Toronto, Canada- On Monday, June 18th, the Children’s Aid Foundation hosted the 12th Annual Women’s Golf Classic at the prestigious Angus Glen Golf Club in Markham, Ontario.  Funds raised at this popular boutique event benefit the Children’s Aid Foundation and help offer hope and opportunity to thousands of Canadian children and youth who are at risk of poverty, abuse or neglect. This year’s event raised over $215,000, bringing the total since the inception of the event to over $2.7 million.

Presented by Rogers Communications, the Women’s Golf Classic brings together many of Canada’s most prominent women executives and entrepreneurs to network, entertain clients and socialize with colleagues while enjoying a day of luxury on the links, including a golf clinic by Canadian golf legend, Sandra Post.

“The Children’s Aid Foundation plays a leading role in bridging the gap between what government provides and what vulnerable children and youth need to heal from their turbulent past and grow into healthy adults,” said Len Gamache, President of the Children’s Aid Foundation. “The stellar record of fundraising success enjoyed by our Women’s Golf Classic is a testament to the commitment of our participants and the generosity of our sponsors.”

“As proud presenting sponsor for the ninth year running, Rogers is honoured to support the mandate of the Children’s Aid Foundation,” said Shannon Valliant, Vice-President, Financial Operations, Rogers Media Inc. “On behalf of the entire Rogers organization, we are delighted at the great success of this year’s Women’s Golf Classic and look forward to many more years in partnership with the Children’s Aid Foundation.”

One in every 25 children in Canada are at risk and need our help. Many suffer in poverty, while others have been victims of abuse and neglect. A staggering 76,000 of them live in foster homes or a residential facility. The mission of the Children’s Aid Foundation is to fund programs that give them skills and hope for a promising future.

Image Courtesy of  Mai Techaphan / Shutterstock.com

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New York, U.S.A - The Laureus Sport for Good Foundation , a charitable organization that supports projects in the U.S. to improve the lives of youth through the power of sports, in collaboration with Mercedes-Benz USA (MBUSA), the company and its dealers, is addressing the recent onslaught of New York’s after-school budget cuts with an innovative solution.
In 2012, the New York City initiative will train and place 120 coaches in 15 sports-based youth development projects in underserved neighborhoods in all five boroughs that will mentor approximately 10,000 city children. Laureus USA has selected Coach Across America as their delivery partner.

This regional initiative is part of a nationwide program that, with a $1.3 million national commitment from MBUSA to the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation, focuses on training and placing 250 coaches through Coach Across America in sports-based youth development projects in underserved neighborhoods in five U.S. cities: Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Miami and New Orleans.
This afternoon at 3:00 PM EDT, the city-wide initiative kicks off with dealer partners and employees from MBUSA along with Laureus World Sports Academy Member and nine-time Olympic Champion Mark Spitz, as well as elected officials, guests and staff, visiting Play Rugby USA - an innovative program that cleverly combines rugby with sports education, health, academic and community development programming to create a holistic and asset-based approach to youth development. Underlying the program’s success is the establishment of sustainable partnerships with urban schools and youth organizations, each creating a systematic opportunity for youth during or after school.

“Mercedes-Benz USA and our dealer partners have a long tradition of supporting and giving back to our communities. When you combine that with MBUSA’s extensive involvement in high-profile sports events, this is an undertaking that really makes sense for us and provides a real benefit to youth across the country,” said Steve Cannon, president and CEO of Mercedes-Benz USA.
“We believe in the transformational power of sport as a tool for social good. Today’s coaches go beyond the traditional sense of the term ‘coach,’” said Edwin Moses, who also serves as the chairman of the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation USA. “They are mentors, community organizers and mediators. Investing in proper training and offering support for these coaches is vital to sports-based youth development, especially as youth violence and obesity escalate and school-based programs continue to be decimated by budget cuts. Initiatives like this are essential in America to fill the gap.”

