Child Rights and Welfare NGOs in Pakistan

Logo (Submitted by Orgnizations)	Name and Website	Active Since	Postal Address	Work Overview / Comments (Submitted by Orgnizations. Edited for clarity and content uniqueness)
	Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child	1992	151-B, Street 37, F-10/1, P.O. Box 301, Islamabad, Pakistan. Tel: +92 (51) 229 1553 +92 (51) 229 1559 Fax: +92 (51) 229 1680 Field Offices:karachi,quetta,hyderabad Peshawar,lahore	Children rights protection advocacy programs and trainings.
	Voice of Children		Voice of children 6-A, Block D-12, G-8 Markaz, Islamabad. Pakistan. Phone: 051-2854838 & 051-2852503
	Children First		House 79, Street 92, Sector I-8/4, Islamabad, Pakistan Tel: +92 (0) 51-4861486
	CHAEF- Children's Health and Education Fund	2003	SF-2,Plot 17-C, 2nd Zamzama Commercial Lane,Phase-5,D.H.A, Karachi,+92 300 820 2828 Field Offices:Lahore,Islamabad.
	Save The Children
	CCF- Child Care Foundation of Pakistan	1996	A-6-A-E,105, New Super Town, Defence Main Boulevard, Lahore Tel: 042-3662-1031
	AGHS Legal aid- Child Rights Unit		131-E/I, Gulberg-III, Lahore, Pakistan. Phone: (92- 42) 35763234-35, 35710709
	Make a Wish Foundation		208-A Clifton Centre, Block 5, Clifton, Karachi, Pakistan. Telephone:+92-21-35863016 - 35874195 Field Offices:lahore	Grant wishes of children suffering from chronic illnesess.
	KONPAL Child Abuse Prevention Society		Address: House no. 4–N Block 6, PECHS, Karachi – 75400, Pakistan. Phone: (92-21) 3455-2220	Working on preventing children abuse. Areas of work include child labour, children in conflict and sexual abuse.
	Idara Aaghosh	1999	682-Kamran Block, Allama Iqbal Town , Lahore , Pakistan. Telephone #:04235411426, 35411427	Children's rights NGO. Work focus includes- Runaway/Missing children, child labor, runaways. ALso has a free children legal aid cell.
	Azad Foundation	2001	E-135/2D, Block 7, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Karachi-75300. Pakistan. +92-21-34814206	Working for welfare of Street Children
	Sahil	1996	Office No 13, First Floor, Al-Babar Center,F-8 Markaz, Islamabad, Pakistan Phone # (92-51) 2260636, 2856950 Field Offices : jaffarabad,Abbotabad,Sukkur,Lahore
	Initiator Human Development Foundation (IHDF)		Suite No.5 & 6, 2nd Floor, Block C-3, Taj Complex, M.A. Jinnah Road, Karachi, Karachi, Pakistan-74400 Cell : 0346-2669911 / 0333-2225421 +9221-32785577 & 32789911
	Alliance for the Rights of the Child (ARC) (no website)		F-178/3, Block 5, Kehkashan, Clifton, Karachi, Pakistan Ph: 92-021-5867300

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50 percent children out of school due to poverty

The alarming statistics were shared by experts and media persons at a seminar on ‘Promotion and Protection of Child Rights’ organised by the Ministry of Human Rights in collaboration with Unicef. 

Participants of the seminar discussed the state of child rights in Pakistan and the role different stakeholders could play to improve the situation.
They were of the view that there are a number of laws in the country regarding protection of child rights, but there is little implementation due to which a huge population of children is suffering. The participants stressed that health, education, healthy nutrition and suitable living environment are the basic rights of children and the state is responsible for providing these rights to children.
They shared shocking statistics and expressed disappointment over the state structure that fails to identify and solve the issues that lead to the worsening situation of child rights. The speakers pointed out that there are some tribal areas where the percentage of out of school children is 97 to 98%.
Child rights activist Anis Jilani from Society for the Protection of the Rights of Child (Sparc) said that Pakistan is one of the few countries where child labour is increasing. He termed the big proportion of out of school children as one of the major reasons for this increase. “I think that such huge population of out of school children is the biggest problem of our country,” he said.
Anis discussed in detail the legislation done so far for children and said that slow process of the enactment of those laws and lack of implementation reflects how important children are for the policymakers. “Pakistan signed United Nations Convention on Child Rights in 1990, but the situation of children in Pakistan remained precarious and nothing significant has been done to implement the convention.” 
He said that 400,000 children under age five die every year in the country and only 34 per cent boys and 26 per cent girls manage to get secondary education. 
He mentioned that Pakistan has a comprehensive law on child trafficking, but it deal with only international human trafficking whereas most of the children are trafficked within the country.
Parliamentary Secretary Rubina Saadat Qaimkhani said that the present government is committed to take effective measures to end violence against children. She said the establishment of parliamentary forum for protecting child rights is a milestone in this regard.
Journalist and anchor Mohammad Malick said that child rights issues are at the low priority because children are not voters. He suggested vocational training for children at primary level and stressed on the need for organising, educating and motivating children about these issues so that they could contribute to improving the child rights situation in the country.

