Posts Tagged ‘children’
Kids Sent to Institution Because of Cell Phone Addiction
12:56 pm By Maegan La Mala · children|Lifestyle|society|Spain|Tech · Comments Off
17 Jun 2008
Two Spanish children, aged 12 and 13, have been sent to a mental hospital because of their addiction to cell phones. BBC Mundo reports that the two boys were sent to the institution because they were “unable to do normal activities without their cell phones.” According to the parents, the children’s grades were affected by the excessive cell phone use and their conduct was also severely impacted.
The children will be receiving treatment in the Children’s Mental Health Clinic in Lleida (Catalunya) for three months in an attempt to get them off the cell phone habit.
The BBC reports that the boys had been showing signs of addiction to their cells for 18 months prior, but the parents had not intervened.
Maybe I’m old school, but do we really need a treatment program for this? How about just taking the cell phones away?
By the way, it’s not just kids who are addicted to cell phones in Spain. In a country of 44 million people, there are 50 million cell phones — more phones than people.
Via / BBC Mundo
Jail denies mom right to feed her child
11:16 am By Maegan La Mala · children|Justice|North Carolina|Women · Comments Off
27 Nov 2007
A North Carolina jail is denying a Brazilian woman held in the facilities the right to pump breast milk for her 2 month old baby in spite of the fact that the child is rejecting formula and becoming ill:
Ezequiel Oliveira, who is helping care for the woman’s two children, said he spent hours at the jail Monday trying to get a breast pump to 29-year-old Danielle Ferreira. He said Ferreira’s baby, Samuel, is crying incessantly and keeps spitting up baby formula.“We give him formula and put in the pacifier but he is crying day and night, day and night, all the time,” Oliveira said.
Jail officials say they can’t discuss conversations inmates have with medical staff, but are aware of the situation. In general, spokeswoman Julia Rush said, inmates are not allowed to express milk without a court order. She said mothers are treated for symptoms when they must abruptly stop nursing.
According to the Charlotte Observer, Ferreira was picked up on a shoplifting charge after her brother hid a CD in her baby stroller without her knowledge on a visit to a local mall. She is currently being held because she is undocumented. The Observer points out that “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement formally adopted guidelines that allow pregnant women or nursing mothers to be released under supervised conditions” but I guess that doesn’t apply to state or municipal jails.
Via / Charlotte Observer
12 year-old to study medicine in Mexico
5:11 pm By Maegan La Mala · children|Education|mexico · Comments Off
16 Aug 2007
A “super cerebro” — a real-life Doogie Howser — has emerged in the Mexican state of Puebla: a 12-year old named Andrew Almazán just finished high school and is off to study medicine and psychology at the university level.
The University of the Americas in Puebla announced today that they have accepted little Andrew, and that he has received a grant which covers all of his costs, including providing a home on campus where he can live with his parents.
The university has also created a special program for him given his young age, which for now would not require him to perform autopsies or dissections.
Via / El Universal
Thousands of children abandoned in the streets
11:42 am By Maegan La Mala · children|mexico|society · Comments Off
14 Aug 2007
Even the casual visitor to Mexico’s capital city will notice an abundance of children working for a living in the streets as windshield cleaners and street performers at stop lights. Many are accompanied by their families, but others are completely alone. Mexico City’s La Jornada newspaper reports that poverty and hopelessness in the capital have led many families to abandon their children in the streets.
With severe psychological damage, anemia and addictions to various drugs, as well as histories of abuse and violence, close to 3000 children are attended to in the 30 public and private institutions which assist minors who are abandoned in the street or at risk of being abandoned. In the majority of cases it’s the parents, immersed in precarious economic situations, who abandon them.The Insitute for Assistance and Social Integration (Iasis), part of the Mexico City local government, says that in 28 of these institutions they assist children who are completely alone and helpless due to family poverty.
Colombia to put sex criminals on display
11:25 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · children|Colombia|Justice · Comments Off
18 Jul 2007
Starting in September of this year, sexual predators in Colombia will have a harder time hiding from their crimes. Colombian prosecutors have turned over the names of 275 child molesters to the Bogota government in order to display their photos all over the capital city.
Colombia’s general prosecutor, Mario Iguarán, calls the campaign “Muros de la la Infamia” (“Walls of Infamy”) and will include the personal information of the offenders. This of course raises the question among many of what would happen if one of the people on the posters is actually innocent.
But Colombia doesn’t seem to be considering that possibility. They are far too concerned with what seems to be a growing problem in Colombia. Back in 2006, 7 out of 10 rapes in the country was committed against a minor, leading the government to propose chemical castration for criminals. Spain’s 20 Minutos reports that this year alone there have been 1,069 molestations in Colombia and 300 aggravated sexual assaults against children.
