This he explained would help the children cope with their traumatic experiences and get back to their regular lives.

[contextly_sidebar id=”phbZMu8ZsgPupE1uD4eAogauIvSrpHRD”]“Whether the children are at a lesser age or older age, there are fewer things at can be done to them, and I think if we take into consideration the need for children to get help in a traumatic situation, then we will be able to succeed in helping them,” he said.

According to him, children who have been traumatized by armed robbery incidents should be given the opportunity to re-account the incidents, in that it will help them unbottle any emotion that might damage them.

He said extra attention should be given to any behavioral or attitudinal changes in the children.

“In such situations, you need to engage the child but you must watch the child’s demeanour, if he or she is isolating him or herself, you must know how to approach, if he or she needs to be carried or held, you must also determine that by your approach and allow the child to re-narrate the situation the child has gone through,” he said.

He also noted that the public should be educated on how to relate and understand children or people who have been in a traumatic situation.

Unfortunately, some children had bitter experiences from some of the reported recent armed robbery attacks in parts of the country.

There appears to be an increase in robbery cases in recent times, including brazen attacks on individuals and organizations in broad daylight.

A number of arrests have been made with the cases still being investigated.
–

By: Farida Yusif/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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She didn’t make it to her front door before she was surrounded by seven policemen, accused of membership in a terrorist organization, handcuffed and taken away. Two months after being jailed, Ayse was joined behind bars by her youngest son, Ali, then just 4 years old.

Turkey babies in prison

For another four months, she said, their lives unfolded like a horror movie. Built to hold 10 people, Ayse said, her cell was packed with 23 detainees. She remembers babies unable to get vaccines, and burning themselves with hot tea. She remembers, too, the traumatic cries at night.

“Loud music blared through our ward every morning, every morning I would wake up scared with my son,” she told Fox News in a recent interview from a refugee camp in Greece. “The ward was a very dangerous place for children. Our bunks were iron. One baby there was learning to walk and hit his head badly, other children were screaming. It was an incredibly difficult time.”

The case of Ayse and Ali is hardly unique. Based on monitoring government decrees and other reports from official sources, by the end of August 2017, advocacy groups had highlighted some 668 cases of children under the age of 6 being held in jails with their mothers. And 23 percent of those youngsters were infants less than a year old.

Several thousand children ages 6-18 are also being held.

Turkey’s Justice Ministry provided a somewhat lower figure, stating that a total of 560 children under the age of 6 were being held in Turkish prisons along with their mothers.

Mothers and their children continue to be rounded up with tens of thousands of other Turks following the July 2016 coup attempt against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The country has, since that attempt, been in a legal “state of emergency,” one that allows the government to jail anyone believed to have ties to exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen and his Hizmet movement.

Whatever the number of prisoners, “prison is no place for children in any civilized country,” said Dr. Alan Mendoza, executive director of the Henry Jackson Society, a British foreign policy think tank, He called the policy of jailing mothers and children without charge “a travesty of justice” that will have “lasting effects on the lives of innocent children.”

Other critics of Turkey’s policy noted that the imprisoned women and children were victims of guilt by association.

“What is striking about detained women since the failed coup is that some of them are simply wives or children of suspects, but not suspects themselves. This amounts to collective punishment,” said Merve Tahiroglu, a research analyst with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a Washington-based nonpartisan institute focusing on national security.

Ugar Tok, director of the Belgium-based Platform for Peace and Justice (PPJ), a human rights monitoring group focused on Turkey, said it can take six to 10 months of detention before the women in jail can stand in court. In the meantime, “the government prevents detainees from accessing lawyers and files in order to defend themselves.”

According to the World Prison Brief, as of October of last year, women comprised 4.4 percent of Turkey’s prison population. The official number of females behind bars is just under 10,000, but Tok estimates the numbers could be as high as 17,000.

