LINKS TO PUBLISHED PHOTOGRAPHY AND WRITING FOR UNICEF

In Bolivia last week, I met Gabriela, 13, who is being counselled in a therapeutic care centre (CEPAT) Centro Especializado de Prevención y Atención Terapéutica, in the city of Potosí. We have changed her name, as is our custom at UNICEF, because of the stigma associated with rape and sexual violence which is prevalent in many societies, not only in Bolivia. Gabriela was sexually molested several times beginning around age 11, and gave birth to a son, Juan, whose name we have also changed, 18 months ago, as a result of rape by a 50-year-old neighbor.

All stories of child violence are tragic, but this case was particularly heart-wrenching because I was there in person to bear witness to her story. Gabriela’s biological mother abandoned her at the age of 3, and went to Argentina and began a new life without her daughter – therapists speculate her mother may also have been a victim of rape. Left in the care of her grandmother, Gabriela never attended school and was frequently left alone at home, vulnerable to strangers without what we consider normal child protections – a loving family, education, school-age friends, and the understanding that certain actions cross boundaries – fundamental life strategies which were never imparted to her.

Read more: Bolivia's Vulnerable Children

A girl, who cannot be more than 5-years-old, struggles to balance a jug of water on her head at a water point in Al-Riyad Camp in West Darfur State, Sudan. This photograph, taken by Georgina Cranston in 2006, was selected as our Photo of the Week to highlight World Water Day, later this week. Held annually on 22 March, the day focuses on the importance of freshwater and the inequity of access to safe water in impoverished rural areas and slums.

I feel that the child’s intensity and determination to complete her task in bringing water to her displaced family is both endearing and alarming. At five, she ought to be curling her fingers around crayons, attending school or playing with friends, not hoisting a jug of water whose weight and responsibility is far too onerous for one so young.

Visit site: Save Water, Save Energy

In this photo, 11-year-old Nour (right), who has Down Syndrome, plays a game with Ebru, a youth worker from the Turkish Red Crescent, at the shelter where Nour and her family live in the Islahiye camp for Syrian refugees.

Nour and her family fled their home in the Syrian Arab Republic more than three years ago, soon after violence erupted there. She used to attend a special school for children with Down Syndrome in her country, where she learned to read and write, but she can no longer attend school because the learning facility in the camp cannot accommodate children with special needs. Still, such obstacles do not keep her from thinking of the future. “I’m both hard-working and smart,” says Nour, who dreams of becoming a doctor one day.

Almost 25 years ago, with the creation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the world made a promise to children to protect and promote their rights to survive and thrive, to learn and grow, to have their voices heard and to reach their full potential. The CRC makes clear the idea that a basic quality of life should be the right of all children rather than a privilege enjoyed by only a few.

Visit site: Struggling to Attend School