because our church community is very strong,” Bhagwan-Rolls added.

Vanuatu, like most Pacific Island countries, except Tonga and Palau, has ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), but gender inequalities exist.

“In most countries in the Global South, women are at the frontlines of the global climate emergency. It is critical to involve women in decision making on climate action. Supporting women to take leadership positions in emergencies not only ensures that women’s immediate needs are addressed, it also has a lasting positive impact on gender equality, particularly in countries like Vanuatu where women have no voice in the National Parliament,” says Carol Angir, ActionAid Australia’s programme manager for Women’s Rights and Emergencies.

Members of the 2018 and 2019 G7 Gender Equality Advisory Councils, including Women Deliver, an international organisation advocating around the world for gender equality and the health and rights of girls and women, are urgently calling on G7 member states to take into account the gendered dimensions of the COVID-19 crisis and to prevent the deterioration of gender equality and women’s rights worldwide.

In a letter, they are urging governments to take special measures to support healthcare and social workers, create additional emergency shelter spaces, ensure immediate removal of abusers from homes, keep all girls engaged in learning, guarantee access to sexual and reproductive health services, and provide free menstrual and modern contraception products for girls and women.

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The post How Some Pacific Women are Responding to Climate Change and Natural Disasters appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Women in the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu are dealing with six crises currently – COVID 19, drought, scarcity of potable water, and volcanic ash, acid rain and sulphur gas as there are several active volcanoes on the island. But global women’s rights organisations are collaborating with regional alliances in supporting local women.

The post How Some Pacific Women are Responding to Climate Change and Natural Disasters appeared first on Inter Press Service.

The map from the medical journal Plos Medicine displays BCG vaccination policy by country. Bacillus Calmette-Guérin vaccine is a vaccine primarily used against tuberculosis. Yellow: The country now has a universal BCG vaccination program. Blue: The country used to recommend BCG vaccination for everyone, but now does not. Red: The country never had a universal vaccination program.

By Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, Apr 20 2020 (IPS)

Numerous studies in many parts of the world have linked the BCG (Bacillus Calmette-Guerin) vaccination, widely used in the developing world with fewer Coronavirus cases. This is good news for countries that have universal BCG vaccination in tropical Asia and Africa.

Many of these countries cannot afford extended lock downs and curfews since the ensuring economic and supply chain disruption, loss of livelihoods, and poverty could kill more people in the long term.

Originally developed against Tuberculosis (TB), the hundred-year-old BCG vaccine offers broad protection and sharply reduce the incidence of respiratory infections, while also preventing infant deaths from a variety of causes.

According to Prof Luke O’Neill, who has specialised in the study of the vaccine at Trinity College Dublin, a combination of reduced morbidity and mortality could make the 100-year-old BCG vaccination a game-changer in the fight against coronavirus.

While there is no specific cure for Covid-19, the BCG maybe a flak-jacket against the Coronavirus. Experts note that the vaccine seems to “train” the immune system to recognize and respond to a variety of infections, including viruses, bacteria and parasites.

The vaccine is now being tested in several countries including Australia, Germany and Netherlands against the new Coronavirus – to protect frontline health workers.

In many countries of the global south’s tropical regions, Covid 19 cases and deaths are in single digits, double digits or hundreds; certainly not in the thousands, unlike in the US and EU, and other temperate regions where the Coronavirus seems more virulent.

This variation has been attributed to differences in climate, cultural norms, mitigation efforts, and health infrastructure. Research indicating that countries whose populations have high levels of BCG vaccination had significantly fewer Covid-19 deaths is highly significant.

Countries that do not have universal policies of BCG vaccination, such as Italy, the Netherlands, and the United States, have been more severely affected compared to countries with universal and long-standing BCG policies,” noted Gonzalo Otazu, assistant professor of biomedical sciences at NYIT.

BCG flattens the disease curve since countries that use BCG vaccination programs had a fatality rate of four per million people, while countries without BCG vaccination programs were 10 times more likely to die at a rate of 40 deaths per million people.

While he stressed the research was largely a statistical one and so came with caveats, there was a case for authorities moving to provide a BCG vaccine top-up for everybody age over 70. “This is feasible and should be considered.

BCG in South Asia

In South Asia, the vaccine has been universally used for decades. India and Pakistan started using BCG in 1948 and in Sri Lanka, BCG vaccination became mandatory in 1949, according to the Ministry of Health epidemiology unit. Compared to case numbers in Europe and North America, and relative to population size South Asian countries have registered low numbers and Covid 19 case load.