Kam, a 34-year-old university teacher in İzmir Province at the time of her arrest in October 2016, said she was held for two months for investing – as thousands of other Turks have – in the Gulen-affiliated Bank Asya. She was kept in a cell with her 7-month-old son and two other babies, where they were prohibited from crawling on the floor. Toys were also prohibited, she said, and at times they could not access clean water.

“We were all treated like terrorists, we were isolated,” Kam told Fox News from Germany, where she and her family are now refugees. “We were all humiliated. … I don’t know what was worse, to have my baby in the prison or to have my other son, who was 11, outside the prison. When I saw him, he was changing.”

Case summaries and photographs viewed by Fox News, provided by international human rights investigators and lawyers, bring the grim statistics to life. They showed babies still on jail floors, with no play areas or facilities; women with chunks of hair ripped from their scalp in alleged prison mistreatment; and dozens of infants smiling before being whisked away to detention, where many are believed to remain.

Nurhayat Yildiz, 27, a housewife expecting twins, was arrested on Aug. 29, 2016, after boarding a bus from the northern Turkish province of Sinop, headed for her 14-week checkup. Nurhayat was detained and charged with Hizmet membership – because she allegedly had a popular encrypted messaging app, ByLock, on her phone.

The Turkish government believes members involved in the coup attempt communicated through ByLock, and despite the app being commercially available to anyone, the government has systematically rounded up thousands of those who have it.

Yildiz’s supporters say she didn’t even have the app on her phone. In any case, at 19 weeks, on Oct. 6 that year, the first time mom-to-be suffered a devastating miscarriage behind bars.

“Nurhayat lost her dreams,” a prominent Turkish legal activist with Washington-based Advocates for Silenced Turkey (AST), who recently fled to California and requested anonymity for the safety of her relatives in Turkey, told Fox News. “And now she is suffering immense psychological problems, she barely talks. Her twins never got to live.”

Then there are stories like that of Filiz Yavuz, who was suddenly arrested – taken in a wheelchair – just eight hours after giving birth at a maternity hospital in the southeastern province of Mersin on Feb. 7, 2017.

“The police came for me at 3 in the morning. They said I was a terrorist because someone in my dormitory room from 2008 gave them my name,” Nur, 27, a human rights lawyer who was once a student at the Ankara University Faculty of Law, recalled of that frightful morning on Jan. 18, 2017. That’s when she was whisked from her home in the city of Eskisehir to a dark detention cell.

Nur considers herself one of the lucky ones. She was released by a judge after five days due to her severe asthma and a heart condition. She quickly boarded a smugglers’ boat. Today, Nur – from the safety of the United States – is trying to draw attention to the plight of other detained moms, their children and other of pregnant women who she says have suffered miscarriages amid the psychological ordeal of arrest and captivity.

Turkey’s Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of the Interior did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

Turkish officials have consistently defended the widespread arrest and detention of thousands of Turkish citizens, including women and children, as vital to national security. They also insist that the detainees are being held in compliance with international law.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which monitors the health and well-being of detainees in crisis spots around the world, confirmed it is not currently present in Turkey, and thus cannot monitor the situation.

But that situation remains a cause of concern for many human rights groups, which routinely spotlight the seemingly arbitrary detainment of Turkish citizens.

“Following the coup attempt in July 2016, tens of thousands of people have been detained. The vast majority are not accused of participating in the events of the coup and in many cases that Amnesty International has examined there is no credible evidence of criminal acts,” a spokesperson for that group told Fox News.
–
By:Fox News/ By Hollie McKay

HollieMcKay has been a FoxNews.com staff reporter since 2007. She has reported extensively from the Middle East on the rise and fall of terrorist groups such as ISIS in Iraq. Follow her on twitter at @holliesmckay.

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The move was part of activities climaxing the successful launch of the foundation’s commitment to putting smiles on the faces of underprivileged children in Tarkwa and nearby communities.