Recent budget cuts to childcare and after-school programs are expected to impact up to 90,000 young people in New York. In the last two years alone, $3.5 billion has been cut from school sports budgets nationally, resulting in 16.5 million youth with little to no access to sports. With staggering childhood obesity statistics – an estimated 33 percent of American youth are overweight or obese by third grade and in New York City, one in five kindergarten children is obese. Solutions to combat these issues affecting youth are sorely needed.

Along with parents and teachers, coaches play a crucial role in developing character in today’s youth. But a recent GAO report confirmed that despite this important role, quality coaches are in short supply.Proper coaching increases the chance of  better grades, better behavior, healthier lives and longer life due to fitness activity.

Additionally, this initiative will provide employment opportunities, relevant experience and scholarships in the sport for development sector for young adults in this tough economy. Many of the coaches recruited by Coach Across America will be college graduates from the local community. The projects where they will be placed include: America Scores NY, American Youth Table Tennis, Asphalt Green, Beat the Streets, City Soccer in the Community, Harlem RBI, I Challenge Myself, New Heights Youth, Nike Camp Skate, Nike DYCD Community Centers, Play Rugby USA, Power Play NYC, Inc., Row New York, United Youth League, and Urban Dove.

“The positive influence coaches can have on today’s underserved youth is undeniable,” said James Kallusky, director of Coach Across America. “The generous support from both Mercedes-Benz USA and Laureus Sport for Good Foundation USA will allow Coach Across America to both broaden and deepen its impact by providing new coaches in New York.”

One beneficiary of Coach Across America is Ktrice McNeill, who turned to a basketball court to avoid gang violence and drugs. Ktrice used his basketball skills to earn a scholarship to attend Southern Connecticut State University. After receiving his college degree, Ktrice returned to New York and joined Coach Across America to coach in the same community center he turned to as his sanctuary. ”When I started coaching, I had kids ask me to be their dad or brother,” he said. “I told them ‘I can’t be your dad, but I can be your role model.’ On my cell phone I have numbers for 100 kids that can call me any time they need me.”

Image Courtesy of  muzsy / Shutterstock.com

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Mexico City, Mexico — KidZania, a global leader in children’s edutainment, have officially opened its largest children’s theme park yet, KidZania Cuicuilco, located in Mexico City. Not only does the park introduce children to new and relevant careers in a highly entertaining way, but for the first time, integrates innovative experiences to teach children environmental stewardship, empathy for kids with different abilities, how to make “good-for-you” food and recreation choices, hands-on driving and road safety via a fleet of kid-sized eco-friendly vehicles, and much more.  In this new expansive park experience, empowerment for kids has never been so vast, realistic and fun.

Fueled by a child’s natural desire to create, explore and collaborate, KidZania Cuicuilco is equal parts entertainment and education, making it one of the most progressive theme park concepts in the world today. Young visitors enter KidZania Cuicuilco through the park’s mock airport into the sprawling 150,000 square foot kid-sized city complete with 90 establishments, including city hall, a bank, restaurants, a hospital, sports stadium and more.  Once in the park, kids choose from among 120 different trades and professions that it takes to run a city.  It’s the ultimate role-playing experience for kids ages four to 14.

“KidZania Cuicuilco is our most inventive and engaging theme park yet,” says Xavier Lopez Ancona, president and founder of KidZania. “With KidZania Cuicuilco, we’ve introduced 21st century career choices, elevated awareness around global issues like the environment, and made certain that every child, no matter their level of ability, can participate. We’ve brought the most authentic and fun real-life experiences to life to help children understand and manage their ever-changing world. As we continue our global expansion, we look forward to bringing these new, relevant and awe-inspiring entertainment experiences to kids the world over.”

Following are just a few of the many unique, hands-on activities and experiences now available at KidZania Cuicuilco:

• More than 120 careers, including guide dog trainer (complete with real dog), mechanic, power plant operator, surgeon, CSI investigator, tortilla chef, road paver, and more.
• World’s most authentic driving experience for children – complete with driver’s education, auto insurance, and the largest fleet of electric kid-sized vehicles (minivans, SUVs, ambulances, city buses and police cars).
• Fully immersive environmental job experiences featuring an electric power plant, wind turbines, solar panels, and water treatment facility to emphasize the global importance of conservation.
• Recyclables drop-off center for the surrounding community, which is integrated into park activities.
• Three-story disaster center, which simulates flood, fire or earthquake and teaches children how to respond.
• Tools to help special needs children (and KidZania staff) navigate the park independently, as well as activities that allow typically-able kids to experience what it would be like to have a disability.

