Turkey-led forces reportedly recruit children in north Syria

January 20, 2018 By administrator

Opposition sources report that Turkish-led militant groups in northern Syria have recruited many non-adult males to fight Ankara’s battles, Al-Masdar News.

According to opposition sources, the Turkey-backed Syrian rebel coalition known as ‘Euphrates Shield’ has tens of child soldiers, most around 15-16 years old, within its ranks.

Some pictures were released by opposition sources to provide visual evidence of the claims being made.

The Euphrates Shield operations room was formed up from various rebel groups linked to the Free Syrian Army and Ahrar al-Sham (Syrian Muslim Brotherhood franchise) as part of a Turkish Army-led military incursion into northern Syria aimed at expelling ISIS from a key section of Turkish border.

Since the operation against the Islamic State group was terminated after the battle of Al-Bab , Euphrates Shield forces have so far relegated themselves to conducing occasional raids against positions of the Syrian Arab Army to their south and those of US-backed militias to their east and west.

Watch how Turkey “Distract Deceive Destroy” Syrian Child slaves’ making uniforms for IsIs “VIDEO”

January 8, 2018 By administrator

So young: About ten children are employed making uniforms being smuggled into Syria to sell to Isisi fighters. They should be in school but their parents send them to work

By Isabel Hunter and Salem Rizk In Antakya For Mailonline and Photographs By Jodi Hilton On The Turkish-syrian Border

‘Child slaves’ making uniforms for Isis: Inside the Turkish sweatshop where children as young as nine work 12 hours a day stitching combat gear used in battle by Islamic State.

Drawing slowly on his cheap cigarettes, 35-year-old Abu Zakour is hardened as he describes how he employs children as young as nine to stitch the uniforms that end up on the backs of frontline ISIS fighters.

The Syrian boys – and a couple of girls hidden upstairs – are paid a minimum of 40 Turkish lira (£10) a day to stitch, cut and measure out the camouflage material and help their older colleagues piece together the uniforms that get smuggled across the border to rebel groups.

‘My kids are in a school run by an NGO,’ he said, speaking exclusively to MailOnline from his office in the Turkish border town of Antakya. ‘These children could go too but their parents want them to earn money, so what can I do?’

Child labour: A young boy at work making uniforms in Turkey that apparently find their way to Isis soldiers. ‘The only reason that these children work with me is for the money – If there were no war in Syria, these children would be in school—and school would be a much better option for them,’ factory owner Abu Zakour told MailOnline

UNICEF: 2017 a ‘nightmare year’ for children caught in war zones

December 28, 2017 By administrator

According to UNICEF, 2017 was one of the worst years for children caught in conflicts and besieged areas. From being deployed as human shields to acting as suicide bombers, children have become targets on a huge scale.

Warring parties in 2017 had a blatant disregarded for international law when it came to the protection of children, an official from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Wednesday.

A UNICEF report found that in conflict-ridden regions across the world, high numbers of children had been killed, used as human shields and recruited to fight.

“Children are being targeted and exposed to attacks and brutal violence in their homes, schools and playgrounds,” Manuel Fontaine, UNICEF’s director of emergency programs, said. “As these attacks continue year after year, we cannot become numb. Such brutality cannot be the new normal.”

While Turkey Received Billions $ aid from EU and UN yet Syrian children forced to work rather than study

December 5, 2017 By administrator

They work up to 12 hours a day to help their families. Labor is part of daily life for many displaced Syrian children in Turkey. Studying is a luxury, and so is play. Julia Hahn reports from Istanbul.

It’s 8 a.m. The muffled clattering of sewing machines can be heard outside on the street. Aras Ali hurries down the stairs into the neon-lit glare to make sure she’s on time for the start of her shift. Aras is 11-years old, and the tailor’s shop in Istanbul’s Bagcilar quarter is her workplace.

The girl works with several other children to make sure the seamstresses are constantly supplied with material. She cuts the colorful fabric with a pair of scissors and sorts it so that individual sections of cloth lie ready for the clattering machines. The women are sewing them into ladies’ underwear.

Cut, pile up, cut, pile up. Twelve hours a day, Monday to Friday, for the equivalent of about 150 euros ($180) a month. Four years ago Aras fled the northern Syrian town of Afrin with her family and came to Turkey, first to Gaziantep, then Istanbul.

“Rent, food, the water bill: It’s all so expensive here,” the girl said. “My mother isn’t too well, and one of my sisters is sick, so I have to work to help them.” This is the kind of thing you hear from almost every child in this workshop. It’s apparent that these are children who have had to grow up much too fast.

‘Very widespread problem’

The issue is not new. “Child labor has been a structural and very widespread problem in Turkey for a very long time,” said Sezen Yalcin, who works for the rights organization Support to Life. “It’s even reflected in people’s mindsets: Many people think it’s not a problem in most of the cases.”