JOY Foundation is a non-governmental organization in Tarkwa led by Jocelyn Andoh which primarily focuses on “assembling street children and providing them with quality formal education the Christian way” to secure the future of Ghana.

Some of the over 300 children who gathered at the Tarkwa Municipal Car Park took turns in the ‘pick and act’, choreography, and singing and dancing competitions.

Other children exhibited their skills on drums and other musical instruments. The artistic facial paintings were just irresistible for many of the lovely children many of whom were in Joy Foundation dresses.

Speaking to Citi News the Chief Executive Officer of JOY Foundation Jocelyn Andoh bemoaned the present situation of children on the streets of Ghana.

“…We also know of the situation in the Tarkwa Nsuaem Municipality. There are quite a number of children on the street, and it is our hope that JOY Foundation will assist to get them off the street and give them quality education with Christian values as well”.

It is Christmas, and this is in our view the best time to put some smiles in the faces of all these Children you see here”.

The Municipal Chief executive for the Tarkwa Nsueaem Municipal Assembly, Ken Asmah, commended the foundation for their initiative to “give hope for these children who might have found themselves on the streets not by their wishes”.

“We as the assembly is ready to offer you the necessary support to realize this initiative”.

There were other performances from Nero X and others who were invited to complete the entertainment package meant for these children.

–

By: Obrempong Yaw Ampofo/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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Several people are missing after the incident in the Naf River late on Sunday. It is thought up to 100 people – including children – were on board.

A rescue operation is now under way.

Dozens of Rohingya have already died trying to cross into neighbouring Bangladesh amid a military crackdown in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.

The exact number of people onboard the boat which capsized on Sunday remains unclear, with Bangladesh border guard officials giving estimates varying from 40 to up to 100.

Officials say the bodies of 10 children, a woman and a man have been recovered so far.

It was the latest in a series of deadly incidents involving boats carrying Rohingya migrants to Bangladesh. About 60 people were believed to have died in a similar incident in late September.

While many have fled via the land border, others have attempted to make the crossing by sea in small and rickety fishing boats.

“So many people are still willing to get onboard boats that are overcrowded, potentially people unable to swim. They’re literally putting their lives at risk to make it across to Bangladesh,” said Evan Schuurman, a spokesman with aid agency Save the Children.

It was the latest in a series of deadly incidents involving boats carrying Rohingya migrants to Bangladesh. About 60 people were believed to have died in a similar incident in late September.

While many have fled via the land border, others have attempted to make the crossing by sea in small and rickety fishing boats.

“So many people are still willing to get onboard boats that are overcrowded, potentially people unable to swim. They’re literally putting their lives at risk to make it across to Bangladesh,” said Evan Schuurman, a spokesman with aid agency Save the Children.

It was the latest in a series of deadly incidents involving boats carrying Rohingya migrants to Bangladesh. About 60 people were believed to have died in a similar incident in late September.

While many have fled via the land border, others have attempted to make the crossing by sea in small and rickety fishing boats.

“So many people are still willing to get onboard boats that are overcrowded, potentially people unable to swim. They’re literally putting their lives at risk to make it across to Bangladesh,” said Evan Schuurman, a spokesman with aid agency Save the Children.

The military has been widely accused of conducting ethnic cleansing and genocide, but it has rejected all these allegations, saying it has only targeted Rohingya militants.

Other communities in Rakhine state such as Hindus have also been affected by violence, some allegedly committed by Rohingya militants. But correspondents say that the widespread reports of abuse of Rohingya indicate that they have been disproportionately affected.
–
By: BBC

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Whether soft or hard-boiled, fried or whisked into an omelette, eggs appeared to give infants a boost. It could be a cheap way to prevent stunting, say researchers in the journal Pediatrics.

The first two years of life are critical for growth and development – any stunting is largely irreversible.

Too short for age

Poor nutrition is a major cause of stunting, along with childhood infections and illnesses. According to the World Health Organization, 155 million children under the age of five are stunted (too short for their age).

