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Biafra 1969
Biafra

When the Igbos of eastern Nigeria declared themselves independent in 1967, Nigeria blockaded their fledgling country-Biafra. In three years of war, more than one million people died, mainly of hunger. In famine, children who lack protein often get the disease kwashiorkor, which causes their muscles to waste away and their bellies to protrude. War photographer Don McCullin drew attention to the tragedy. "I was devastated by the sight of 900 children living in one camp in utter squalor at the point of death," he said. "I lost all interest in photographing soldiers in action." The world community intervened to help Biafra, and learned key lessons about dealing with massive hunger exacerbated by war-a problem that still defies simple solutions.

Southern Sudan March 1st 1993
Famine in Sudan

In March 1993 Kevin Carter, a freelance photographer, made a trip to southern Sudan with intentions of documenting the local rebel movement. However, upon arriving and witnessing the horror of the famine, Carter began to take photographs of starving victims. The sound of soft, high-pitched whimpering near the village of Ayod attracted Carter to a young emaciated Sudanese toddler. The girl had stopped to rest while struggling to a feeding center, wherein a seemingly well-fed vulture had landed nearby. He said that he waited about 20 minutes, hoping that the vulture would spread its wings. It didn't. Carter snapped the haunting photograph and chased the vulture away. However, he also came under heavy criticism for just photographing — and not helping — the little girl:

"The man adjusting his lens to take just the right frame of her suffering might just as well be a predator, another vulture on the scene."

The photograph was sold to The New York Times where it appeared for the first time on March 26, 1993. Practically overnight hundreds of people contacted the newspaper to ask whether the child had survived, leading the newspaper to run a special editor's note saying the girl had enough strength to walk away from the vulture, but that her ultimate fate was unknown.

On April 2, 1994 Nancy Buirski, a foreign New York Times picture editor, phoned Carter to inform him he had won the most coveted prize for photography. Carter was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography on May 23, 1994 at Columbia University's Low Memorial Library.

He later confided to friends that he wished he had intervened and helped the child. Journalists at the time were supposedly warned never to touch famine victims for fear of disease. Carter's guilt was so overwhelming that he took his life in July of 1994

How to report child pornography

There Is No Free Speech Protection for Child Porn. If you encounter child pornography either online or through the U.S. mail, here is how you can report the crime to the proper authorities:

If you encounter child pornography on the Internet, you can report the site address to your Internet Service Provider and your local or state FBI or Customs office listed in your telephone directory.

You can also report child pornography online by forwarding the site address to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) at cybertipline.com. NCMEC will forward your report to the appropriate investigative agency for follow-up.

To collect the address (or URL) of a child-pornography web site, click on the address in your browser's address bar to highlight (select) the address, then hold down the Control key and click on the C key to copy the address. You can then paste the address to a text file or email message by holding down the Control key and hitting the V key.

-About.com:crime/punishment

How to report child abuse in Europe and Asia

Call the NSPCC Child Protection Helpline:
0808-800-5000

The helpline offers services in: French,Greek,Turkish,Somali,Punjabi,
Bengali,Hindi,Italian,Arabic,Spanish,Chinese,and Gujurati.

Cymru/Wales Child Protection Helpline:
0808-100-2524

Asian Helpline service in English: 0800-096-7719

Bengali/ Sylehti: 0800-096-7714

Gujarati: 0800-096-7715

Hindi Service: 0800-096-7716

Punjabi service: 0800-096-7717

Urdu Service: 0800-096-7718

Textphone: 0800-056-0566

Bilingual textphone in Welsh and English: 0808-100- 1033

The NSPCC Helpline is a confidential and free service, open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

If you think a child is in immediate danger, call the police on 999

LINKS TO RESOURCEFUL SITES

National Center for Missing and Exploited children

Child Abuse Prevention Network

Child Abuse Prevention Program

Shaken Baby Syndrome Prevention

Rape and Incest National Network
(24 hr service. Rapists don't take the night off)

Child Lures Prevention

Child Sexual Abuse Prevention

Find Registered sex offenders in your neighborhood for free!

?NSPCC?
Stop Child Abuse (Europe/Asia)

Help for children facing a crisis

Prevent Child Abuse

Child Care Resources
(Be aware of who is caring for your children)

International Child Abuse Network

Lawyers for Children

Resources for Parenting Teens

National Runaway Switchboard

State deffinition of child abuse and neglect

Within the minimum standards set by CAPTA, each State is responsible for providing its own definitions of child abuse and neglect. Most States recognize four major types of maltreatment: neglect, physical abuse, sexual abuse, and emotional abuse. You can locate definitions for your State by conducting a State Statutes Search on the Information Gateway website.

The examples provided below are for general informational purposes only:

Neglect is failure to provide for a child's basic needs. Neglect may be:

♥ Physical (e.g., failure to provide necessary food or shelter, or lack of appropriate supervision)
♥ Medical (e.g., failure to provide necessary medical or mental health treatment)
♥ Educational (e.g., failure to educate a child or attend to special education needs)
♥ Emotional (e.g., inattention to a child's emotional needs, failure to provide psychological care, or permitting the child to use alcohol or other drugs)

These situations do not always mean a child is neglected. Sometimes cultural values, standards of care in the community, or poverty may be contributing factors, indicating the family is in need of information or assistance. When a family fails to use information and resources, and the child's health or safety is at risk, then child welfare intervention may be required.

