child_rights_awareness

Despite many declarations of the United Nations and promises made by almost all governments of the countries on our planet, millions of children are still living in a child-hostile world. Children are not only threatened by malnutrition, diseases and warfare but also by lack of appropriate education. As a scientist specialized in Physiology, I know how big the impact is of inadequate nutrition during early childhood on their mental and physical growth and, therefore, well-being at later stages of life. It is very sad to conclude that despite enormous scientific achievements during the past 50 years in the field of agriculture and nutritional and medical sciences, children are still suffering from malnutrition, leading to famine in poverty-stricken countries and diseases like obesity-induced diabetes in the more affluent regions in the world. One solution to the problem is proper education during childhood that eventually results in the adult’s ability to understand and willing to apply available scientific knowledge in their daily life, to enhance the production of food and to prevent life-threatening diseases. This kind of education should be based on reason and freedom of thought, not on political and religious indoctrination, being one of the biggest threats of the healthy mental development of children around our globe. –Ger van der Vusse Professor of Physiology Maastricht University The Netherlands