From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Wed Apr 14 2010 - 15:18:18 EDT
Eritrea Plans for Child Safety, Orphans and Education
14/4/2010 - Eritrea's Director of Child Safety spoke out in defence of those
who are so vulnerable that their voices are too often taken for granted or
simply left unheard: children and orphans.
Mr. Tekle Tesfai, Eritrea’s Director of Child Safety in the Ministry of
Labor and Human Welfare, said that the active engagement of families and
communities is important for a child’s educational success. Indeed, it is
one of the major factors that enables students to continue their education
past the primary school level onto secondary school and university, or
<http://www.soschildrensvillages.ca/What-we-do/supporting-facilities/SOS-Voc
ational-Training-Centres/Pages/default.aspx> vocational training.
To date, roughly half of all children in this coastal country on the Red
Sea, sandwiched in between Sudan and Ethiopia, do not attend school. Most of
these children are girls, with female primary school enrolment being
particularly low among nomadic tribes. In addition to improving gender
equality, Eritrea must also face the challenges of expanding educational
access to rural and remote areas. Often, it is hard to find teachers who are
willing to teach in these areas and it may take some coaxing to have parents
find the value in educating their daughters, who are often married off
early. For nomadic tribes, the challenge of education is more complex: “No
one size fits all, because all nomadic communities have different social,
economic and environment conditions, and their own lifestyles,” said
official Eritrean UNICEF Representative Dr. Hamid El-Bashir earlier this
month.
Ethiopia has conceived a program that aims to make sure that the most
vulnerable population of children doesn’t fall behind in the “Education for
All” goal that was agreed upon at an international conference in Jomtien,
Thailand in 1990, and reaffirmed in Dakar, Senegal in 2000. 9 600 Eritrean
families are currently caring for orphans, while 233
<http://www.soschildrensvillages.ca/Who-we-help/helping-orphans/Pages/defaul
t.aspx> orphans are currently living in home-based care within the
community. Where possible, reuniting orphans with their extended family is
part of Mr. Tesfai’s strategic plan for child safety in the years to come.
UNICEF and other researchers pursuing child rights based approaches have
come to the conclusion that home (or family)-based care, rather than
orphanages, represent the best means of alternative care when the child
cannot live with his/her biological parents. According to the African
Network for the Prevention and Protection against Child Abuse and Neglect,
for instance,
<http://www.soschildrensvillages.ca/What-we-do/Pages/default.aspx>
family-based care will give children a fuller, more vibrant childhood that
best empowers them to fully realize all of their potentials.
Rights-based approaches (vis-à-vis child rights) are based on the Convention
on the Rights of the Child—the overwhelming principle of which is the “best
interests of the child.” The Convention was signed in 1989 and is the most
widely supported piece of international human rights law within the UN
system.
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