peoplearenotforsale
what about the human rights and dignity?!
Monthly Archives: August 2012
The train stations/rail ways is their home
I found this information about children living on the train station in India and the statistics of how many they are and what they are exposed to when they have the train station as their home. I actually found a magazine on the metro the other day and they wrote about this swedish girl named Anna Fischer who has recently won the “best Director of a Documentary” at the ITN Distribution Film Festival, Los Angeles, California, USA for “Lucky Express” a documentary of the children on the train stations in India. I found the trailer on Youtube and the I was happy also to find the website of the movie. and on that page I found the information about the runaway kids who live in the rail stations in India.This breaks my heart.India once stole my heart and also having travelled in India and meeting a friend and also getting to know new friends, India is for me a very dear place and close to my heart. Seeing how the children are so vulnerable and exposed to so many dangers situations make my heart break into peaces.
“No one knows the exact number of abandoned and abused runaway children who have been forced to live their lives in the train stations of India. Social workers have counted up to two hundred children arriving at the larger stations every day. According to UNICEF, there are approximately eleven million child runaways in India. More than 70% of these children are less than fourteen years old, and it is not uncommon to see children as young as three year olds among them. They work as soon as they are able to speak.
Why are they found at the train stations? The stations provide access to public toilets, water and—most importantly—leftover food and opportunities to make money. Children are involved in a variety of different work at the train stations, including begging, vending, rag-picking, performing for travelers, cleaning and sweeping, shoe shining, and selling refilled bottles of water. Bottle collecting is one of the most common enterprises: empty water bottles are abandoned by passengers, gathered by the children, and brought to local recycling houses, where the kids receive no more than a pittance for their efforts. At the very most, children might make 150 rupees (ca US$3) a day from bottle collecting—spent immediately either on food or on such goods as glue for sniffing. Money can never be saved, of course; what isn’t spent is usually stolen by other children, by gang members or pimps. An estimated 90% of the children are engaged in substance abuse.
These children are in constant danger. It has been estimated that it takes an average of twenty minutes after arrival at a station before a child is approached by an older sexual predator, or is offered drugs in exchange for sex. Some children have to prostitute themselves to gang members in order to ensure themselves a somewhat safe place to sleep at the station. Life is hard, a daily struggle to survive. As the children get older,their only chance of survival is to to join the gangs. Life at the train stations is as tough as it gets for a kid in India.”
It feels a little bit hopeless to read such dreadful information about how children are living in this world but I know there is hope. A friend of mine works in Kolkata with this complex situation. And another friend of mine work in the north part of India and her family has started a home for vulnerable and abandoned girls.My dear friend and reader this make my heart much more relief to know that I have friends fighting for children in India but there is still so much to do for all the kids around the world.
Let us fight for the right for every child!
//Maria
Note!! I recently spoke with my dear friend Sanna and the editor of the blog and she is beginning to settle down in Singapore but have had A LOT to do with her new work. But stay tuned she will soon correct the english grammar! THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE!! =D
Source of information and photo : http://www.luckyexpress.org/
For more information about the movie take a look at the trailer or check out their website. http://youtu.be/-kkfVaf0nUw
Love chocolate?
Found this article at Stop the traffick.
Do you love chocolate? Let´s fight for a trafficked free chocolate. //Maria
“TODAY WE ARE LAUNCHING OUR NEW CAMPAIGN ASKING KRAFT- WHEN WILL TOBERLONE BE FREE FROM CHILD TRAFFICKING?
Do you have a passion for all things chocolaty? Are you creative? Then you can use your artistic talents to make a difference; create an image for our Kraft campaign.
Kraft source a significant amount of their cocoa from the Ivory Coast where the Worst Forms of Child Labour and child-trafficking and been reported.
Since Kraft acquired Cadbury, who had made a previous commitment to Fairtrade, there has been very little new movement on their part. Kraft is the world’s biggest buyer of cocoa; in 2010 they bought 440.000 tons of cocoa but only 7% was certified as Traffik-Free.[1] Mars, Nestlé, Ferrero and Hershey have all made public statements of some kind or another regarding their commitment to eliminate trafficking in their supply chain. However, it’s been quiet from Kraft for a long time.
Being the world’s largest buyer of cocoa, they should be leading, not lagging.
So, we’re asking Kraft for Traffik-Free chocolate across all their range starting with Toblerone- one of their best known and their most distinctive chocolate bars around the world.
What you can do
We’re asking as many people as possible to create and share their own messages to Kraft in the form of an image. It could be a photo, drawing or graphic designs accompanied by our slogan ‘When will Toblerone be Traffik-Free?’
You could be the world’s best artist, or you might not have picked up a pencil since art class at school, either way raise your paintbrushes, mice or cameras in the air as this time we’re doing it for a reason!