KidZania Cuicuilco also features a state-of-the-art security system to ensure a safe and fun experience for children navigating the park with or without their parents. Every child and parent/chaperone entering the park receives matching RFID-bracelets, providing the location of child and parent within a mere meter of the person’s location. While the children play, parents can relax in the parent’s lounge, which features a spa, movie room, restaurant and Internet (WiFi) cafe.

KidZania Cuicuilco has more than 90 global partners present in the park, including Nestle, LAN, Toyota, DHL, Berlitz, Evenflo, Manpower, Cartoon Network, Banco de Mexico and others. They are an integral part of the experiences and add authenticity to the career-based, role-playing activities.

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New York, U.S.A. – The Secretary-General issued his annual report on children and armed conflict to the Security Council which gives an overview of the situation of girls and boys in conflict zones and measures taken for their protection. The report includes a list of parties who recruit and use children, kill and maim, commit sexual violence or attack schools and hospitals; the so-called “list of shame.”

“2011 shows a mixed picture. While new crises erupted with a heavy toll on children such as in Syria, and also in Libya, violations against girls and boys have come to an end in other parts of the world,” the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict Radhika Coomaraswamy said.

Encouraging is the delisting of parties to conflict in Nepal and Sri Lanka after their successful completion of Security Council-mandated action plans to end the recruitment and use of children. In 2011, five more parties in Afghanistan, the Central African Republic, Chad and South Sudan entered into similar agreements with the United Nations.

In 2011, releases of children associated with armed forces and armed groups have taken place in Central African Republic, Chad, Colombia, DRC, Myanmar, South Sudan and Sudan.

“The progress is continuous but the list of parties to conflict who harm girls and boys will always be too long,” SRSG Coomaraswamy said. Fifty-two parties including four new parties in Sudan, Yemen and Syria were listed.

For the first time ever, the Secretary-General listed parties responsible for attacks on schools and hospitals in addition to those who recruit, kill and maim, or commit sexual violence. The listing is the result of Security Council resolution 1998 adopted last year.

On the list are armed groups in Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Iraq as well as the Syrian Government forces who regularly shell, burn, loot and raid schools, as well as assault or threat teachers, students, and medical personnel.

“In conflict, schools and hospitals must be zones of peace respected by all parties,” SRSG Coomaraswamy emphasized.

Of serious concern is also the growing list of persistent perpetrators of grave violations against children which has doubled since last year. Thirty-two parties to conflict have been listed by the Secretary-General for at least five years and are therefore considered persistent perpetrators.

“We must put more pressure on these parties through sanctions, other Security Council action, and closer collaboration with national and international courts,” SRSG Coomaraswamy said.

Action plans are another means to engage persistent perpetrators to end grave violations against children. Yet the dialogue with armed groups is often challenged by security constraints which hampers the United Nation’s independent access to these armed groups for dialogue.

Emerging situations

New crises have caused enormous suffering for children and continue in 2012. In Syria, children were victims of killing and maiming, arbitrary arrest, detention, torture and ill-treatment, including sexual violence, by the Syrian Armed Forces, the intelligence forces, and the Shabbiha militia.

Children between 8 and 13 were forcibly taken from their homes and used by soldiers as human shields, placing them in front of the windows of buses carrying military personnel into the raid on villages. Schools have been regularly raided, used as military bases and detention centres. In detention, girls and boys were beaten, blindfolded, subjected to stress positions and to electrical shocks, as well as whipped with heavy electrical cables.

“The world is keeping a detailed account of the violence committed against civilians in Syria and I am confident that these crimes will not go unpunished,” SRSG Coomaraswamy said.

