WARS

At the beginning of the century 90% people killed in war were soldiers.
Now 90% or more are civilians.
                                                                           (Voices of youth ----UNICEF)

Women and children are 80% of the refugee population. War leaves emotional and physical scars on children--trauma that can cause long term development difficulties unless recognized and treated.

"In a war, whichever side may call itself the victor, there are no winners, but all are losers"                                                         Neville Chamberlain                                                                       British P M 1937-40.

Did you know that ----- in the last decade

#  2 million children have been killed
#  1 million have become orphans
#  6 million have been seriously injured
#  12 million are homeless
#  Hundreds of thousands are believed to be part of rebel groups.

Every war is a war against children

• An estimated  1/4 of a million children were slaughtered in genocide in 1994 in Rwanda.
• Africa has had 30 internal wars since 1970
• In the past decade conflicts in Afghanistan, Angola, Bosnia, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Kosovo, Sri Lanka, Herzegovina, India have further pushed children into poverty.
• Sanctions against Iraq since 1989 led to infant mortality rate of under-five's to double.
• In Columbia in 1996, 4322 children were killed. A 40% rise in just 2 years. I million people were displaced due to guerilla warfare--70% of these were women and children.
  

  This led to a mass movement in Columbia where children took it upon themselves to WORK FOR PEACE Local Government of children Peace Carnivals for children of poor communities 3 million children voter turnout to vote for Peace right to survival freedom from abuse

They drew up a declaration
"We ask warring factions for peace in our homes,
for them  not to make orphans of children, to allow us to play freely in the streets
and for no harm to come to our brothers and sisters."
                                                                                               Unicef: State of the World's Children 2000

"Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind"                                                                                               J.F. Kennedy President USA                                                                                         1961-63

This project made us realize that so many children are left homeless and suffer in so many different ways. After chatting with our friends , we were even shocked to know that in many countries some children of our age actually join armies and handle real guns while we only play with toy guns. Though we cannot change the world, we hope that this project will focus attention on some of these children.

                                            BACK TO "Children at Risk"

Credits
Drawings & Text : Kartik, Gurbani, Mrigakshi, Malvika, Mahima, Nirish
HTML : (India)