Precise figures aren’t available, but the number of children conscripted into the workforce in Turkey has risen sharply alongside the number of displaced people admitted to the country since 2011. So far, Turkey has taken in more than 3 million Syrians — more than any other country in the world. No other country has provided a home to so many displaced children: UNICEF estimates that there are 1.2 million living there. But only a few live in the official camps in the southeast of the country near the Syrian border. Most families try their luck in the big cities. As many as 1 million displaced people are estimated to be living in Istanbul alone.

“Most of the children working in Turkey used to attend school back home in Syria, so it’s a drastic rupture in their lives and childhoods,” Yalcin said. “When they start to work, their childhood ends — forever, or for a while at least.”

The law is unambiguous: Child labor is forbidden in Turkey. Anyone employing girls and boys younger than 15 is liable to be prosecuted. Nonetheless, the children work in the textile or agricultural industries, as cutters, or as harvest workers in the fields. Anywhere where the state doesn’t look too closely and where social security contributions and occupational safety are ignored.

Children of Armenia Fund’s event supported by Hollywood stars

November 17, 2017 By administrator

Photo from www.coafkids.org

The Children of Armenia Fund (COAF) is announcing its annual gala dinner which is supported by Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks, Ariana Grande, Chloe Kardashian, Conan O’Brien, Tina Fey and may others.

The supporters of COAF’s efforts gather in New York City each year to participate in the much-anticipated and star-studded event which will be held for the 14th time this year on December 16.

Emmy- and Tony-award winning actress Andrea Martin will host the fundraising, while Swiss art auctioneer and collector Simon de Pury will curate the auction of unique artworks.

Prominent artists and designers will attend the evening, enjoy cocktails and dinner and jazz performances.

Spanning education, health, wellness, science, technology, innovation, culture, art, communication and languages, COAF’s programming was created to empower a new generation of healthy, educated Armenians to significantly improve the future of their homeland on both a local and global scale.

Last year, DiCaprio made a $65,000 donation to the Fund by acquiring a work by painter Joe Bradley.

Children’s clothing of Armenian production is exported to Russia

March 20, 2017 By administrator

Alex Textile, a company engaged in light industry, produced 773.2 million AMD worth products in the past year, registering 308% increase to compare with the previous year,” Director of the socks production of the company Albert Hovsepyan noted during today’s meeting with the reporters in the production unit, which has operated for two years already, Panorama.am reports.

“The factory produces several hundreds of thousands of socks annually. 20% of the socks and tights produced by the factory are exported to Russia and to other states, the rest of the products is intended for the domestic market. We have plans to increase the exports volume,” the director said.

Marat Movsisyan, Director of the children’s clothing factory of the company informed that the in 2017 the company plans to launch fabric, woven clothing and home textile production with a total of 28 million euros investment. “We plan to launch sweater production in the beginning of August of this year with textile and fabric production to launch at the end of 2017,” he detailed.

The company produces over one million units of clothing annually.

“Our whole production is exported to Russia. Alex Textile cooperates with the Russian Children’s World store chains, which operates over 600 stores in Russia. Our goods are not still sold in Armenia, however currently we have a small volume [of clothing], which we intend to sell in Armenia. The factory of the children’s clothing began to operate one month ago. It features 300-350 workers,” Head of the children’s clothing factory of the company Zhora Movsisyan added.

UNICEF: Over 650 children were killed in Syria last year

March 13, 2017 By administrator

At least 652 children were killed in Syria in 2016, making it the worst year yet for the country’s rising generation, the United Nations’ child relief agency (UNICEFF) said on Monday, according to CBC News.

According to the source, there was no letup to attacks on schools, hospitals, playgrounds, parks and homes last year as the Syrian government, its opponents and the allies of both sides showed callous disregard for the laws of war.

UNICEF said at least 255 children were killed in or near schools last year and 1.7 million youngsters are out of school. One of every three schools in Syria is unusable, some because armed groups occupy them. An additional 2.3 million Syrian children are refugees elsewhere in the Middle East.

The figures come in a UNICEF report released two days before the sixth anniversary of the popular uprising that escalated into civil war.

The report warns that coping mechanisms and medical care are eroding quickly in Syria, driving children into child labour, early marriage and combat. Dozens are dying from preventable diseases.

Some 350,000 children face siege-like conditions in western Mosul: Charity

January 31, 2017 By administrator

An Iraqi woman and her child, fleeing the Daesh-controlled Rashidiyah neighborhood, arrive at Arabi neighborhood north of Mosul on January 22, 2017 as a military operation against the extremists continues. (Photo by AFP)

An estimated 350,000 children are trapped in siege-like conditions and risk execution by the Daesh terrorist group in the western part of Mosul, an international non-governmental organization warns.