Another worrisome trend is the increasing use of girls and boys as suicide bombers and “victim” bombers. “Victim” bombers are those who do not know that they are carrying explosives and are detonated from distance. In 2011 alone, at least 11 children in Afghanistan and another 11 girls and boys in Pakistan were killed while conducting suicide attacks, some as young as eight years old.

“The world should unite against this inhuman and perverse practice of child suicide bombers,” the Special Representative said.

Image Courtesy of   Herald Post

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On January 23, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children released the results of its latest survey regarding the number of registered sex offenders located in the U.S.  The organization’s most recent survey of states found there are 747,408 registered sex offenders in the country today, which represents an increase of 7,555 offenders from the previous survey in June 2011.

NCMEC conducted its first survey in 2006, which showed there were 606,816 registered sex offenders in the U.S.  In just five years, an additional 140,592 convicted sex offenders have been added to sex offender registries across the country, an increase of 23.2%.  The three states with the largest number of registered sex offenders are California (106,216), Texas (68,529), and Florida (57,896).

“The courts have long held that the requirement that a convicted sex offender register with authorities is not punitive, it is regulatory,” said Ernie Allen, president and CEO of NCMEC.  “It is a reasonable measure designed to provide important information to authorities and to help protect the public, particularly children.

These registries are especially important because of the high risk of re-offense by some of these offenders, and the fact that most of the victims of America’s sex offenders are younger than 18 years of age.” The first sex offender registry was created in 1947 in California.  Today, every state has such a registry.

NCMEC created the survey in 2006, following the enactment of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act in July of that year.  Each year since the survey was created, NCMEC contacts the sex offender registry in each state as well as registries located in the District of Columbia and five U.S. territories (Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands).

In the U.S. Virgin Islands, St. Thomas and St. Croix maintain separate sex offender registries, bringing the total number of registries surveyed to 57. ”America has awakened to the threat posed by sex offenders,” said Allen.  “Today, there is a system in place.  Law enforcement is more vigilant and common-sense steps have been taken to better protect the public, particularly the children.”

NCMEC has conducted 13 sex offender register surveys since 2006 and were performed quarterly until 2009.  Since then, they have been done twice each year.

In 2006, NCMEC also created a special dedicated Sex Offender Tracking Team.  This group of analysts — working with the U.S. Marshals Service and state and local law enforcement — accesses donated public records data and aids in locating an estimated 100,000 noncompliant or fugitive sex offenders.

To date, NCMEC has received 15,802 requests from law enforcement nationwide to assist in locating noncompliant sex offenders and has provided 15,763 analytical leads packages to law enforcement, resulting in the apprehension of thousands of fugitives.

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As reports circulate that the Prime Minister plans to leave the Crown/First Nations gathering early to attend the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, six First Nations young people, including Shannen’s Dream youth spokesperson 16 year old Chelsea Edwards, are planning a trip of their own.

On February 6, 2012 First Nations young people from across Canada will meet with the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child in Geneva to explain what it feels like to grow up getting fewer government services such as education, health care and child welfare on reserves.

The trip was inspired by the late Shannen Koostachin, a youth education advocate from Attawapiskat First Nation, who had her own First Nations/Crown gathering in 2008 when she met with the Minister of Indian Affairs to demand proper schools and culturally based education for First Nations children on reserves.

She was tired of the horrible conditions of many First Nations schools and knew that even in First Nations that had proper schools, the federal government short-changed First Nations children by $2000 to $3000less per student per year for teachers, books and learning supports.

Her own “school” in Attawapiskat First Nation was composed of a bunch of run down portable trailers set beside a toxic waste dump. Shannen saw talented children in grade 5 dropping out because of the deplorable conditions and she wanted this to change.  The Minister told her the government did not have enough money and she told him she would never give up because “school is a time for dreams and every kid deserves this”.

Shannen was nominated for the international children’s peace prize awarded by the Nobel Laureates in 2008. Sadly, she died in a car accident in 2010, waiting for her dream of equality for First Nations children to come true. Chelsea Edwards says that “I hope the Prime Minister will do the right thing but we are tired of waiting.  Shannen was our Rosa Parks and we have been sitting at the back of the bus our whole lives and we don’t want to wait there anymore.”

