At a glance: Guinea-Bissau
Newsline
The return of Mamadou, a rescued victim of child trafficking in Guinea-Bissau
BISSAU, Guinea-Bissau, 28 May 2009 – It’s 8 p.m., and a plane from Dakar is landing at Bissau airport. From the plane’s window, Mamadou, 11, tries to make sense of the fast-approaching landscape surrounding the plane. It’s the first time he has travelled by plane.
Children’s Parliament of Guinea-Bissau presents its ‘Manifesto’ to candidates
BISSAU, Guinea-Bissau, 10 November 2008 – The Children’s Parliament of Guinea-Bissau last week presented its ‘Manifesto’ of young people’s concerns to 19 political parties and two coalitions campaigning for legislative elections that will take place here on 16 November.
Prevention and hygiene-awareness efforts aim to stave off cholera in Guinea-Bissau
BISSAU, Guinea-Bissau, 6 October 2008 – Jose Turé is a metal worker here in one of the poorest countries in the world, and his life has been marked by hardship. He left his family behind in the town of Bafata when he moved to Bissau, the capital, in hopes of earning a better living. But the move to the bigger town brought with it a new danger: cholera.
Guinea-Bissau works to put child traffickers out of business
BAFATA REGION, Guinea-Bissau, 26 March, 2008 – At a remote police station in eastern Guinea-Bissau, Amandou Jau, 12, waited patiently to be reunited with his father. Amandou had been rescued from the clutches of a child trafficker who had sought to smuggle him across the border into Senegal.
Saving lives by distributing free mosquito nets in Guinea-Bissau
BISSAU, Guinea-Bissau, 5 March 2008 – Awa Gras knows first-hand how deadly malaria can be for children growing up in Guinea-Bissau. She's given birth to eight children and malaria has killed four of them. The last to die was her four-year-old son, who returned from a soccer match feeling ill.
Rehabilitation and training programmes give girls a better education in Guinea-Bissau
CASSACA, Guinea-Bissau, 3 March 2008 – Like many girls in Guinea-Bissau, Mariama Sambu, 10, has a busy life. She rises at six each morning to help with household chores, which is no easy task when you share your small home with 18 other people.
In Guinea-Bissau, a victim of female genital mutilation/cutting calls for its end
BISSAU, Guinea-Bissau, 13 November 2007 – Nhima Cisse, now 42, was 8 years old when she was cut. “I can never forget the pain and trauma I went through that day,” she says.
Guinea-Bissau school rehab programme: A better chance for girls and boys alike
CANCHUNGO, Guinea-Bissau, September 2007 – Isabel introduces herself very shyly: “My name is Isabel Luís Gomes. I am 15 years old and I always studied in the Cunha Gomes School. I am a sixth grade student. I should be almost finishing school, but unfortunately I was enrolled late.”
Vaccination campaigns give hope to women in Guinea-Bissau
CANTUBEL, Guinea-Bissau, 31 August 2007 – In June 2007, UNICEF launched a national anti-tetanus campaign in Guinea-Bissau. Over 330,000 women of child-bearing age will be reached in three rounds of vaccinations. Many of them have never had a chance to receive a vaccine.
Under the façade of religious study, children fall victim to trafficking
GABU, Guinea-Bissau, 9 July 2007 – Fande Djaló was sent to Senegal as a child ‘talibé’, or student of Islam, when he was only six years old. In Guinea-Bissau, where almost half of the population is Muslim, it is becoming a tradition for children – mostly boys from 5 to 15 years of age – to study abroad under a Koranic master.
Crisis response meets immediate needs of Guinea-Bissau families displaced by conflict
BISSAU, Guinea-Bissau, 24 March 2006 – “Children don’t care if there is armed conflict going on or not,” says Governor Arlindo Pires of Cacheu Region in Guinea-Bissau. “They are more interested in having their stomachs full of food and playing with their mates.”