According to a report released by Save the Children on Monday, half of the 750,000 trapped civilians in west Mosul are children, who risk being killed by Daesh terrorists if they try to escape.

The London-based organization further urged Iraqi troops and the so-called US-led military coalition to take all necessary steps to minimize civilian casualties during the operation to liberate the western flank of Mosul, located some 400 kilometers north of the capital Baghdad.

“To a child it doesn’t matter where the bombs come from – it’s where they land that matters,” Save the Children’s Iraq Country Director, Maurizio Crivallero, said.

“The impact of explosive weapons in west Mosul is likely to be deadly and indiscriminate. We must ensure that every effort humanly possible is made to protect children and their families from harm,” he added.

Save the Children has described the situation in Mosul as “increasingly desperate,” noting that three quarters of a million civilians have no access to aid agencies and are running out of food, water and basic supplies.

Mahmoud, a medic living in a recaptured area of eastern Mosul, said his family in west Mosul did not have anything to eat or drink.

“No one is able to get the children anything, there’s no food or milk for babies – the markets are empty and the supplies they stockpiled have almost run out,” he said.

The Iraqi medic went on to say that there was a huge risk for families trying to flee.

“If Daesh see a family trying to escape, they kill them on the spot. I tried to get mine out and agreed with a smuggler to bring them here, but he opted out because he saw a family of nine killed in front of his eyes,” he said.

The report comes only a few days after the World Food Programme announced 50-percent cuts in monthly food rations distributed to 1.4 million Iraqis displaced in the wake of anti-Daesh military campaign.

The UN agency blamed delays in payments of funds from donor states for the measure.

Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, fell into the hands of Daesh terrorists in the summer of 2014.

Iraqi army soldiers, supported by pro-government Popular Mobilization Units – commonly known by the Arabic word Hashd al-Sha’abi – and Kurdish Peshmerga forces, launched a joint operation on October 17, 2016 to retake Mosul from Daesh terrorists.

Leonardo DiCaprio donates $65,000 to Children of Armenia Fund

December 15, 2016 By administrator

Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio has made a $65,000 donation to the Children of Armenia Fund (COAF), Page Six reports.

At the COAF’s gala in New York, the Oscar winner bought a work by painter Joe Bradley for a cool $65,000.

On December 9, the 13th Annual COAF Gala at Cipriani in New York raised $3.1 million to fund COAF’s extensive range of programs in Armenia.

Page Six. Leo and Nina head to Mexico after Trump meeting

1/3 of children in Armenia both poor and deprived: UNICEF

September 26, 2016 By administrator

children-poor-deprived Almost one in three children are both poor and socially deprived in Armenia, the United Nations’ children agency said in a report Monday, September 26.

For children, besides its monetary character, poverty can also mean being deprived in crucial aspects of their lives, such as nutrition, education, leisure or housing, the UNICEF said.

In Armenia, 64% of children are deprived in 2 or more dimensions. The headcount is as high as 82% in rural areas, while it is 53% in urban settings. Nationwide 12% of children are not deprived in any dimension. However this is true for only 3% of children in rural areas, while 18 per cent of children in urban areas do not suffer any deprivation. Children who are deprived, are deprived on average in three dimensions at the same time.

Most children are deprived in Utilities, Housing and Leisure.

Utilities is defined here as a combination of poor water supply and heating, while housing is defined by crowded living space and reported housing problems. Leisure is measured as a combination of recreation items and space to play.

There is a sharp rural/urban divide in the utilities dimension: 87 % of children in rural areas are deprived in utilities, a combination of poor access to water and heating. The second relevant divide is found in information: 57% of rural children are deprived of access to information, while this is true for only one third of children in urban settings. However, there are no differences in leisure deprivation rates by area of residence. At the same time, there are no significant gender differences either in deprivation distribution or particular dimensions.

28% of children are deprived (in 2 or more dimensions) and live in monetary-poor households. These children are the most vulnerable, and should be prioritized by social policies.

At the same time, 36% of children are deprived, but do not live in poor households. These children need direct intervention to tackle deprivation, and are at risk of being missed by policies that only address monetary poverty.

Younger children are mostly deprived in Nutrition. About one third of children aged 0-5 are deprived in nutrition, and 23% of children aged 3-5 are deprived in early childhood education. The highest deprivation rates for this age groups are found in information (49%), utilities (48%) and housing (51%).

Older children are mostly deprived in Leisure and Social Relations. Both children age 6-14 and aged 15-17 have their highest deprivation in leisure, defined as not having a space to play outside or not having books or toys. Almost one half of children age 6-14 are also deprived in social relations. 37% of children aged 6-14 are deprived in education (defined as education resources), while 12% of children aged 15-17 are not in education or training.

Related links:

Child Poverty in Armenia