Cindy Blackstock, Executive Director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society says solving the inequities is not rocket science; “there are multiple solutions on the table and racial discrimination against children is not a legitimate fiscal restraint measure. Children only have one childhood. Canada must treat First Nations children fairly now.”

The Shannen’s Dream supports Parliamentary Motion 202 (introduced by MP Angus) to close the funding gaps and give First Nations children a chance to succeed and be proud of who they are.

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As the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea prepares to kick off, some of football’s biggest stars have been practicing more than just their moves on the football pitch; they’ve also been practicing delivering messages about malaria control.

Andrew (Dede) Ayew, midfielder from Ghana, Gervinho, forward from Cote d’Ivoire, and Moussa Sow, forward from Senegal, were just a few of the tournament stars who delivered malaria prevention and treatment messages in new United Against Malaria (UAM) public service announcements (PSAs) that will air throughout Africa during the tournament.

Other UAM champions who lent their voice to the new PSAs include Jordan Ayew, striker from Ghana, Charles Kabore, midfielder from Burkina Faso, and Asamoah Gyan, striker from Ghana. The PSAs focus on the importance of malaria prevention and treatment for children in Africa, “because all children deserve a chance at greatness, just like their heroes on the football pitch.” Although preventable and treatable, a child in Africa dies every 45 seconds from malaria.

“Malaria still kills many children in Africa, and it’s important that we educate fans on how to protect themselves and their families,” said Ghana Football Association President and CAF Executive Committee member Kwesi Nyantakyi, whose national team starred in a UAM PSA ahead of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. “Until we have no children dying from malaria in Africa, we need to spread the word about ways to prevent and treat this disease.”

The new PSAs will be shown at half-time during matches aired in Ghana, Senegal and many other African countries through local and cable television stations.

“We are so grateful to the players and their national associations for their commitment to the fight against malaria,” said David Kyne, United Against Malaria Campaign Manager. “Their support offers us an unparalleled opportunity to reach millions of viewers watching the tournament to deliver messages about the prevention and treatment of malaria.”

Image Courtesy of   http://www.flickr.com/photos/gatesfoundation/

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Hospice of the Western Reserve is kicking off a program to recognize “Hospice Heroes,” a community of individuals, families, and school, church or service groups across Northern Ohio who host fundraising activities that help the non-profit agency provide care to all who need it, regardless of their ability to pay.

Last year, the hospice covered unreimbursed expenses and charity care valued at nearly $5 million in the Northern Ohio region. According to Bill Sluzewski, development officer, fundraising events range from simple activities like selling candy bars, to larger events, like craft shows, benefit concerts and golf outings. “The organizers are often family members or friends of a patient who had been in our care,” he explained.

“Whether it’s a one-time activity or an annual event, it’s a legacy of love that honors their loved one and keeps their memory alive by giving back to other patients and families.” Such is the case for “Misty’s Wish,” created in 2010 by Sherri Viccarone, a resident of Cleveland’s West Park neighborhood, in loving memory of Misty, her teenaged daughter.

Misty, who was diagnosed with a fatal brain tumor, was cared for by Hospice of the Western Reserve during the final stage of her life.  The non-profit agency serving Ashtabula, Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake, Lorain and Summit Counties, offers one of the few pediatric hospice and palliative programs in the country.

Hospice helped with Misty’s medical supplies, medicine, physical and psychological therapies, and also supported Sherri and the extended family by guiding them the complex healthcare maze and providing emotional and spiritual support throughout the illness.  They also gave Misty an unexpected gift.

One day, a hospice team member asked Misty if there was one wish she would like to have granted before she died. Her response was a surprise to everyone: “I want my Dad to adopt me.” (Her stepfather was the only father she had known as she was growing up.) Within just ten days, Hospice of the Western Reserve’s legal team worked with a Cleveland judge to grant Misty’s wish to be legally adopted.

