alt.NPR: Youthcast from PRX

100 Bush IDP camp, where Hassan Abdi Elmi lives Credit: UNICEF Somalia/ 2008/ Morooka

UNICEF Radio has produced a series of stories in honor of the 20th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The CRC, as it known in short hand, was an agreement made at the UN on the 30th anniversary of the Declaration of the Rights of the Child. Basically, both of these conventions and declarations put down on paper that the health and well-being of young people should be a priority for governments.

This shorter piece from their series is a lo-fi interview done by youth reporter Mostafa Mohamed Abdurrahman of 16-year-old Hassan Abdi Elmi about life in a refugee camp in Bossasso, Somalia.

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Hassan Abdi Elmi, photographed at a refugee camp in Bossaso, Somalia Credit: UNICEF Somalia/ 2009/ Nidam

National Geographic has an article on the complexities of Somalia's clan governments and the violence and chaos all over the country.

And then The New Yorker referred to Somalia as "The Most Failed State" in a recent issue. Is this a reasonable or fair assessment? NPR News interviewed the article's author, John Lee Anderson, so check that out, since the entirety of his article is not available online.

And for reference, the Rights of the Child:

1. The child must be given the means requisite for its normal development, both materially and spiritually.
2. The child that is hungry must be fed, the child that is sick must be nursed, the child that is backward must be helped, the delinquent child must be reclaimed, and the orphan and the waif must be sheltered and succored.
3. The child must be the first to receive relief in times of distress.
4. The child must be put in a position to earn a livelihood, and must be protected against every form of exploitation.
5. The child must be brought up in the consciousness that its talents must be devoted to the service of its fellow men.

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