Three weeks after a pandemic was declared by the World Health Organization (WHO), it is increasingly clear from the Covid 19 data that Asian countries which practice universal BCG vaccination are relatively better positioned to fight Coronavirus — despite the crippling curfews that saw millions of migrant labourers walking hundreds of miles and dying in the process to get home.

In addition to BCG, hot and humid tropical weather may be another factor inhibiting the spread and strength of the Covid 19 flu in South Asia. Countries that have a late start of universal BCG policy (Iran, 1984) had high mortality, consistent with the idea that BCG protects the vaccinated elderly population.

Pakistan, a country with 200 million people that did not impose the crippling curfews that neighbouring India and Sri Lanka did, had 4,072 patients with 59 deaths on April 10. Pakistan Prime Minister, Imran Khan, sensibly pointed out that more people would die of poverty caused by lockdowns in the long run.

In Sri Lanka where a brutal curfew was imposed, there have been under 210 Covid 19 cases with 7 deaths, and India a country with more than a billion people has reported 9,000 cases over 3 weeks.

There have been only 12,434 confirmed cases in all 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member states, a miniscule number compared to China, Italy, Spain and the United States, and about the same as Canada, a country of just 37.6 million compared to Southeast Asia’s 622 million.

While lack of testing may be cited as a reason for the relatively low numbers, by now – three weeks after Covid-19 was declared a global pandemic and months after the epidemic in neighbouring China – the region surely should have expected an explosion of cases similar to Italy and Spain.

Clearly in tropical Asian countries, including those with poor health systems the epidemic is far more limited.

This fact raises questions about the Indian and Sri Lankan government’s imposition of economically devastating and socially crippling curfews at the urging of the WHO and Johns Hopkins University (JHU) which is collecting Covid 19 data for a global database, while providing analysis seeming based on simulated pandemic from the mysterious EVENT 201 which was staged last October with the WHO and Gates Foundation and others modeling a fictional novel coronavirus.

WHO’s data and policy recommendations

The bad news is that the World Health Organization (WHO) which is funded by States and big pharmaceutical companies that are rushing to develop Covid 19 vaccines and make big profits,claims on its website that :

“there is no evidence that the Bacille Calmette-Guérin vaccine (BCG) protects people against infection with COVID-19 virus. Two clinical trials addressing this question are underway, and WHO will evaluate the evidence when it is available. In the absence of evidence, WHO does not recommend BCG vaccination for the prevention of COVID-19..

The WHO’s pandemic narrative and call for lockdowns to fight Covid 19 that have caused massive livelihood loss and economic meltdowns in countries like India and Sri Lanka (with the GMOA in tow), have not been modulated by the evidence that the BCG vaccine may act as barrier to the disease.

In short, while the BCG may be a ‘game changer’ in the long run, also in assisting development of herd immunity which would mitigate need for harsh curfews imposed in developing countries that cannot afford shutdowns, the WHO denies this. Heaven forbid that a BCG booster may be the solution in front of us!

There are parallels in the WHO’s denial that the anti-Malaria drug Hydroxychloroquine could be beneficial for Covid 19 patients, while pushing for development of new drugs and vaccines that would bring big profits to drug companies, although researchers in France and China had reported success with the drug.

Increasingly, questions are being raised about the WHO’s Covid19 data, models and analysis. Professor Jay Battacharya of Stanford University has noted that “the claim that coronavirus would kill millions without shelter-in-place orders and quarantines is highly questionable”.

In an interview at the Hoover Institute he observed: “there’s little evidence to confirm that premise—and projections of the death toll could plausibly be orders of magnitude too high.” Fear of Covid-19 is based on its high estimated case fatality rate—2% to 4% of people with confirmed Covid-19, according to the World Health Organization and others.

Drs. Eran Bendavid and Jay Bhattacharya argue that Covid-19 isn’t as deadly as suggested and suggest that the “extraordinary measures” being pushed by the WHO may not be justified. Their argument is that the total number of coronavirus infections is much higher than we think, which mathematically means the mortality rate is much lower.

Exaggeration using war metaphors and nationalism has characterized the WHO’s Covid pandemic narrative. However, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington School of Medicine now predicts that fewer people will die and fewer hospital beds will be needed compared to estimates from last week.

As of last week, the model predicted the virus will kill 60,000 people in the United States over the next four months – 33,000 fewer deaths than estimated last Thursday.

In India, the WHO this week was compelled to correct an exaggeration in a report that claimed that Covid19 had reached level 3 – community spread severity. In Sri Lanka several doctors have challenged Covid 19 case numbers and suggested that there is inflation and data manipulation.