Most live in low- and middle-income countries and health experts have been looking at ways to tackle the issue.

Lora Iannotti and her colleagues set up a field experiment in the rural highlands of Ecuador and gave very young children (aged six to nine months) free eggs to eat to see if this might help.

Egg dinners

Only half of the 160 youngsters who took part in the randomised trial were fed an egg a day for six months – the others were monitored for comparison.

The researchers visited the children’s families every week to make sure they were sticking to the study plan and to check for any problems or side-effects, including egg allergy.

Stunting was far less common among the egg treatment group by the end of the study – the prevalence was 47% less than in the non-egg group, even though relatively more of these egg-fed infants were considered short for their age at the start of the study.

Some of the children in the control group did eat eggs, but nowhere near as many as the treatment group.

Lead researcher Ms Iannotti said: “We were surprised by just how effective this intervention proved to be.

“And what’s great is it’s very affordable and accessible for populations that are especially vulnerable to hidden hunger or nutritional deficiency.”

She said eggs were great food for young children with small stomachs.

“Eggs contain a combination of nutrients, which we think is important.”

Balanced diet

Prof Mary Fewtrell, nutrition lead at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said: “In a way, it is surprising that more research has not been conducted using egg in this situation – although I know that in some cultures, parents do not necessarily find egg to be an acceptable early food mainly because of concerns about allergy.

“Egg is a good nutritious complementary food that can be introduced as part of a varied diet once the mother decides to start complementary feeding – never before four months.”

She said eggs should always be well cooked to avoid any potential infection risk.

The WHO recommends mothers worldwide to exclusively breastfeed infants for the child’s first six months to achieve optimal growth, development and health. After the first six months, infants should be given nutritious complementary foods and continue breastfeeding up to the age of two years or beyond.

The British Nutrition Foundation advised: “While eggs are a nutritious food to include, it’s very important that young children have a variety of foods in their diets. Not only is this necessary to get all the vitamins and minerals they need, but also to allow them to become familiar with a wide range of tastes and textures.

“A range of protein-rich foods should be provided when feeding young children, which can include eggs but can also feature beans, pulses, fish, especially oily fish, meat and dairy products.”

–

Source: BBC

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The project which was initiated by the Ghana Parents Association for Childhood Cancers seeks to among other things lessen the challenges faced by parents and caregivers who travel from afar to seek treatment for their children.

Speaking at the ceremony, the first lady accepted her new role of cancer ambassador and called for collective effort to help fast track the construction of the facility to serve as a “home away from their distant homes”.

Rebecca Akufo Addo also prompted of a need for the educational and nutritional needs of the children to be met at the hostel.

“For hundreds of children with cancer who will in the near future be receiving treatment at Korle Bu hospital and their guardians, this should be a safe haven for them”

She added that, “beyond providing a hostel, we should go a step further to consider access to well-balanced diets for the children and their families. This is an area that will need to be explored further. As many of the children will have to live here for several months, it is also important that their educational needs are met. I have been reliably informed that teachers have been assigned to cover the children’s wards at Korle Bu and so I take this opportunity to suggest this hostel should also have teachers assigned to the children.”

Speaking to Citi News, the Chairman for the Association, Dr. Kwame Aveh said the association was in desperate need of fund to help facilitate the speedy construction of the project.

According to him out of the two million Ghana cedis needed to construct the 30 bed hospital facility, the amount currently in the association’s coffers was nothing to write home about.

“The initial estimate was first done in dollars and it was estimated at five hundred thousand dollars and the rate at the time was four Ghana cedis but now we think it will go up. So now roughly we need two million Ghana cedis. We have knocked at several doors but they are yet to open so all we have done now is from our personal pockets as members of GHAPCC. Korle bu donated the land to us and when we are done we plan to construct another one in Kumasi. What we are aiming at is to make the accommodation free for the patients and their guardians so we need people to help us fund this project.”

