www.eastafricaforum.net http://africa.reuters.com/country/ET/news/usnLQ230145.html
Maids in Lebanon dying every week - rights group
Tue 26 Aug 2008BEIRUT, Aug 26 (Reuters) - Lebanon must improve working conditions for migrant domestic workers, who often commit suicide or die while trying to escape from their employers, a U.S.-based rights group said on Tuesday.
Human Rights Watch said there were an estimated 200,000 such workers in Lebanon, including those with illegal status, mostly from Sri Lanka, the Philippines and Ethiopia.
Out of about 95 foreign housemaids who died in Lebanon since Jan. 2007, 40 deaths were classified by their embassies as suicides and 24 as workers falling from high buildings, often trying to escape their employers, it said in a statement.
"Domestic workers are dying in Lebanon at a rate of more than one per week," said Nadim Houry, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch.
"All those involved -- from the Lebanese authorities to the workers' embassies, to the employment agencies, to the employers -- need to ask themselves what is driving these women to kill themselves or risk their lives trying to escape from high buildings."
The rights group called on a committee created in 2006 to improve workers' conditions, to investigate the causes of these deaths and develop a concrete national strategy to reduce them.
The Labour Ministry, which leads the committee, was not immediately available for comment.
The rights group said interviews with embassy officials and friends of domestic workers who committed suicide suggested that "forced confinement, excessive work demands, employer abuse and financial pressures are key factors pushing these women to kill themselves or risk their lives".
According to Human Rights Watch, Lebanese labour laws specifically exclude domestic workers from rights guaranteed to other workers, such as a weekly day of rest, work hour limits, paid holidays and compensation.
"While the Lebanese authorities cannot guarantee these women happiness, they should guarantee them the right to move freely, to work in decent conditions, to communicate with their friends and family, and to earn a living wage," it said.
http://www.app.com.pk/en_/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=50518&Itemid=2
Associated Press of Pakistan
August 27, 2008
British Muslim delegation visits Ethiopia and Somaliland
LONDON, Aug 27 (APP)- Four prominent British Muslims have visited Ethiopia and Hargeisa in Somaliland as part of a Projecting British Islam visit. The main aim of the visit was to build stronger partnerships between British Muslims and the Ethiopian and Somali Muslim leadership.
According to a Foreign and Commonwealth Office release, the delegation helped showcase the integral role of British Muslims in the UK and highlighted the work being undertaken in both countries by British organisations.
An important outcome of the visit was to add the voice of British Muslims to those in Ethiopia and Somalia who are opposed to extremist ideology. The four delegates were: journalist Fuad Nahdi ,educationalist Sheikh Babikir Ahmed Babikir, Sabin Malik a Community Cohesion specialist and Habib Malik of Islamic Relief charity.
The delegates met students, civil society and religious leaders in both Ethiopia and Hargeisa. A highlight of the visit was when Sheikh Babikir Ahmed Babikir, one of the delegates, addressed 10,000 people during Friday prayers at the main Mosque in Ethiopia.
Other highlights included meeting the President of Somaliland and taking part in two lively Q&A sessions about Islam with young Somali and Ethiopian Muslims.
Speaking about their visit, the delegates said:
“We went to Ethiopia and Hargeisa for discussions about issues of mutual concern, in particular to build partnerships between British Muslims and communities in both countries.
We enjoyed an open and frank discussion with leading figures in Ethiopia and Hargeisa including Muslim scholars, community representatives, educational and women’s leaders. “We shared our experiences as British Muslims in Britain today and helped counter the misperceptions that existed about the role of Muslims in UK society.
We also learned a lot from the experiences of our Ethiopian and Somali hosts. We were proud to represent the diverse range of British Muslim communities on this visit.”
Projecting British Muslims is a programme of visits by British Muslim delegations facilitated by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to a range of Muslim majority countries, and countries with Muslim communities.
The aim is to share their experiences as Muslims in Britain today and engage in constructive dialogue and debate with a range of political, religious and social groups and figures.
http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=8999b6d3c59ee1ad69baaea141567cf2 New America Media, US August 26, 2008
Adopting Ethiopian Orphans May Not be the Best Solution
Americans are adopting fewer orphans overseas except in one country: Ethiopia. But social workers are saying adoption is not the best solution to Ethiopia's problems. Bauer is a freelance journalist and photographer based in the Middle East and Africa.