We know very little about the virus, but shut down your economies –WHO

“Better to get Corona than see our harvest rotting without customers’, said a famer at the shuttered vegetable wholesale market in Dambulla, central Sri Lanka recently, indicating that there is no trade off to be made between lives and livelihoods as you cannot have one without the other especially in developing countries with high poverty rates.

Farmer suicide rates in South Asia tend to be high due to poverty and debt.

Would the WHO and its director general who called to congratulate the strongman President of Sri Lanka for imposing an indiscriminate and economically destructive month long curfew with military enforcement also count the deaths of farmers, wage-less day labourers and migrant workers who make up the greater part of the labour force who walked hundreds of miles to get home after the imposition of brutal lock downs in India with just 4 hours advanced notice?

WHO’s Covid 19 global media narrative (Al Jazeera CNN, BBC etc), has concentrated on hyping up fear psychosis and groupthink, based on data from Europe and North America, while suppressing mitigating information in the global south.

This has resulted in economically devastating policy making in India and Sri Lanka and a devil’s bargain – an attempt to trade off lives with livelihoods.

The flood of Covid data and information in the media, masks a lack of adequate data disaggregation, comparative analysis and modelling by geographic region and country, as well as, an ahistorical approach. After all, seasonal flu is known to infect over a billion people and kill as many as 750,000 people annually according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

The crippling curfews and destruction of the real economy in India and Sri Lanka reveals serious short comings in national and South Asian (SAARC) regional data analysis, planning and policy making, by the Modi and Rajapaksa governments, and allied medical associations like the Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA), as well as, the failure to access regional expertise.

Claims that curfews and lockdowns cannot end until a vaccine is found, reflect bias toward big pharmaceutical companies that also fund research and the WHO, which stand to profit from a new “gold standard” Covonavirrus vaccine.

Surveillance, fear and groupthink

Although the great majority of people who get Corona virus will have mild symptom and survive well, with the creation of a Coronavirus global fear psychosis, economies have been shut down, livelihoods destroyed, and democratic rights compromised as new systems of surveillance and governance are being put in place – for patient network tracking.

In Sri Lanka a brand new USAID funded hospital exclusively for Covid 19 patients has been constructed with promised funding or USD 1.3 million at the former Voice of America compound in Chilaw, equipped with robots, and surveillance technologies “to activate case finding and event-based surveillance, with technical experts for response and preparedness.

The Covid-19 outbreak reveals how pervasive surveillance mechanisms developed in the last decade or so have become. In a strategically located country like Sri Lanka with an under-developed tech sector, foreign countries may access private data platforms via such surveillance platforms is a concern.

Meanwhile, US President Trump’s withdrawal of funds from WHO citing China bias distracts from a more substantive bias at WHO toward big drug companies and related foundations that stand to make a windfall from a Covid 19 vaccine, as well as, related data and policy manipulated that constitute a danger to the health and well-being, lives and livelihood of people everywhere.

This bias is also shared among medical associations like the Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA), in Sri Lanka.

As Professor Nyasa Mboti of Free Town University, wrote: : “by its own admission, WHO seems to have declared Covid19 a pandemic IN ORDER to avert a Covid19 pandemic. This seems illogical. You cannot be in a pandemic that has not YET started, and you can only avert a crisis that has NOT YET taken place.

The current global coronavirus crisis is proof that global agencies such as the WHO can actually cause irreparable harm. Perhaps their global roles need to be called into serious question. “

The post BCG Vaccine Fighting Coronavirus in South Asia appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake is an independent researcher affiliated with the International Centre for Ethnic Studies (ICES) in Sri Lanka.

The post BCG Vaccine Fighting Coronavirus in South Asia appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Thousands of illegal gold mines tempt children into potentially lucrative but very dangerous work.

The BBC investigates allegations of exploitation in Spain's fruit and vegetable growing region Almeria.

Kenyans worry about being put into coronavirus quarantine where conditions are said to be like prison.

The 44 men were taken into custody around Lake Chad during an offensive against Islamist militants.

Somali musician Ahmed Ismail Hussein Hudeidi died in London from coronavirus at the age of 91.

The Holy Fire ceremony goes ahead in Jerusalem as most worshippers worldwide are told to stay at home.

Thomas Thabane, accused of killing his wife in 2017, says he is deploying soldiers to restore order.

The recent peace between once bitter enemies Ethiopia and Eritrea has transformed lives there.

