Cole Miller « Antiwar Radio with Scott Horton and Charles Goyette
No More Victims works to obtain medical sponsorships for war-injured Iraqi children and to forge ties between the children, their families and communities in the United States.
Cole Miller is the Founding Director of No More Victims. A freelance writer, Miller co-created and produced the environmentally focused radio series Isla Earth, which took top honors in the News Bureau category of the 2008 Los Angeles Press Club’s 50th Annual Journalism Awards. Miller travels frequently to the Middle East, and manages the day-to-day operations of NMV. He has appeared on CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, Al Jazeera, and his work has been profiled by People Magazine and many other publications.
By Cesar Chelala/New York
A Unicef-supported study found that the majority of children under 16 years in Kabul suffer from psychological trauma. Children in Afghanistan are exposed not only to violence related to acts of war but also to violence resulting from accidents, beatings by close relatives or neighbors or seeing close relatives being beaten or executed.
The year 2009 has been the deadliest for Afghan children since 2001, according to the Afghanistan Rights Monitor, a Kabul-based human rights group. From January to December 2009, about 1,050 children died in suicide attacks, roadside blats, air strikes and in the cross-fire between Taliban insurgents and pro-government Afghan and foreign forces, states ARM.
Today in Afghanistan more than one in five children dies before the age of five, often of a preventable cause. Many children who survive birth then die because mothers stop breastfeeding them too soon. Traditionally, the women are not allowed to decide when to start or to stop breastfeeding or how to give supplementary food. Usually, that decision is reserved for the elders of the family, generally men.