Director General Child Rights at the Ministry of Human Rights M H Mangi shared the details of the proposed National Commission on Child Rights with participants. He said that the Ministry of Human Rights is committed to establishing the commission which would be independent, representative of all provinces and have the power to identify and address child right violations in the country. He said that the commission will also have representation of children.
Mangi said that the ministry has submitted the first-ever law on child pornography to the Ministry of law and also suggested to increase the age of criminal responsibility.
Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) CEC Member Chaudhry Manzoor Hussain called for combining all laws which deal with child rights.
While addressing the seminar, chief guest Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Qamar Zaman Kaira said that the media has an important and sensitive role in projecting awareness campaigns. He pointed out that the media should focus on highlighting the miseries of the neglected rural and poor population of society, especially children.



Source: http://defence.pk/threads/pakistan-50-percent-children-out-of-school-due-to-poverty

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Child Abuse

At least 3,768 children were sexually-assaulted during the year 2015. This comes down to an average of 10 children being abused each day. The year 2015 saw a 7 per cent increase in incidents of sexual abuse against children. Sahil, an NGO that works for spreading awareness about child sexual abuse in Pakistan-launched their annual report titled Cruel Numbers 2015 in a local hotel here.

During the year 2015, children in the bracket of 11-15 were more prone to sexual abuse, the ratio of female victims outweighed that of boys. According to data in the reports, 1974 girls and 1794 boys were sexually assaulted. The statistics were acquired from 84 national, regional and local newspapers out of which 7 were directly reported to Sahil.

Highest number of sexual abuse cases was registered in Punjab. 638 were registered in Sindh, 207 in Balochistan, 167 in Islamabad, while KP, Gilgit-Baltistan and FATA saw 113 cases. Capital has left KPK behind by a fair margin which is an alarming situation. More than 74 per cent cases are reported in the rural areas, 26 per cent of cases occurred in urban areas. Thus, urban areas prove to be safer than rural localities. Even the children as old as 5 years are not spared.
Dr Munizeh Bano, executive director Sahil, shared case studies of many victims. Mr. Umer Kiani, Mumtaz Hussain also addressed the inauguration ceremony. Ms. Allison Stewart, guest of the award ceremony in her address said: “Canada is proud to support such initiatives in Pakistan. The problem of child abuse is not new in Pakistan. It is Canadian high commission’s priority to put an end to child marriage in Pakistan, as 1 in 5 girls in the country are affected by it. We must promote education among girls. Globally, 62 million girls are out of school, we must do our bit  to change this.
The total number of abusers is 5483. Out of which, 1943 were acquaintances of abused children. 829 strangers make the second group. The age group among both girls and boys that is most vulnerable is 11-15.

Sahil has also started recording child marriages since 2012. During the year 2015, 112 cases of child marriages were reported in the media.
Hassan Mangi, DG of Human Rights was the guest of honor on the occasion. He addressed the audience on Criminal Law Amendment Act, 2015 (Child Protection). Mangi told that raising the criminal liability age from 7 years to 10 is an achievement. The insertion of various sections will safeguard the children for the time to come.
In the end, awards were given to child-friendly newspapers, in addition to Best Volunteer Award The award for child friendly newspaper was presented in three categories i.e. national, regional and local newspaper. Express Islamabad, Daily Kawish Hyderabad and Daily Sobh Karachi won the awards respectively.

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Child abuse ring revelations

LAHORE: Child abuse cases are taking alarming proportions and adversely affecting the individuals, families as well as the whole society but there is a dearth of laws and bodies to check such incidents and rehabilitate the victims.

Sahil, an organisation working on child abuse cases, compiles data referring it as “cruel numbers” from national and local newspapers to keep the children’s sexual abuse issue alive in the domain of the child protection dialogue. The children, who survive the abuse, often experience guilt, shame, and self-blame.

 Pakistan’s leading campaign group working against child abuse, says more than 3,500 cases of child molestation were reported in 2014, of which 67% were reported from rural areas.

“Very few are reported because the victims and families are shy to disclose the sexual offence against them because of cultural, social and religious barriers.”

The report said sex is a taboo subject in the deeply conservative Muslim-majority Pakistan and the unwillingness to discuss it was making it easier for abuse to happen”

The latest child abuse case reported from Kasur tells that some 380 children, including girls, have been sexually abused since 2009 but neither any victim nor their families reported the case with police or media.

