Tag Archives: Youth

Age, Nationality + Migration

Lebanon News | Syrian Refugee Youth

Lebanon looks to provide schooling for upwards of 200,000 Syrian children in its schools
  • The education ministry indicated the numbers are an increase of tens of thousands over last year, straining Lebanon’s schooling capabilities.
  • $94 million in international financing has arrived to support the free education of up to 367,000 students–including the 200,000 Syrians–up through middle school.
  • Lebanon has hosted the largest proportion of Syrian refugees relative to its population, with 1.1 million living in a country of 4 million.

Read the full story at Reuters.

Gender

Tajikistan Feature | Girls

Video

Biking Tradition

Young Tajik girls are taking transportation into their own hands by biking to school, a significant endeavor that can involve up to a 10-kilometer round trip. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty learns why one girl decided to take up the trip.

Watch the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty video on YouTube.

Age, Race + Color + Ethnicity

Israel & Palestine News | Palestinian Children

Israeli army arrests five Palestinian children in latest controversial detention of minors
  • The children were detained for allegedly throwing stones at soldiers, punishable by up to 20 years, before being released.
  • Rights groups estimate around 700 Palestinian minors are prosecuted each year in military courts.
  • Video of a small Palestinian boy with a broken arm being violently handled by Israeli officers went viral last month as the army’s aggressive police tactics drew international condemnation.

View the Al Jazeera America video on YouTube.

Age, Race + Color + Ethnicity

South Africa Feature | Black

South African Higher Ed’s Race Problem

Image Credit: Joao Silva/The New York Times
Image Credit: Joao Silva/The New York Times

Black students at South Africa’s preeminent universities have taken to protesting the slow pace of diversification in the institutions. Gaining momentum at schools like the University of Cape Town and Stellenbosch, the movement has taken up issues ranging from affirmative action to faculty hiring, with students engaging in sit-ins, readings, and demonstrations to draw attention to the overwhelmingly disproportionate racial demographics and culture of South African universities. The New York Times profiles students leading the way for change and the challenges facing the movement.

Read the full feature at the New York Times.

Age, Gender

Egypt News | Women

Egyptian student pursues legal action after alleging her exam results were falsified
  • Mariam Malak, a high-achieving student, took action and demanded an independent inquiry after seeing that the handwriting on the test did not match her own.
  • Malak, who scored 97% on the test in the previous two years, has aspirations of becoming a doctor.
  • With suspicions that Malak’s results may have been switched with another student’s, the case has become a symbol of corruption in the Egyptian education system.

Read the full story at the Guardian.

(Image Credit: Khaled Desouki/AFP/Getty Images, via The Guardian)

Age

China News | Children

Abducted or abandoned children in China see greater adoption opportunity under new rules
  • Authorities have capped the search for abandoned and trafficked children’s biological families at a year, allowing for them to be adopted from orphanages after that period.
  • Previously, children were left in indefinite limbo as long as their cases were active with search authorities.
  • More than 13,000 children were abducted last year alone according to the government, with the U.S. State Department estimating as many as 20,000 a year falling prey to traffickers and other kidnappers.

Read the full story at Reuters.

Gender, Sexual + Gender Minorities

Japan Research | Gay & Bisexual Male Youth

Bullying among Gay & Bisexual Teenage Males in Japan

A research team at Takarazuka University in Japan conducted a wide-ranging study on the experiences of gay and bisexual men in Japan, with participants ranging in age from 11 to 71.  Researchers found high levels of identity-driven bullying experienced by teenage boys, which they connected to negative reactive behaviors including truancy and self-harm.

1,096

Number of gay and bisexual teenage boys in the study

44%

Percent of teenagers reporting having been bullied for their sexual identity

23%

Percent of teenagers who engaged in truancy

18%

Percent of teenagers who engaged in self-harm

41% (2015) vs. 63% (2005)

Percent of teenagers who reported never having learned about homosexuality in school

30% (2015) vs. 23% (2005)

Percent of teenagers who reported being taught negative information about sexual minorities

Full survey sample: ~20,000
Survey conductor: Takarazuka University

Read the news story at The Ashai Shimbun.

Age, Health + Ability

South Africa News & Research | Children with Disabilities

Human Rights Watch: 500,000+ South African children with disabilities reportedly excluded from schooling
  • According to a recent Human Rights Watch report, parents of children with disabilities report facing exclusion from mainstream schooling and long waiting lists for admission to special schools.
  • Families with children who did manage to make it into schools reported facing neglect and higher student fees.
  • The government criticized the report as “sensational,” stating that it failed to acknowledge ongoing efforts towards inclusive education after becoming one of the first to ratify the 2007 U.N. Disability Rights Treaty.

“The job is not done until all children count just the same in the education system.”

Read the full story at the BBC.

(Image Credit: Human Rights Watch, via BBC)

Age, Health + Ability

Nicaragua Feature | Special-Needs Youth

Video

Empowerment, One Step at a Time

Nicaraguan families with children with special needs including autism and physical disabilities have discovered in psicoballet (“psychoballet”) an empowering form of therapy focused on developing children’s confidence and physical and emotional control. TeleSUR explores the impact of the therapeutic model that has migrated to Nicaragua since its inception in Cuba in the 1970s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lV8ATa2B7RM

Watch the teleSUR feature on YouTube (in Spanish).