The process is simple:
- Design an image around our slogan ‘When will Toblerone be Traffik-Free?’
- Make sure you read the terms and conditions so we can use your image and it won’t get us into trouble.
- Send the image to use at info@stopthetraffik.org
We’re going to share the images with all our friends and networks through social media so as many people as possible will hear about trafficking in the chocolate industry and what they can do to stop it. You can help us pile on the pressure; like, re-pin and share your own and other people’s images to spread the word.
On 1st November the STOP THE TRAFFIK team will choose a winning image which to go on our Kraft campaign materials, including our website and our activist letters.
If you think you can come up with an image that will make Kraft act, then send them in.
The competition will close on the 1st November. Let’s get creative!
Thank you.
[1] (Source, Tropical Commodity Coalition Cocoa Barometer 2010)”
Picture and information borrowed from http://stopthetraffik.wordpress.com/2012/08/21/we-want-a-traffik-free-toblerone/.
Freedom/Frihet
The universal declaration on the Human rights define the freedom for everyone.
Article 1
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Article 3
Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
Article 4
No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.
Article 25
(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
Article 26
(1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
But still there is 67 million children that are denied the right to education.
1 billion people live in extreme poverty.
21 000 children under the age of 5 die everyday. Reason? Lack of food, clean water and medication.
1.2 million children are exploited and used in different ways of trafficking.
According to UN between 700 000- 4million people are used and forced into trafficking each year.(500 000 women and children are trafficked into Europe)
Time to make a change!
Raise money to a project, run a marathon for charity, help out at a community center. There are many ways to help out. Or support a organization who works to fight for the right to a secure and worthy life for everyone. Thank you for being a hero in you community. Together we can make a change.
Source of information:
http://unicef.se/fakta/utbildning
http://www.sida.se/Svenska/Bistand–utveckling/Detta-ar-svenskt-bistand/En-dollar-om-dagen/
http://www.svt.se/2.53277/1.642643/trafficking_-_var_tids_slaveri
http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/#atop
Photo:
20/80
20% av jordens befolkning konsumerar 80% av jordens resurser. Orsaken till att 1,4 miljarder människor lever i extrem fattigdom är således inte att det saknas resurser utan att de är väldigt orättvist fördelade. Dags för en förändring tycker jag!
20& of the world population consume 80% of the resources on this planet. The reason that 1.4 billion people live in extreme poverty is not the lack of resources but the inequity of distribution. I say it is time to make a change!!
//Maria, people are not for sale.
World humanitarian day
“Every year on August 19th, World Humanitarian Day recognizes those who face danger and adversity to help others.
We honor those who have made the ultimate sacrifice, and we pay tribute to those who continue to help people around the world, regardless of who they are and where they are.
Every day we see and hear images and stories of pain and suffering in our own neighborhoods and in countries far away. But we also find acts of kindness, great and small. World Humanitarian Day is a global celebration of people helping people.” http://www.whd-iwashere.org/
En dag som påminner oss att varje dag att ta hand om och älska varandra. Du är unik och behövs på denna jord. Glöm aldrig det!
Tillsammans skapar vi förändring!
I was here!/Jag var här.
Hej kära läsare!
Det har varit lite tyst här i bloggen då jag har haft fullt upp med jobb och besöka vänner i södra Sverige under sommaren. Nu börjar hösten knacka på dörren inom kort och jag har en spännande nyhet att berätta för er så stay tuned!
Jag hittade den här sidan och jag fastnade för den. För det är verkligen konceptet tillsammans kan vi skapa förändring och med att göra små saker kan vi skapa stora förändringar. Ensam är stark men tillsammans är vi starkare! Så är du med imorgon? Låt oss göra ett statement att det är dags för förändring, vi behöver med medmänsklighet runt omkring oss. Det är en bra utmaning som kan starta något positivt. För varje dag kan vi göra små saker som kan skapa stor förändring för en annan människa runt omkring oss.
Ta en titt på den här och hitta på något du kan göra på ditt sätt imorgon för att hjälpa en annan människa.
Hi our dear readers!
Tomorrow it´s the world humanitarian day. There is a challenge on http://www.whd-iwashere.org/ to make a difference for someone else tomorrow. I think everyday should be a day that we make something for someone else but it´s a great challenge. One day we all join together to make a good thing. Let us everyday find the small thing we can do for another person and this is a challenge to remind our selves that we are in this together! So check it out ! Thank you for being you!
(note. Sanna is in Singapore and that´s why the blog is not corrected into right grammar. Thank you for your patience)
All love to you out there! You are all heroes! //Maria.
(picture borrowed from http://www.whd-iwashere.org/)
peoplearenotforsale 