Children

UNICEF's winning photo for 2008 comes from 21-year-old Belgian photographer Alice Smeets, the youngest person ever to win the competition. The picture comes from a slum in Port au Prince, Haiti called the “Cité Soleil,” or “City of the Sun.” Second place went to Israeli photographer Oded Baililty for his depiction of a child in the Chinese […]

People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don't even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the […]

As stated in the post, The Freedom of Education, education is the key to freedom however poverty and access are often a huge barrier.  However an additional barrier to accessing education that plagues many children around the globe is disability.  With strains already placed on many educational systems and access to education in many areas is already […]

"He who teaches children learns more than they do" – German Proverb They always say that teaching is the most rewarding profession, and that being a parent is the hardest job you will ever have.  It is true that when teaching or raising a child that you learn more from them than they do from […]

It was on this day, December 10, 1948, that the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (which is available in more than 360 languages), for which it called all UN Member countries to publicize the text of the Declaration and “to cause it to be disseminated, displayed, read and […]

How can you help underprivileged children? Here are 25 ways for you to help make a child's life better this year. Why not pick a few off the list, or pick one that you can make a yearlong project and get a head start on your New Years Resolution! Donate new blankets to children in homeless […]

Eid al-Adha “Festival of Sacrifice” is a religious festival celebrated by Muslims (including the Druze) worldwide to commemorate the willingness of Ibrahim to sacrifice his son Ishmael as an act of obedience to God. However, God provided a ram in place once Ibrahim demonstrated his willingness to follow God's commands. At Eid al-Adha, Muslims make […]

 SOMALIA: “Highest levels of malnutrition in the world”. "Somalia has the highest levels of malnutrition in the world", with up to 300,000 children acutely malnourished annually, Hilde Frarfjord Johnson, UNICEF's deputy executive director, said. Anaemic mothers and inadequate nutrition were the main causes of high malnutrition levels in the war-torn country, she said, with most […]

Yesterday I brought you a quote from Epictetus, and it had me thinking of his Philosophical teachings. As a philosopher, Epictetus believed all external events are are out of one's control, and decided by fate, but that we are responsible for our own actions. He believed that suffering came from trying to control the uncontrollable, […]

“Only the educated are free.”  -Epictetus (a Greek Stoic philosopher, most likely born a slave). An empty classroom is surely a sad sight, and the sight of a child denied an education not only brings tears to one's eyes, but enslaves nations. Children are denied an education due to poverty, war, disability…and those who do […]

Too often we focus on what we cannot do, and not what we can do. For millions who have been labeled with a disability the stigma of the word is often hard to shake, but it is others who seem to have a harder time shaking the stigma.  Some 10% of the world's population, or  some […]

December 2nd is the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery, the day was established by the United Nations in 1949.  The International Day for the Abolition of Slavery was established to commemorate all the efforts to abolish slavery in every form. While the efforts of historical abolitionist, such as; Frederick Douglass, John Brown, William Wilberforce, and Harriet Tubman, […]