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 You are in: Front Page > In Depth > Children's Rights > A World for Children
A World for Children
HEALTH


"My wish is that doctors build me a leg which looks natural"

Ganimete, 10, Albania

Under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, governments are supposed to provide children with the best health care they can.

Article 24 of the Convention states that governments should, "recognise the right of the child to... facilities for the treatment of illness and rehabilitation of health."

In fact, the UN reports that child health has improved significantly in the ten years or so since the Convention came into existence, through better nutrition and more widespread vaccination. So, in this area, at least, the Convention is achieving what its authors intended.

In this report for A World for Children, Ganimete, a 10-year-old victim of ethnic violence, born in the town of Mitrovica, tells the story of how doctors changed her life for the better when they fitted her with a prosthetic leg.

Ganimete lost her limb during the outbreak of violence and fighting between Serbs and ethnic-Albanians in Mitrovica, in the former Yugoslavian province of Kosovo.

Mitrovica, a divided town, was at the centre of the tensions between the two communities.

This is Ganimete's account:
AudioListen to Ganimete's story in Albanian
Begin Quote
My name is Ganimete. I am ten years old and from Mitrovica.

If someone had told me two years ago, that one day I would walk on my own feet as I had before the violence, I would never have believed them.

Quite often - especially when I play with my friends - I wonder how I can walk like all my other friends and how the doctors gave me a new leg so that I could do that. When I get new friends they actually don't believe that I have an artificial leg.

But I don't only like to talk about my legs. I forgot to say that in a maths competition among schools in Mitrovica, I came third.

I say to my mum, "Thank God for the people who invented trousers," as I feel quite relaxed when I put them on.

Now that the weather is hot, we go to a lake nearby, where there are lots of children and grownups.

Although I usually dress in long trousers, I do wear bikinis, too. I sunbathe and even swim. I don't care a bit.

Some time ago, all I could remember were bomb blasts. Now all that is forgotten. I tend to think about my leg, how I walk or play, how the ball bounces when I kick it.

Now I have a lot of dreams and wishes, but my biggest wish is that doctors build me a leg, which looks quite natural, so I could wear white - sport or tennis - miniskirts.
End Quote
AudioListen to Ganimete's story in Albanian
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Fact The Global Movement for Children, an organisation that unites people who are dedicated to promoting the rights of children around the world, estimates that 300,000 children are involved in armed conflict in over 30 countries.

Fact It states, "Girls and boys are abducted from schools, refugee camps or their homes ad trained to kill. Girls are subjected to sexual abuse and rape..."

Fact A report by the Save the Children agency highlights the countries where children are most at risk.

Fact In Sri Lanka, hundreds of thousands of children who live in the north and east of the island have been directly affected by armed conflict - many have lost a relative or friends. More than a quarter of landmine victims are children.

Fact In Sierra Leone thousands of children have been massacred, raped and had limbs severed. Many others are forced to serve as soldiers.

Fact Three decades of strife in Angola have left a million young people homeless and exposed to bombardment, landmines and disease.

 
 
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