Teenage Pregnancy

Teenage pregnancy has existed for as long as teenagers have. But only recently has the issue caused an uproar as its pervasiveness and the social costs are being realized. Teen pregnancy gives adversities to both parent and teenager. Only half of the women who give birth before the age of 18 complete high school, and 71% of them need some type of welfare. The offsprings of these teenagers have a high rate of illness and mortality. They also generally have educational and emotional problems as the teenage parents do not understand why a child might be crying or why a child may be rebellious. America is not the only country plagued with this issue though. Other countries are also seeing increasing trends, including the United Kingdom. A recent article released in February 2009 showed a baby-faced boy, named Alfie Patten, holding a baby in his hands at 13. He impregnated his girlfriend Chantelle who is currently 15. When interviewed, Alfie said he does not know what it will be like to be a dad but will be good to the baby. This story and similar stories have sparked outraged throughout the world. Currently, governments around the world are trying to restructure sexual health education, including the concepts of puberty and contraception.

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Child Soldiers

Child soldiers are children who are forced into the military by the national government. A majority of these soldiers are less than 18 years old with the youngest reported one being 6 years old. Most of them are abducted and then forced into the armed services. Children are generally easy to manipulate, and there has been cases where children are forced to rape and murder civilians, which include the child's own family members, using AK-47s and G4s. Approximately 250,000 children are estimated to be fighting in conflicts around the world. There is a high association between poverty-striken countries and child soldiers. Some countries that still use child soldiers include Chad, Sudan, Indonesia, Sudan, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burma, and Uganda. Currently, the international community has created laws that specifically punishes those who use child soldiers, but the practice continues due to minimal enforcement of these laws. To date, six individuals were convicted through the international court called the Special Court for Sierra Leone, and they are all serving 45 years of prison.

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HIV/AIDS

As most know, HIV/AIDS has become an epidemic in children. An epidemic occurs when a disease substantially exceeds what is expected from previous experience. At the end of 2008, there was an estimated 2.1 million children living with HIV. Children in Africa are not the only ones living with this disease as the media has been portraying. A large number of them also live in Latin America, the Carribeans, and South/Southeast Asia. About 90% of the children acquire HIV through their mothers during pregnancy or breastfeeding. Many countries, particularly in Southern Africa, have seen a huge decrease in child surivival rates due to this disease. Fortunately, there are many medications that have developed to increase child survival rates, but they are often expensive and require daily doseages. The international community has committed over USD$4 billion to fight HIV/AIDS since 1988. Unfortunately, this funding has not done enough. Many children are still sick because this fund is very scarce and thus only provides medications on the short-term and not the long-term basis. As a result, children initially given medications feel better and the viral infection slows down. But once the child has been taken off the medication due to a lack of funding, the viral rapidly spreads, and the child becomes sick again.

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