Poor schoolchildren shut out of the Web

Needy students who don’t own computers are finding it tough to do their homework

For more than two years, while other children played in the schoolyard at break time, Ching has been lining up outside a computer room with 30 or 40 poor children.
They wait to use the internet to do their homework. Sometimes the break ends before Ching has had her turn. “Often after I type in the password and go to the internet, the bell rings,” the Primary Three pupil says.

Back at her Mong Kok home, her mother Fung Hin-mei, 38, calls the public library each day to book a computer for her daughter.

When Ching returns home, she quickly finishes her hardcopy assignments, then hurries with her mother to the library to do her online homework. In the one-hour limit she does English, Chinese and mathematics, and searches for information.

“Sometimes I forget to make a booking and we have to wait for an hour to get back-up places,” says Fung, a single mother.

Ching has even resorted to using a computer at a mall which allows limited access.

She is one of an estimated 12,560 poor children, aged six to 14, struggling to do their homework because their families cannot afford to pay internet fees. For every 100 children from low-income families, seven to eight have no internet access, according to government research by the Department of Social Work and Social Administration at the University of Hong Kong.

The Hong Kong Council of Social Service (HKCSS) says 157,000 children, aged six to 14, live in poverty.

For most children, using the internet to do homework is a normal part of life. But for poor children it is a daily struggle.

“Each day they line up for school computers, or rush after school to community centres, libraries, or shopping malls, to use the computer to do homework,” says Au Yeung Tat-chor, an organiser at the Concerning CSSA Review Alliance (CCRA).

Social workers and academics say homework announcements and submissions of the work, as well as information searches over the internet, have become routine at all schools. Au Yeung says some children who cannot do online assignments have marks deducted while others have their conduct’s marks cut.

While poor children can get second-hand computers from social projects they receive no help to get online. Social workers want the Education Bureau to provide free internet for poor children, arguing that the lack of such availability means the children are deprived a basic right to study. “It is a violation of children’s rights,” says Peace Wong Wo-ping, a policy research and advocacy officer at the HKCSS.

Wong Hung, an associate professor in the department of social work at Chinese University, says that in an information society students who have no access to the internet are being deprived of basic facilities.

Wong is worried that if the government does not help the problem will make poor children less competitive and contribute to cross-generational poverty. He says suggestions by the government that such children can use computers in public libraries and community and youth centres are “not viable”.

In his policy address last year, Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen pledged to help students with digital learning. Initiatives are expected to be announced in the budget this month.

Peace Wong says: “We expect that the budget will create some kind of co-operation with an internet service provider to ask them to provide discounts to poor children. It will be short term and have quotas.”

The CCRA is organising a march by 200 poor children and their parents in Central today to raise awareness of the problem.

Au Yeung says many of the poor families he has helped have to cut costs in other areas, such as food, to pay for internet connection.

Fung, who gets HK$3,700 a month in welfare payments, eats cheap food to save money. She says she has no way to cut her expenses.

Ching says internet assignments account for a third of her homework but she is often unable to submit them. She says her academic results have suffered because internet homework is taken into account.

Things are even worse for Wong Tin-yau and his twin brother Tin-lok, eight. They do not have a computer. Their mother, Lau Iu-sin, 36, says the public library is a 45-minute walk from their Kwai Chung Estate home, so she can hardly take her boys there.

For a mother who earns HK$960 a month as a part-time market stall cleaner, the internet seems a luxury. Her husband Wong Tak-kuen, 59, is an iron-bender. He earned HK$5,000 last month but is often out of work.

Lau, who came to Hong Kong in 2008, is not eligible for welfare.

The HKCSS, CCRA and Wong Hung have called for the Education Bureau to cover internet fees for poor families.

An Education Bureau spokesman said they put a lot of resources into helping the needy. “An annual subsidy is provided to schools to put in place computer rooms and facilities for use of needy students.”

There is also a programme to give a recycled computer and a one-year free internet line for children of welfare recipients and those getting school textbook assistance. But social workers say this is a short-term programme offering 20,000 places and cannot solve the problem.

Both Fung and Lau worry that their children will be left behind. “I am worried that they will be poor when they grow up and our poverty will be passed to the next generation,” Lau says bitterly.

SCMP. Feb 7, 2010.

Source: http://aslue.blogspot.com/2010/02/poor-schoolchildren-shut-out-of-web.html

Woman get seven years for abusing niece

By Brina Manenga

THE life of five-year-old Christine (real name withheld) is one that even an adult would consider a horror. But for her, it is a nightmare she lived with at the hands of an abusive aunt after the death of her parents.

Christine’s father died before she was born and her mother died of HIV/AIDS when she was three-years-old, Christine thus lived with her aunt for three months that seemed like a lifetime.

However Christine was lucky; her life was saved by another aunt who spoke out about her niece’s abuse, unlike many other children whose abuse at the hands of relatives goes unnoticed.

After living with her aunt for a while, she was taken away by an uncle, her father’s brother and his wife.

Narrating Christine’s ordeal, Cathy, an aunt who stepped forward to report the matter to the police says she herself was willing to keep her niece after her parents’ death but the uncle insisted that he keeps her.

“He told me I had no right to keep her because my husband who was his brother had died so I had no relationship with the family, I had no choice but to let her go,” narrates Cathy.
Cathy further narrates that it was during this period that the wife of Christine’s uncle started abusing her.