Age, Gender

Turkmenistan News | Male Youth

1 Comment
Turkmenistan cuts study abroad for boys to expand military conscription
  • As conflict in Afghanistan threatens to spill into Turkmenistan, the Turkmen government has ended sponsorship for its male students to study abroad for college in order to broaden the conscription pool.
  • The majority of Turkmen youth get their university degrees abroad in countries like Ukraine and Belarus, with only a little more than 7,000 of its 100,000 annual high school graduates choosing to remain in the country for study.
  • Turkmenistan’s isolationist policies have severely crippled its education system, with ailments like rife corruption, poor financial planning, and the implementation of a compulsory 12-year education system only in 2013.

Read the full story at The Diplomat.

Age, Health + Ability

South Africa News | Special-Needs Youth

South African province’s education minister announces plans for new special education programs
  • At the 2015 Inclusion Focus Week in Johannesburg, the Gauteng education minister announced that the government will attempt to add 18 new schools catering to special education.
  • The province, which includes Johannesburg and Pretoria, currently has 102 schools that include special education instruction.
  • The minister also identified the need to strengthen diagnostic and identification measures to accession children into special education programming as early as possible.

“We have got the financial muscle to deal with this matter, we just have to strengthen the partnership element of it. If we can have strong partners, I am of the view that it will help us address the issue of access.”

Read the full story at the South African Government News Agency.

Age, Gender

Kenya News | Girls

Kenyan mother sues government for denying safe access to abortion following daughter’s botched backstreet procedure
  • The 15-year-old girl sought the abortion following her rape by an older man, but complications arose that have led to ongoing health complications.
  • While abortion is permitted in cases of emergencies involving maternal health under Kenya’s 2010 constitution, the state has banned training for government healthcare providers and harassed and charged other doctors.
  • Unsafe abortions account for 35% of maternal deaths in Kenya (well above the 13% global average), with around 2,600 women per year dying in hospitals after having attempted to get an abortion elsewhere.

“The Kenyan government is allowing thousands of women in Kenya to needlessly die or suffer severe complications every year due to unsafe abortion, and it must be held accountable.”

Read the full story at Reuters.

Nationality + Migration

Turkey News | Syrian Youth

Syrian university student population in Turkey experiences nearly eight-fold increase over four-year period
  • The total number of Syrian students in Turkish higher education has increased from 608 to 4,597 since 2011, according to Turkey’s Higher Education Board (YÖK).
  • The board has allowed for seven Turkish universities to accept Syrian students as “special students,” waiving the need for the documentation usually necessary for admission, and later allowing for students with full documentation to transfer as undergraduates.
  • Education Minister Nabi Avci announced in May the creation of a university in the Gaziantep province that would primarily accept Syrian students.

Read the full story at Sunday’s Zaman.

(Image Credit: Cihan/Sunday’s Zaman)

Age, Gender, Religion + Belief

Bosnia and Herzegovina News | Muslim Men

The Islamic State targets Muslims in Bosnia and Herzegovina in latest recruitment efforts
  • A recently released recruitment video shows Bosnian IS fighters calling on Muslims from the Balkans–and specifically in Bosnia and Herzegovina–to launch attacks in their home cities and emigrate to fight in the Middle East.
  • Young men in Bosnia are particularly vulnerable to such recruitment efforts, where they face a 63% youth unemployment rate, precarious social conditions, and poor prospects.
  • Security and counterterrorism efforts have been largely uncoordinated and lacking a grand strategy, even in the wake of one radical’s attack on a police station in late April that left one officer and the gunman dead.

“Returning foreign fighters from Syria and Iraq – battle-hardened, skilled in handling arms and explosives, and ideologically radicalised – pose a direct threat not only to the security of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but also of the region and beyond.”

Read the full story at the Guardian.

(Image Credit: Al Hayat, via the Guardian)

Nationality + Migration

Australia News | Nationals

Children of convicted terrorists in Australia could see their citizenship stripped under proposed law
  • Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has introduced a bill in parliament that would automatically remove Australian citizenship for those whose conduct is identified with terrorist activity, who travel abroad to fight with Australian enemies or terrorist organizations, or those convicted of terrorism by Australian courts.
  • Children could have their nationality removed as well if they are dual nationals unless there is a remaining Australian national parent who can care for them.
  • The immigration minister would retain the ability to reinstate citizenship without judicial oversight as a stopgap measure.

“The fact is, if you are a terrorist and you have left our country to fight with a terrorist movement that regards our way of life as in some way satanic, it is saying to us, submit or die, which hates our freedom, which hates our tolerance, which hates the welcome that we give to minorities, which hates everything about the way we live – frankly why should we consider you to be one of us?”

Read the full story at the Guardian.

(Image Credit: Mick Tsikas/AAP, via the Guardian)