The death of local footballer Edmond Bangura, who was just 24, in Sierra Leone has sparked concerns he may have died of coronavirus given his tender age.

Large crowds gathering at food markets have made social distancing impossible for many.

Elsie Kubie is alive and well, but a post using her photo wrongly claimed she had died of Covid-19.

This playground just outside the Slovak capital, Bratislava, was sealed off to stop people spreading the virus. Similar measures were in place in cities and towns across Europe. Credit: Ed Holt/IPS

By Samira Sadeque
UNITED NATIONS, Apr 17 2020 (IPS)

United Nations Secretary General António Guterres on Thursday pleaded with global leaders and families to ensure the protection of the world’s children, millions of whom he says are vulnerable to a myriad of threats as a result of the shutdown arising from the global coronavirus pandemic. 

While children are at a significantly lower health risk than adults from the coronavirus, the social and economic impacts as a result of both the disease as well as the lockdown can be extremely harmful on children, a new report has revealed.  

Guterres made his remarks at the launch of the policy brief “The Impact of COVID-19 on children” that examines the different areas in which children are affected: health, family life, education, lack of access to healthcare, and increased risks as a result of heightened presence online. 

The report claims that about 60 percent of all children around the world are currently in a country that is maintaining some level of a lockdown, which is limiting their mobility and/or access to society. Nearly all the grave impacts arise out of children not being able to go to school anymore. 

The report states that with 188 countries enforcing a lockdown, more than 1.5 billion children and youth are being impacted in terms of:

• access to food and nutrition,
• access to digital teaching tools,
• increased exposure to violence and/or conflict in the household,
• increased risk of falling prey to cyberbullying and sexual exploitation on the internet.

Furthermore, children with underlying medical conditions, including those living with HIV, are facing a higher risk of not being able to access their appropriate medicines and care. 

Food insecurity

Many children around the world who previously had their only meals provided through educational institutions, have now been left  without. The report estimates that more than 368 million children in about 143 countries are being affected by this, and are having to seek their food and nutrition through alternative means. 

Increased threat to family violence

With heightened stress levels among quarantined families, children could face the brunt and fall victim to family violence, the report warned. They’re also at a risk of witnessing domestic violence, which has been on the rise given many adults are stuck at home with their abusers.

Other advocates working in the field of children’s rights have also raised alarm bells about the issue. 
In response to the policy brief released on Thursday, international NGO Save the Children agreed with the Secretary General’s concerns and highlighted different ways in which this abuse is carried out.

“Social disruption and high stress at home can have a deep impact on children, and millions of them now face an increased risk of violence, abuse, neglect, and exploitation,” Janti Soeripto, president and CEO of Save the Children, said in a statement on Thursday.

“Families stricken by poverty often see no alternative to marrying off their daughters or putting their children to work just to survive,” she added.

Digital access

With children unable to physically attend schools, many are have had to go online for learning, which requires various digital tools. However, disparity in this access means that not everybody can receive the same level of training.

• Only 30 percent of low-income countries have been able to ensure digital training for their students.

There is also gender disparity as more boys have access to digital technology than girls, which makes it fundamentally more difficult for girls to attain their education this way. The report expressed concern that this might, in the long run, lead to girls dropping out of school, and also would increase the risk of teen pregnancy.

Risks online

While many children are accessing their lessons and staying connected with friends online, this too can expose them to a different set of risks altogether.

“School closures and strict containment measures mean more and more families are relying on technology and digital solutions to keep children learning, entertained and connected to the outside world,” Dr. Howard Taylor, executive director of the Global Partnership to End Violence, said in a statement on Wednesday, “but not all children have the necessary knowledge, skills and resources to keep themselves safe online.”

The Partnership, in collaboration with the U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and other rights organisations, released a report detailing the layers of this issue and pointing out ways in which different stakeholders can do their part in ensuring safety of children now that they have an increased presence online.

The report points out that children are more likely to exhibit riskier behaviour online or “outreach to new contacts” at a time when they have limited access for socialising. This means they’re more prone to be at a risk of grooming by online predators, being cyber-bullied, being manipulated into sharing content such as sexually explicit photos which would later be used for extortion methods.

While these are all matters of concern, it’s governments and family members that can play a crucial role in protecting children from these issues.

The UNICEF report recommended that governments must make sure that child protective services be open and accessible; technology companies should make sure their services are built in secure manners that don’t compromise the child users’ data; and parents should be vigilant about keeping antivirus and software updates on their kids’ phones.

The Secretary General further called on social media companies to execute their “special responsibility to protect the vulnerable.”

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