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia - On the outskirts of Addis Ababa a newly built orphanage called Rohobet is hidden among tin-roofed shacks on top of a eucalyptus and pine-covered hill. All around it, dirt roads are turned into muddy rivulets in the midday drizzle.
The inside of the largely empty house has features that are distinctly un-Ethiopian. A large kitchen table and chairs -- the eight children are to eat at a table rather than on the floor.
Babies are fed by bottles and sleep in cribs, rather than the large pieces of cloths shaped into tiny hammocks that are the norm in most Ethiopian homes. When they travel, the smallest children sit in car seats. After leaving their home state of Oromo and coming to the orphanage, the children are being prepared for life in the United States.
In the four months that the Rohobet orphanage has existed, it has had five children adopted through the Minnesota-based agency, Better Future Adoption. The director of Rohobet is a man I'll call Tewodros since he asked not to be named for fear of reprisal from the government or the American adoption agency that funds his orphanage.
He had the personality of a non-profit entrepreneur, with a big heart and a mind for expanding his business. His mission was clear: raise more money and have more children adopted. "We have enough orphans, just not enough money," he said.
He also has enough of a demand. For his line of work, business is virtually booming. In recent years, Americans have become increasingly interested in adopting children from Ethiopia, a dynamic that a New York Times article last year attributed to the fact that orphanages in Ethiopia are run by foreign agencies and that the country has a relatively efficient and hassle free adoption process.
According to Tewodros every week, American families land in Addis Ababa to pick up their new children, usually leaving in less than seven days.
While American adoption of Ethiopians is climbing, international adoption by Americans is declining overall. In 2004, Americans adopted 22,884 children from other countries. In 2007 the number was 19,400.
The number of children sent out of Ethiopia to the United States in that same period has more than quadrupled, rising from 289 in 2004 —the year before Angelina Jolie's famed adoption of an Ethiopian girl— to 1,255 in 2007. This makes Ethiopia the fourth most popular country for Americans to adopt from after China, Guatemala, and Russia, respectively.
But is adoption actually the best strategy for improving the lives of the orphaned children?
Most of Ethiopia's estimated one million orphans have extended family members who, if they only had the money, Tewodros said, would care for the child. Here's where the idea of adoption as a last resort gets tricky: It costs $20 per month to support a child with a foster family in Ethiopia.
More often than not, the foster family is one of the child's relatives. An American parent adopting a child through Better Future Adoption will spend between $14,170 - $18,170 in fees and travel costs, according to the Web site.
"To solve the problem of orphaned children, we need solve the problem of HIV," said Teshager Shiferan, director of the Dawn of Hope Ethiopia Association. His organization is an association of people living with HIV/AIDS, the main cause of orphaned children in Ethiopia. Of the country's one million orphans, 700,000 have
Photo credit: Shane Bauerlost their parents to the disease.
"We can't solve the problem of orphaned children in Ethiopia by sending them abroad," Shiferan said. "We need to focus on the prevention of HIV/AIDS." Ethiopia, he said, is headed in the right direction.
Three years ago, the government began offering free anti-retroviral treatment (ART) to 150,000 HIV/AIDS victims. That is still a small fraction of the estimated 1.2 million people living with HIV/AIDS, but it is already showing results: according to him, the number of people dying from HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia has been declining.
"The implication is clear," he said. "An orphan is someone whose parents died. If you increase the number of people who get ART, you decrease the number of orphans."
Dealing with HIV/AIDS might be a long-term solution to curbing the problem of orphaned children, but people like Tewodros are invested in dealing with the immediate problem of kids without parents.
As of late, he's been coming up against the government, which has recently been increasing restrictions and implementing policies that would keep children in the country. For a child to be approved for adoptions, new stipulations require documented confirmation of the death of both parents or the serious illness of the single living parent.
Tewodros said the reason for the policy change is to crack down on child trafficking, but for him, it just creates headaches. Three of the children at his orphanage are waiting to be adopted, but the government has been refusing to approve it, because the children's father is still alive. "We go to the ministry again and again and the government won't give us permission. Their father is a poor man and he can't take care of them," he said.
Tewodros admits that adoption isn't always the best strategy, but like non-profits the world over, he is restricted by funding. The money is in adoption, not in keeping children in their country with their families.
Doing the math, it would cost roughly $5000 to fund the care of 20 orphans by their extended family. While that amount is 26 times the average yearly income of an Ethiopian, it's about a quarter to a third of the amount an American would pay to adopt a single child from the Rohobet orphanage.
No comments:
Post a Comment