The “cruel numbers” says that some 3,002 child sexual abuse cases were reported in 2013 and 3,508 in 2014 from across the country. The increase in registration of child abuse cases is being attributed to the educational and mass media awareness campaigns on the subject.

However, Punjab police’s data says that during 2013, some 1,106 sodomy and 153 hurt cases were reported. As many as 99 murders and 68 attempted murder cases against children were also reported in the year. Moreover, 489 children were kidnapped, while 17 children were abducted for ransom.

During the first six months of 2015, the police data shows that 577 sodomy and 45 hurt cases were reported in Punjab besides 35 murders and 20 attempted murder cases. It has also been reported that 239 children were kidnapped, while 10 children were abducted for ransom during the same period.

Lahore Deputy Inspector General of Police Sultan Chaudhry says no consolidated data on child abuse cases is available neither with the government nor any non-governmental organisation. The cases reported with the police are also not reflective of the on ground situation because the allegations are later probed and medical reports obtained to verify the allegations.

Child Rights Movement spokesperson Iftikhar Mubarak says the number of child abuse cases are increasing because there is no concrete policy or plan of action to curb such cases.He regrets that a child protection policy initiated by the Punjab Social Welfare Department has been lying pending with the Planning and Development Department for the past two years. It says the child abuse cases neither fall under the Social Welfare Department nor the Child Protection Bureau, which functions under its “The Punjab Destitute and Neglected Children Act”.

Mr Mubarak suggested that the government establish a department or an independent authority to holistically deal with child abuse cases and protection of children from all kinds of abuses.

He said the National Assembly was also supposed to adopt two amendment bills – Criminal Law Amendment Bill and The National Commission on the Rights of Children Bill.

Besides improving laws and empowering authorities to check the child abuse cases, Mr Mubarak also suggested, that the capacity building of parents and teachers was also equally important to educate children about abuses and possible defence.

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Child Labour in Pakistan

Child labour is a serious crime all over the world. The Unicef defines child labour as some type of work performed by children below the age of 18. There is something seriously wrong with our country which not only fails to educate all its children but also seems to be dependent on them to keep its economy afloat. The country is heading back into the dark ages with only a small percentage of lucky ones receiving education. The number of child labourers in our country is about 12 million.

Children are the flowers of heaven. They are the most beautiful and purest creation of God. They are innocent both inwardly and outwardly. No doubt, they are the beauty of this world. Early in the morning when the children put on different kinds of clothes and begin to go to schools for the sake of knowledge, we feel a specific kind of joy through their innocence.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) defines child Labour as:

1- when a child is working during early age
2- he overworks or gives over time to Labour
3- he works due to the psychologically, socially, and materialistic pressure
4- he becomes ready to Labour on a very low pay

Another definition states:

“Child Labour” is generally speaking work for children that harms them or exploits them in some way (physically, mentally, morally or blocking access to education),
United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund(UNICEF) defines “child” as anyone below the age of 18, and “child Labour” as some type of work performed by children below age 18. (UNICEF)

Child Labour is a complex problem which demands a range of solutions. There is no better way to prevent child Labour than to make education compulsory. The West understood this a long time ago. Laws were enacted very early to secure continued education for working children; and now they have gone a step forward, and required completion of at least the preliminary education of the child before he or she starts work.

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SAT TEST INTRODUCTION

The SAT is a globally recognized college admission test that lets you show colleges what you know and how well you can apply that knowledge. It tests your knowledge of reading, writing and math — subjects that are taught every day in high school classrooms. Most students take the SAT during their junior or senior year of high school, and almost all colleges and universities use the SAT to make admission decisions.

Taking the SAT is the first step in finding the right college for you — the place where you can further develop your skills and pursue your passions. But SAT scores are just one of many factors that colleges consider when making their admission decisions. High school grades are also very important. In fact, the combination of high school grades and SAT scores is the best predictor of your academic success in college. 

source : http://sat.collegeboard.org/about-tests/sat

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Taliban's hunger for blood did not stopped

On 16 December 2014, 9 shooters partnered with the Tehrik-i-Taliban (TTP) led a terrorist assault on the Army Public School in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar. The aggressors, every one of whom were remote nationals, incorporated one Chechen, three Arabs and two Afghans. They entered the school and opened fire on school staff and children, murdering 145 individuals, including 132 schoolchildren, extending somewhere around eight and eighteen years of age. A salvage operation was propelled by the Pakistan Army's Special Services Group (SSG) extraordinary powers, who executed each of the seven terrorists and recovered 960 people. Chief military representative Major General Asim Bajwa said in a public interview that no less than 130 individuals had been harmed in the attack. 

FYO strongly condemns such comprehensible and threatening act.

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