The ceremony which also commemorated the “International Childhood Cancer Day” was held at Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra and was attended by the Acting Chief Executive Officer of Korle-Bu, Dr. Samuel Asiamah, the Director General Of Ghana Health Services, representatives from WHO, and members of the Ghana Parents Association for Childhood Cancers.

–

By: Felicia Osei/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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The report dubbed: “Ending Extreme Poverty: A Focus on Children revealed that in 2013, 19.5 per cent of children in developing countries were living in households that survived on an average of $1.90 a day or less per person, compared to just 9.2 per cent of adults.

It said globally, almost 385 million children are living in extreme poverty.

According to the report, children are disproportionately affected, as they make up around a third of the population studied.

It revealed that the youngest children were the most at risk – with more than one-fifth of children under the age of five in the developing world living in extremely poor households.

“Children are not only more likely to be living in extreme poverty; the effects of poverty are most damaging to children.

“They are the worst off of the worst off – and the youngest children are the worst off of all, because the deprivations they suffer affect the development of their bodies and their minds,” said UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake.

“It is shocking that half of all children in sub-Saharan Africa and one in five children in developing countries are growing up in extreme poverty.

“This not only limits their futures, it drags down their societies,” he added.

The new analysis comes on the heels of the release of the World Bank Group’s new flagship study, Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2016: Taking on Inequality, which found that some 767 million people globally were living on less than $1.90 per day in 2013, half of them under the age of 18.

“The sheer number of children in extreme poverty points to a real need to invest specifically in the early years—in services such as pre-natal care for pregnant mothers, early childhood development programs, quality schooling, clean water, good sanitation, and universal health care,” said Ana Revenga, Senior Director, Poverty and Equity at the World Bank Group.

“Improving these services, and ensuring that today’s children can access quality job opportunities when the time comes, is the only way to break the cycle of intergenerational poverty that is so widespread today,” she said.

According to the report, the global estimate of extreme child poverty is based on data from 89 countries, representing 83 per cent of the developing world’s population.

It said Sub-Saharan Africa has both the highest rates of children living in extreme poverty at just under 50 per cent, and the largest share of the world’s extremely poor children, at just over 50 per cent.

South Asia has the second highest share at nearly 36 per cent—with more than 30 per cent of extremely poor children living in India alone.

It said more than four out of five children in extreme poverty live in rural areas.

The report revealed that even at higher thresholds, poverty also affects children disproportionately.

It noted that about 45 per cent of children were living in households subsisting on less than $ 3.10 a day per person, compared with nearly 27 per cent of adults.

UNICEF and the World Bank Group are calling on governments to routinely measure child poverty at the national and sub-national levels and focus on children in national poverty reduction plans as part of efforts to end extreme poverty by 2030.

–

Source: GNA

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He also renewed government’s commitment to provide tax incentives to manufacturing companies that make use of local raw materials.

Mr Iddrisu gave the assurance when he launched the new Distell Ghana Brewery Plant in Tema.

Distell Ghana Limited are the distillers of Hunters’Gold and Savannah Dry Cider Beer, Knights and a Royal Reserve Whiskies, Amarula, wines, Brandys and gin across the continent and beyond.

The establishment of the plant in Ghana is an indication that those beverages would no longer be imported from South Africa, but would be produced in Ghana to serve the West African market.

Mr Iddrisu said investment is expensive and government would therefore do everything possible to protect investors in the country to reap the benefits of their investment.

He called on all to report any malpractices in the areas of smuggling, counterfeiting and piracy to the appropriate authorities for redress.

He appealed to the Customs Division of Ghana Revenue Authority to step up their surveillance system to stem those practices that have the tendency to thwart the efforts of local industries.

The Trade Minister said government is reviewing the government warehouse laws  for Customs Division to work day and night to facilitate the movement and clearance of goods and services at the country’s ports and harbours.

