GOMA? LATEBREAKING NEWS
Marist District Council concludes 4-day emergency session, adopts plans, chooses LIFE
The Marist Brothers? District Council in the D. R. of Congo met in emergency session from January 25th to the 29th. As mentioned in Update 2 on Goma, Brother Théoneste Kalisa of the General Council took part in these meetings at the request of Br. Sean Sammon, our Superior General.
The Council studied the situation in Goma resulting from the eruption of the Nyiragongo Volcano. Most of the city?s inhabitants have chosen to return to what is left of their homes and businesses, preferring this to the alternative of being confined to refugee camps.
In their role as educators and apostles to youth, the Brothers on the Council immediately focused their attention on doing all they could to help the youth of Goma, particularly the 1400 students who were enrolled at the Mwanga School, a diocesan school run by the Marist Brothers. As a result of the volcanic eruption, that school and 40 others have been either severely damaged or totally destroyed. This disaster has left thousands of school children and youth wandering amidst the ruins of Goma, without any sense of hope or purpose. As a result looting and violence are spiraling out of control throughout the devastated city.
Within the limits of its own resources, the District Council has now forwarded to the General Administration a well-thought-out program to help as many youth in Goma as possible. Brothers Seán, Luis Sobrado, our Vicar General, Théoneste, and Richard Mutumwa, District Superior of the D. R. of Congo, have been in daily contact with each other by phone.
Working with the International Bureau of Solidarity (BIS) at our Generalate in Rome, the General Administration expects that by the beginning of this coming week our Marist Administrative Units worldwide will have received a clearly defined project to help our Brothers in the D.R. of Congo, asking everyone to provide financial support in a coordinated way. Provincials and District Superiors will decide how to approach their communities and Marist ministries, our Marist friends and co-workers, and everyone wanting to join us in this campaign. Our goal is nothing less than to provide new life and hope for the children and young people of Goma with whom we live and work as Marists.

A GLANCE AT THE WORLD OF INFANCY AND YOUTH
Marist Brothers participating in the last General Chapter felt a call to choose life, and to do by means of five main objectives, one of which was the following: ?To move forward together, Brothers and Lay Associates, decisively and unmistakeably, in closeness to children and young people who are the poorest and most excluded, through new paths of education, evangelization and solidarity.?
In accordance with this comitment and with our educative tradition born of Saint Marcellin, Marist Bulletin will include among its contents general information on the world of infancy and youth, which may encourage us not to lower our guard in their defense.
Our readers are invited to furnish us with further news in the same line?of general interest and special value?citing the source of the information, and sending it to: [email protected] .

WORLD ACCORD AGAINST CHILD PROSTITUTION
89 countries have signed; but only 16 have ratified.
Eighty-nine countries have signed an international agreement prohibiting child prostitution, pornography and slavery of minors, according to the United Nations Children?s Fund (UNICEF).
This success was made possible through the contribution?amongst others?of the Holy See?s Mission to the U.N. which encouraged al countries not only to signbut also to ratify the measure.
In actual fact, seventeen countries, amongst which is numbered the Holy See, have already taken this step, awaiting the approbation of their legislators back home. This would mean that the ?optional protocol? to the Convention on the Rights of Children becomes legally binding within their borders.
The countries which have ratified the protocol, apart from the Holy See, are: Andorra, Bangladesh, Cuba, Democratic Republic of the Congo (RDC), Iceland, Kazakstan, Marrocco, Norway, Panama, Qatar, Romania, Sierra Leone, Spain, Uganda, y Vietnam.
In giving information about the support received by the 89 countries signing the protocol, UNICEF, is now asking for a rapid ratification of the accord so as to benefit from effective resources in the legal campaign against the Exploitation of Children.
According to UNO sources, about a million (mainly female) children enter annually the multimillion dollar sex-trade business, very often attracted by the promise of obtaining an education and often seduced by the promise of education and and well-paid work.
The ?Optional Protocol? to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, has taken this path in order to serve as a guideline whereby they standardize national legislatures against the sale of children for sexual exploitation, for illegal adoption, or for the use of their organs. (Zenit).

90% OF WARS SINCE 1945 OCCURRED IN POOR COUNTRIES
2 Million Children Died in One Decade, Caritas Says
Since World War II, 90% of the conflicts in the world have taken place in poor countries.
This fact was revealed in research carried out by Caritas-Italy, in collaboration with the magazines Famiglia Cristiana and Il Regno. It included the scientific input of F. Strazzari and G. Giacomello of the Fiesole University Institute.
The innocent have paid the greatest price of wars, the data show. Between 1990 and 2000 alone, 2 million children were killed.
Since 1945, wars have left close to 27 million civilians dead and produced 35 million refugees.
In the 1990s there were 56 wars (armed conflicts with more than 1,000 dead) in 44 countries. Most were civil upheavals for control of the government or territory.
The study will be published within the next few months. (Zenit)

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