Physical abuse is physical injury (ranging from minor bruises to severe fractures or death) as a result of punching, beating, kicking, biting, shaking, throwing, stabbing, choking, hitting (with a hand, stick, strap, or other object), burning, or otherwise harming a child. Such injury is considered abuse regardless of whether the caretaker intended to hurt the child.

Sexual abuse includes activities by a parent or caretaker such as fondling a child's genitals, penetration, incest, rape, sodomy, indecent exposure, and exploitation through prostitution or the production of pornographic materials.

Emotional abuse is a pattern of behavior that impairs a child's emotional development or sense of self-worth. This may include constant criticism, threats, or rejection, as well as withholding love, support, or guidance. Emotional abuse is often difficult to prove and, therefore, child protective services may not be able to intervene without evidence of harm to the child. Emotional abuse is almost always present when other forms are identified.

-Child welfare information gateway.
(A service of the children's bureau)

How many children die each year from child abuse or neglect?

The National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS) reported an estimated 1,490 child fatalities in 2004. This translates to a rate of 2.03 children per 100,000 children in the general population. NCANDS defines "child fatality" as the death of a child caused by an injury resulting from abuse or neglect, or where abuse or neglect was a contributing factor.

The rate of child abuse and neglect fatalities reported by NCANDS has increased slightly during the last several years from 1.96 per 100,000 in 2001, to 1.98 in 2002, 2.00 in 2003, and 2.03 in 2004. It is likely that the slight increase in fatalities reported by NCANDS is due to improved reporting by some of the States.

While most data on child fatalities come from State child welfare agencies, States are also able to draw on other data sources. In 2004, 18.4 percent of fatalities were reported through the Agency File, which includes fatalities reported by health departments and fatality review boards. This coordination of data collection contributes to better estimates.

Many researchers and practitioners believe child fatalities due to abuse and neglect are still underreported. Studies in Colorado and North Carolina have estimated that as many as 50 to 60 percent of child deaths resulting from abuse or neglect are not recorded as such (Crume, DiGuiseppi, Byers, Sirotnak, Garrett, 2002; Herman-Giddens, Brown, Verbiest, Carlson, Hooten, et al., 1999).

Common non-accidental injuries found in infants and children.

Shaken Baby Syndrome

CNS injury related to nonaccidental injury is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in infants and children. Some state that eighty percent of deaths of children under 2 years of age result from nonaccidental head trauma. A baby's neck muscles are very weak and its head is large and heavy in proportion to the rest of its body.

When a baby is shaken, the neck snaps back and forth, much like in a whiplash injury, causing the brain to hit the front and back of the skull. This can damage the brain and cause it to bruise, bleed and swell.

Rib Fracture

In violent shaking the child is held very tightly around the chest and squeezed while being shaken. This compresses the ribs front to back and tends to break them next to their attachment to vertebrae and laterally where they are being literally almost folded in half. CPR is rarely, if ever, a cause of such fractures.

These rib fractures in abused children may be found incidentally on chest X-rays performed for other reasons, such as evaluation for pneumonia.

Skull Fractures

Skull fractures are common child abuse injuries, but they are also common in accidental trauma. Patterns of skull fracture that suggest child abuse are:

- Multiple 'eggshell' fractures -
- Occipital impression fractures -
- Fractures crossing sutures -

The infant's skull is very resistent to trauma, so any fracture that is inconsistent with the history should raise the question of non-accidental injury.

Internal Hemorrhage

It is estimated that 2-10% of all abdominal injury results from child abuse.

The mean age of these children is about 2 years and it is more common in boys than girls.

The mortality rate is 50% due to 'patients and doctors delay'. These children are brought to the hospital days after the injury, when a perforation already has resulted in peritonitis and sepsis.

The history given by the abusers usually does not correlate with the symptoms, which makes these cases very difficult to evaluate for the clinician.

-Diagnostic Imaging in Child Abuse- Non Accidental Trauma
Simon Robben MD
Radiology Departement of the Maastricht University
Hospital in the Netherlands

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Preventing Abuse

Child abuse is a problem that concerns us all! Can it be prevented? YES! Child abuse and neglect can be prevented or stopped through the efforts of schools, neighbors, families and the community.

Help us prevent child abuse, here is what you can do:

1. Understand the causes of child abuse and learn all you can about abuse and neglect.

2. Learn to identify the warning signs that a child is being abused.

3. Report any known or suspected case of child abuse.

4. Seek help if you feel you are at risk of abusing a child.

5. Be a friend to a child or parent in need.

6. Alert others to the problem. Many don't recognize or understand the effects of physical, sexual and emotional abuse and neglect.

To break the cycle of abuse, CAPA provides counseling to children and their families after abuse has occurred. When a child is able to heal from abuse and learns how to keep her/himself safe, the chance of additional abuse is greatly reduced. CAPA also provides Family Support Services and Educational opportunities that help reduce the risk factors that cause abuse/neglect before it occurs.

Tips for Parents

Below are some tips to help parents prevent or detect abuse:

-Be involved in your children's activities.

-Notice when someone spends a lot of time with your child. Talk with your child about what they do, who else is there, what kind of games they play, etc.

-Believe your child. Listen seriously and sensitively to what your child says.

-Teach your child to "Say no, get away, and to tell someone," if anyone tries to touch him or her inappropriately.

-Teach your child, "Your body belongs to you."

-Explain to your child not to keep secrets that feel scary or uncomfortable.

-Go through rules with your babysitter when your child is present.