Mr Iddisu said government would also bring together stakeholders to brainstorm on how to cushion the local industries in their bid to expand production and create job opportunities for the Ghanaian youth.

Mr Richard Rushton, Distell Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) said Ghana is the company’s first Greenfield investment although they had over the years exported their products to many parts of Africa.

He explained that the investment in Ghana signifies the confidence the company has in Ghana in doing responsible, sustainable and profitable business, with a total of GH₵ 16 million investment.

He commended government for turning Ghana into an attractive business destination and a major location in the heart of West Africa and said the corporate entity would sustain government- business relations to yield dividends for all parties.

The CEO said while producing alcoholic beverages, Distell has been cautious against harmful effects of alcohol and would therefore partner government to fight counterfeiting and piracy that could supply wrong products to the detriment of consumers.

He said the plant in Ghana would not only serve consumers in the country, but products would also be supplied to neighbouring Togo, Benin, Burkina Faso and Côte d’Ivoire among others.

Executive Chairman of FINATRADE Group of Companies, Mr Nabil Moukarzel,said the partnership between his outfit and Distell Ghana Limited would create more jobs and bring the goods and services to the door- steps of Ghanaian consumers.

He pleaded with government to create a tariff offset programme for progressive businesses that support and source from local producers and a penalty system for non- compliant importers.

Mr Moukarzel called for the strengthening of security at the entry and exit points of the country to stem to alarming practices of smuggling goods and services into the country to the detriment of genuine business.

Source: GNA

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Cocoa smuggling between the world’s two biggest cocoa producers is common, but over the past decade it has mainly involved Ivorian beans being taken illegally to Ghana.

That has changed this season.

Ghana’s cedi currency, which the government has struggled to prop up, has fallen nearly 23 percent against the dollar so far this year, while Ivory Coast’s euro-pegged CFA franc has remained stable, making the country’s official farmer price around 24 percent higher than Ghana’s.

Exporters said the Ivorian price is now seen as more attractive by Ghanaian farmers, who can make bigger profits selling their output to smugglers.

“(The smuggling) is due primarily to the weakness of the currency in Ghana,” said Edward George, head of soft commodities research at Ecobank.

George said he had spoken to private sector representatives in Ghana as well as officials from Ghana’s marketing board, Cocobod.

“The lowest estimate we heard was 60,000 tonnes. The highest was 100,000 tonnes, and that was from Cocobod,” he said.

Cocobod spokesman Noah Amenya confirmed smuggling was taking place but said the organisation did not have any figures.

“We are supporting the local authorities and the various task forces to fight the smugglers,” he told Reuters.

Estimates of smuggled volumes obtained by Reuters from four European traders ranged from 40,000 to 80,000 tonnes of beans, while exporters in Ivory Coast put the figure at between 50,000 and 60,000 tonnes.

Bean arrivals at Ivorian ports reached around 1.3 million tonnes by May 11, according to exporters’ estimates, up more than 10 percent from the same time last season.

“Smuggling likely to continue”

Ivory Coast’s October-to-March main crop opened on Oct. 2 with its sector regulator, the CCC, fixing a minimum guaranteed farmer price of 750 CFA francs ($1.59) per kg. Ghana’s price of 3,392 cedis per tonne was roughly on par with Ivory Coast’s at the time.

Despite the beans lost to smuggling, Ghanaian cocoa output still remains more than 15 percent ahead of last year’s levels with purchases reaching 704,266 tonnes by April 8 since the start of the main crop.

But Ivory Coast decided to maintain its farmer price at the main crop level of 750 CFA francs/kg for April-to-September mid-crop cocoa, which is usually sold at a discount.

This in turn could further fuel illegal trafficking as Ghana heads towards its light crop in July unless they raise the price, analysts said.

“Looking forward, it depends what happens to the farmer price because a depreciating cedi means Ghana should be able to increase their price by more (than Ivory Coast), to where it should be in dollar terms,” said a European analyst who declined to be named.

Source: Reuters

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