Via / 20 Minutos
Mexican government to assist migrant children
1:13 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · children|Immigration|mexico · Comments Off
12 Jun 2007
According to Mexico’s First Lady, Margarita Zavala, more than 50,000 immigrant children return to Mexico after having made the trip across the U.S.-Mexico border with their parents. At least half of them travel alone. Recognizing that the children face challenges upon their return, the First Lady — also the President of the Advisory Board of the government’s Institute of the Family (DIF) — says her organization will sign an agreement with the Mexican Immigration Institute to create programs to help migrant children upon their re-entry into the country:
She said that she feels strongly that NGOs and businesses should collaborate and help strengthen assistance programs for children.“The fact taht they left home to be with their mom or dad, that they left to find a better life, makes them more vulnerable, and moreso if they are alone. We can’t close our eyes to this reality, which hurts us as human beings and as a country,” she said.
The First Lady’s plan looks to create partnerships with border states so that local agencies help migrant children reincoporate themselves into normal family life, and calls for the DIF and the Immigration Institute to take an active role in finding shelter and services for returning children whose parents are not in Mexico.
Via / Milenio
Mexico City to educate men on being domestic
11:42 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Culture|Family|Lifestyle|mexico · Comments Off
13 Mar 2007
As normal as it might seem to some of us here in the U.S., the concept of a man doing housework or taking care of kids is still unheard of in some parts of Latin America. Mexico City wants to change that, and mayor Marcelo Ebrard is inciting his government to kick off a “re-education” plan for men in his city:
…to make them participants in domestic work, such as caring for and raising their children.“It’s about changing our mentality. We have to share work and responsibilities,” he said upon inaugurating the Equality in Gender Fair yesterday, part of the International Women’s Day festivities.
He said that above all this is important because society is not the same as 40 years ago, and now women in Mexico represent a third of the “economically active” population, and that number will grow in the next few years.
The mayor has ordered that the program — which will feature workshops, talks and courses for men, organized by the city’s Women’s Institute — begin in less than two weeks.
Via / La Jornada
Venezuela investigating child porn cases
1:47 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · children|Venezuela · Comments Off
29 Dec 2006
The Venezuelan government is looking at evidence that child pornography of school children filmed with cell phones has made its way into Caracas’ video black market, reports the BBC:
Thousands of copies have been seized by the authorities from street traders in Caracas since Wednesday.The videos, apparently filmed on mobile phones, showed 12- to 14-year-olds performing lewd acts, police said.
A video of post-mortem examinations performed on young people is also reported to have been found.
Few details are available but some of these films are thought to have originated in the United States, others in South America.
According to the BBC, the discovery of the tapes has had another unexpected effect: the mother of one of the victims reportedly died of a heart attack after seeing her child in a video.
Via / BBC News
Campaign to keep undocumented children here
8:19 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · children|Immigration · 1 Comment
21 Dec 2006
In response to the growing problem of deportation separating families, a non-profit organization is looking for ways to keep kids in the U.S. even if their parents are expelled from the U.S. The rationale is that kids should be able to take advantage of the opportunities that this country offers since the living conditions in the home countries of their parents may be less than optimal, the circumstance which motivated the family to immigrate in the first place.
Osvaldo Cabrera, President of the coaltion, told Efe “this initiative arises from the need to protect minors who have the right to, because they were born in this country, to grow up as American citizens and have better possibilities of development and social protection.”“Family desintegration is a sad and cruel reality, as is the situation in which children must go with their countries to a country where conditions of poverty and extremse need determine their future,”he said.
So what’s worse, a family split by deportation but with successful children, or a united family living in poverty?
Via / MSN Latino
Shakira teams up with Gabo to help kids
8:08 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Activism|Celebrities · Comments Off
20 Dec 2006
Colombiana superstar Shakira and legendary author Gabriel Garcia Marquez are teaming up to help stop child poverty in Latin America via a new foundation:
Shakira joined with fellow Colombian and Nobel Prize laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez on Tuesday to launch a star-studded foundation to fight child poverty in Latin America.Backed by the two Colombians and other luminaries of entertainment and finance, the Latin America in Solidarity Action _ whose Spanish acronym is ALAS, or “wings” _ took flight with a promise to tackle poverty that kills 350,000 children each year in the region.
Shakira and Gabo are joined in the efforts by Spanish pop star Miguel Bosé (pictured above with Shakira), who will act as Executive Director, as well as other Latino musicians such as
Ruben Blades, Juanes, Ricky Martin, the rock group Mana, Aleks Syntek, David Bisbal and Alejandro Sanz.
As we’ve posted before, Shakira is also an ambassador for UNICEF and heads up her own foundation to help children, Pies Descalzos.
Via / Washington Post
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