MWB News

The world must act now to save thousands of children at risk of dying from malnutrition in Chad, an aid agency has warned, adding that the window for helping is rapidly closing.

The U.N. children’s agency UNICEF said its treatment centres had seen a sharp increase in very young children with life-threatening malnutrition. “We are no longer on the brink of disaster – it is already here and will worsen in the coming weeks,” said UNICEF UK’s Deputy Executive Director Anita Tiessen following a trip to Chad.

click to read more from Alert Net http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/act-now-un-warns-world-as-chad-child-hunger-rises

Blocking humanitarian aid to deter more Rohingya refugees is worsening a wider malnutrition crisis for Burmese Muslim Refugees. The Bangladesh government refuses to formally allow humanitarian assistance into the camp or the surrounding border districts of Ukhia and Teknaf. The majority of the estimated more than 200,000 unregistered Muslim Rohingyas in Bangladesh live in these two districts after fleeing persecution in neighboring Burma, which is predominantly Buddhist. Government officials claim humanitarian aid would create a “pull factor” for other Rohingyas, putting even more pressure on an already strained local labour market.
click to read more from the Guardian

People & Power goes undercover to reveal how ‘voluntourism’ could be fuelling the exploitation of Cambodian children. Well-intentioned volunteers have helped to create a surge in the number of residential care homes as impoverished parents are tempted into giving up their children in response to promises of a Western-style upbringing and education…stories have emerged that Cambodian children are being exploited by some of the companies organising the volunteers or running the orphanages. More from Al-Jazeera.

More than 43,000 people reached Yemen’s shores in the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea in the first four months of 2012 alone. During the same period last year almost 30,000 people made the same perilous journey. In total, more than 103,000 people from the Horn of Africa arrived in Yemen in 2011 – a record number since UNHCR began compiling these statistics in 2006. Should the current trend continue, 2012 would sadly become another record year.

All those who decide to make the crossing expose themselves to extreme risks and dangers at every stage of their journey. They face shocking levels of abuse and violence by smugglers, as well as arbitrary arrests and detention, closed borders and forced returns, trafficking, lack of access to shelter, water, food or medical assistance.

click to read more from Relief Web

Conflict in Pakistan’s North Waziristan’s tribal agency is hampering the distribution of vaccines and has played a role in the recent measles outbreak.

PESHAWAR, 16 May 2012 (IRIN) – The recent outbreak of measles which claimed the lives of at least 12 children and one adult in Pakistan’s North Waziristan’s tribal agency is directly linked to conflict between militants and the army, according to local experts. ”Long curfews, road blockades and also the power cuts that take place mean the vaccines we receive expire,” said Muhammad Ali Shah, who heads the main hospital in Miramshah, the headquarters of the agency. “The measles vaccine needs to be stored at a proper temperature.”

click to read more from IRIN

The United Nations is reporting that malaria has dropped from being the leading cause of death among refugees living along the Sudan border. Among the locations where the new malaria-reducing strategies are being employed is the Kakuma Camp for Sudanese refugees in northern Kenya.

Not long ago, malaria killed more Sudanese refugees than any other disease. But now, while it is still deadly, the U.N. reports it is only the fifth leading cause of death among the estimated 38,000 Sudanese refugees living in the Kakuma refugee camp in northern Kenya. The reason – a five-year campaign called Nothing But Nets run by The United Nations Foundation. Nothing But Nets is the largest grassroots campaign in the world and it hopes to end malaria deaths by 2015.

click to read more from the Voice of America

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