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Children may be at greater risk of hospitalisation from the Omicron variant, experts have warned.
Kids were found to have 20 per cent greater risk of hospitalisation with the Omicron variant compared to Delta, found a recent report.
The data analysis comes from South Africa…
For Ms. Ladi Jika, a 44-year-old housewife and a mother of five, vaccination and mobilization of people to let their children receive the vaccine is not negotiable.
“I know vaccination prevents some diseases such as yellow fever, measles, meningitis and polio. That is why I visit every vaccination site with two of my children (19-month-old and four years old) to get vaccinated. I want to protect my family and I have mobilized my neighbours to receive the vaccines when the vaccinators come around”, Ms. Jika said.
What is more, she resides in difficult Sardauna Local…
This article from Modern Ghana calls attention to child protection concerns in Ghana amidst the Coronavirus crisis in the country.
"Two rights groups want child welfare to receive priority [in Kenya] during the Covid-19 pandemic," says this article from the Daily Nation. "The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) and Joining Forces Alliance for Children, the umbrella body for children’s rights organisations in the country, have faulted the government for the lack of guidelines for handling violence against minors," the article continues.
The organizations are calling on the government to enact the Children Bill 2019, among other actions. "The lobbies also note lack of information and reports to the…
"The Government of Uganda, through the World Bank-funded Development Response to Displacement Impacts Project (DRDIP) project, is taking preventative action to combat violence against [refugee] children by creating an environment for children’s empowerment and participation," says this news release from the World Bank. The projest will "support investments in 14 refugee hosting districts through three types of subprojects: (i) social and economic services and infrastructures, including health, education and WASH services, (ii) sustainable environment and natural resources management; and…
"The lockdown measures have increased the risk of children [in Nigeria] becoming victims of domestic violence, bullying and other forms of abuse," says Rev Ifeanyi Mbaegbu in this article. In the article, Mbaegbu explores many of the detrimental impacts on children and families that the lockdown measures put in place to reduce the spread of the coronavirus have had, including increased stress on families and abuse of children in the home. The article calls on parents to "ensure their children do not become victims of the effects of the measures taken to contain COVID-19. Frequent…
This article from BBC News describes the movement of children and young people in Nigeria from Koranic schools back to their homes during the COVID-19 crisis, "one of the biggest ever state organised mass movements of minors in Africa's most-populous state."
"Tens of thousands of Koranic school children were recently crammed into open vans and sent back home from cities and towns across northern Nigeria in a controversial move by state governments to prevent the spread of coronavirus within their territories," says the article. Hundreds of the children already had the coronavirus,…
Child's i Foundation in Uganda has donated bicycles, smartphones, face masks and bottles of sanitizer to volunteers in Makindye division, Kampala to support them in their work to "sensitize residents about the spread of COVID-19" and so that the volunteers can "reach places that are inaccessible" and give timely reports on the needs of the community, particularly vulnerable children and families, according to this article from the Daily Monitor. "Apart from bicycles and smartphones, Mr Mukholi [Child i Foundation’s country representative] also said that they will provide…
This article from the Thomson Reuters Foundation reports on the increase of female genital mutilation (FGM) in Somalia as a result of the lockdowns enacted to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Sadia Allin, Plan International’s head of mission in Somalia, "said families in Somalia were taking advantage of school closures to carry out FGM so that the girls had time to recover from the ritual, which can take weeks." Furthermore, "restrictions on movement during the lockdown were making it harder to raise awareness of the dangers of FGM in communities."
This blog post from the UN Sustainable Development Group notes the rise in cases of gender-based violence (GBV) and violence against children (VAC) in Kenya, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, and calls for immediate action to address this "shadow pandemic." The United Nations (UN) and the Government of Kenya have launched an appeal "seeking $267 million to respond to the most immediate needs of over 10 million people during the pandemic. Of this, $4.2m is needed to provide lifesaving medical treatment, psycho-social support and legal representation in relation to violence against…