“Christine’s aunt started physically abusing Christine, thinking that she was HIV positive because of her mother’s cause of death. She was neglected and severely beaten. I later learnt that she was not even allowed to sleep in the house instead she slept in a sack house (shelter made of sacks) all by herself despite being so young,” she says.

“What hurt me the most is that they lied about how she was doing. The aunt would come to my house and I would ask how Christine was, she would say Christine was doing fine and that I would be happy to see how fat she had become and that she would soon be enrolled into school but all those were lies.”

According to Cathy, Christine was sometimes so severely beaten that at times she could not even walk.

“I visited my niece without seeing her as I was told that she had gone to play when in actual fact she was in the sack house unable to move or speak,” Cathy sadly adds.

“At some point I found her with a cut on her head but I was told that she fought with a friend and that she was on medication for the bruises when she was not but the truth was that she was hit with a plank.”

Apart from the physical abuse, Christine went on for days without food.
“The young girl was starved and left for dead but God refused to let her die like that, so he protected her and gave her the strength to stay alive, so she could testify and put the heartless aunt to shame.”
Cathy said the abuse went on to an extent where her aunt would feed the Christine her own waste.

“That woman is cruel and now I believe that a human being can be deadly. It is so hard to believe that a woman would do such a thing as feed a child her own waste after she had messed up herself all because she was too weak to go to the toilet on her own,” Cathy adds.
Christine’s rescue from the ordeal she went through came after Cathy’s daughter went to visit and found her in a bad state.

“My daughter went to visit Christine and found her sleeping in the sack house with a swollen and broken back and in much pain,” she says.

“She came home in tears with Christine on her back without the knowledge of her aunt and upon seeing how bruised and malnourished she was, I could not hold back my tears and that is when I decided to go to Westwood Police in Lusaka West.”

The matter was reported and Westwood police arresting officer sub inspector Nunsa Mufolofolo handled Christine’s case.

Mufolofolo says after interrogations, the woman admitted having mistreated the child.
“Christine’s case is touching because I never thought that someone would mistreat a child in such a manner. Her health was so bad that she could not walk or stand and that was when I decided that the woman be brought to book for what she did to the child. The poor child had bruises, with a broken backbone. We took her to the clinic but we were transferred to UTH,” Mufolofolo says.

She however expressed happiness that the woman behind the abuse had been punished.
“I am very happy that Christine’s aunt was taken to court and sentenced to 7 years imprisonment for abusing the girl. I took the child to Social Welfare and a home was found for her, now she is happy and safe,” she adds.

“I would like to take this opportunity to appeal to members of public to speak out about child abuse because we are all responsible for saving these children.”
During a visit at an orphanage where she is currently staying, Christine was able to recount some of the horrible things that her aunt did to her.

“Ba aunt benzekonda kunimenya, elo benzonigoneka panja usiku (my aunt beat me up and she made me sleep outside). Benzo ni menya nama pulanga ndiye vilonda venilinavo (she beat me with planks and that’s why I have scars),” says Christine.
And a social welfare officer said Christine is among many children that are being abused and was lucky to survive.

“It’s a miracle that she survived the whole ordeal because if this case was not reported the girl would have died. It looked like she was being starved and as a result she lost so much weight. I urge members of the community to report such cases because it benefits the children,” says the officer.

Meanwhile, district social welfare officer for Lusaka district Henry Njovu expressed sadness at the abuse of Christine.
“If a child is not yours biologically you have no right to mistreat him or her. I’m urging parents to talk to their children about abuse, be it sexual or physical, so that if it happens to them they will be able to say something about it,” says Njovu.
Meanwhile, the orphanage’s programmes coordinator disclosed that Christine was in good health.

“We took her for an HIV test which came out negative and she is now fine. When she first came, her condition was bad and she was scared to be touched by anyone, but now she can interact with people,” says the orphanage coordinator.

Source: http://www.postzambia.com/post-read_article.php?articleId=5473

Ore. studies role age plays in child-abuse

Paradise parents arrested in fatal child abuse

PARADISE — A Paradise couple was arrested Saturday after an 8-year-old adopted daughter died of alleged child abuse injuries.

Paradise police responded to a 1 a.m. 9-1-1 call from the 500 block of Crestwood Drive and found an 8-year-old adopted girl in cardiac arrest. Another 11-year-old girl was found to have significant injuries due to child abuse.

The younger victim was revived at Feather River Hospital, but died en route to another hospital. The 11-year-old remains hospitalized.

Kevin Schatz, 46, and Elizabeth Schatz, 42, have been arrested and booked into the Butte County Jail on an open count of murder and child abuse, Paradise police said.

Seven other children have been taken into protective custody.

Source: http://www.contracostatimes.com/california/ci_14349585?nclick_check=1

Mother Arrested For Child Abuse

MOBERLY- Moberly Police are investigating a mother who may have abused her two children.

Police arrested Elizabeth Miller on January 29 after several witnesses said Miller kicked her three-year old son and threw him against a wall.

Miller’s friends say she isn’t fit to be a mom and doesn’t provide a safe environment for her kids, according to the probable cause statement.

Police received multiple complaints from resdients in the community about Miller’s abuse and behavior.

“The division of family services, we work closely with them and the randolph county juventile officer whenever we get information that there may possibly be abuse of a child ongoing,” said Commander Kevin Palmatory.

Miller’s trial is set for March 2 in Randolph County.

Source: http://bit.ly/auNtqh