Summary: Between 2006 and 2008 more than 4,000 signatures were sent to President Bush from Church Women United urging that he send the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) to the U.S. Senate for ratification. During his presidential campaign Barack Obama expressed positive interest in carrying the CRC forward. Now is the time to flood the White House with petitions from Church Women United. It is time to let President Obama know that this needs his attention sooner than later. Please continue to send in your petitions to the CWU Legislative Office. It is still a long way to ratification, yet, there is also greater hope than ever before. Members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee have also expressed interest and support. Please collect as many signatures as possible.

Many CWU members have contacted the Legislative Office with question and interest in the Convention on the Rights of the Child. We have been sending out packets of information and are glad to answer any questions.

• Children have the right to be with their family or those who will care for them best
• Children have the right to enough food and clean water
• Children have the right to an adequate standard of living
• Children have the right to health care
• Disabled children have the right to special care and training
• Children must be allowed to speak their own language and practice their own religion and culture
• Children must not be used as cheap labor or soldiers
• Children have the right to play
• Children have the right to free education
• Children have the right to be keep safe and not be hurt, exploited or neglected
• Children have the right to special protection from situations of exploitation such as child labor, drug abuse, sexual exploitation or sexual abuse, sale, trafficking and abduction
• Children have the right to protection from cruelty, neglect and injustice
• Children have the right to express their own opinions and to meet together to express their views

CWU partners with MalariaNoMore to provide simple, long-lasting, insecticide-treated bed nets (costs $10 each) to protect children from malaria for up to five years. Malaria can begin with mosquito bites at night and it causes the death of over one million children annually. Using a multi-pronged strategy, MalariaNoMore’s goal is to end malaria by 2012. To purchase bed nets and to learn more, visit www.malarianomore.org. UNICEF is a founding member of MalariaNoMore.

In Kenya, CWU will partner with Church World Service (CWS) to provide safe drinking water. Over half of Kenyans live below the poverty line and two out of three cannot access clean drinking water. In the western, semi-arid Pokot district, CWS funds the construction of sub-surface dams and wells. Already, 300 children, mostly girls, from six villages now attend school, rather than walking miles daily to fetch water for their families. Learn more about Water for All campaign at www.churchworldservice.org.

Another partnering opportunity, with Heifer International, is “passing the gift” of a cow or other animal to help a family escape poverty and hunger and become self reliant. To learn more, visit www.heifer.org.

A U.S. partner is the Childrenís Defense Fund. Itís “Leave No Child Behind” program seeks to “ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start, and a Moral Start in life and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities.” To learn more, visit www.childrensdefense.org.