When Misty died, her mother, Sherri, was determined to tell her story to help other families coping with their children’s terminal illnesses, and to keep her daughter’s memory alive.  She started out by organizing an event called the “Misty Viccarone Christmas Memorium,” which involved collecting teddy bears and donating them to the Cleveland Clinic’s Oncology Department for children undergoing cancer treatment.

In 2010, Mrs. Viccarone and a dedicated group of volunteers expanded upon initial efforts by hosting a commemorative fundraiser with bowling, raffles and prizes. They called the event “Misty’s Wish,” a reference to the final wish Hospice of the Western Reserve helped to fulfill.

The event raised more than$5,000 for the non-profit agency’s pediatric palliative care patients. It was so successful that the group decided to make it an annual event.  Last year’s event, held at Yorktown Lanes in Parma Hts., generated an incredible $8,600. Mrs. Viccarone acknowledges that having a child diagnosed with a terminal illness is something no parent can ever anticipate or be equipped to deal with emotionally or psychologically.

However, she is determined to create something positive from the tragic circumstances.  An important part of her mission is helping other parents and caregivers by expanding awareness of pediatric palliative care.

“When I first tell people about the mission of Misty’s Wish, they’re sometimes shocked and surprised,” she said. “There’s a misconception that hospice care is only for the elderly.  In fact, a co-worker who even knew Misty had died of a brain tumor asked me why there was a need for a pediatric hospice team.

My answer was simple: `Because children die.’” Misty died on July 27, 1996, but thanks to the love and dedication of her family and friends, her memory lives on to help others through Misty’s Wish.

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Researchers have discovered that a subtype of leukemia characterized by a poor prognosis is fueled by mutations in pathways distinctly different from a seemingly similar leukemia associated with a much better outcome. The findings from the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital – Washington University Pediatric Cancer Genome Project highlight a possible new strategy for treating patients with this more aggressive cancer.

The work provides the first details of the genetic alterations fueling a subtype of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) known as early T-cell precursor ALL (ETP-ALL). The results suggest ETP-ALL has more in common with acute myeloid leukemia than with other subtypes of ALL. The study appears in the January 12 edition of the journal ‘Nature’.

ALL is the most common childhood cancer and about 12 percent of patients have T-ALL. T-ALL arises from T-lineage white blood cells that make up one branch of the immune system. ETP-ALL was discovered by St. Jude researchers and accounts for about 12 percent of T-cell ALL. Many ETP-ALL patients fail to respond to current therapy and never enter remission. Only 30 to 40 percent of these patients become long-term survivors, compared to about 80 percent of children battling other T-ALL subtypes.

“The mutations and gene expression profile we identified in this study suggest that patients with ETP-ALL might benefit from treatment that includes drugs developed for treatment of acute myeloid leukemia,” said Charles Mullighan, M.D., Ph.D., an associate member of the St. Jude Department of Pathology and one of the study’s corresponding authors.

Mullighan said ETP-ALL was selected for inclusion in the pediatric cancer genome project due to the poor outcome and the lack of information on the genetic lesions that underlie this aggressive subtype of leukemia. “St. Jude is a pioneer in increasing overall ALL survival rates, which today exceed 90 percent for St. Jude patients. Now, we are working toward similar progress against this rare form of the disease,” he said.

The human genome is the complete set of instructions needed to assemble and sustain human life. Leukemia and other cancers develop when normal cells accumulate mutations in the genome that cause the unchecked cell growth that is a hallmark of cancer. The three-year Pediatric Cancer Genome Project is sequencing the genomes of tumor cells and matched normal DNA samples of 600 children with some of the most poorly understood and aggressive cancers. Investigators believe the findings will be the foundation for the next generation of clinical tools.

For this study, researchers sequenced and analyzed the normal and cancer genomes of 12 St. Jude patients with ETP-ALL. Investigators then checked for some of the same mutations in an additional 94 young leukemia patients with either ETP-ALL or other types of T-cell ALL.

“We found mutations unique to ETP-ALL that are not seen in other forms of ALL,” said co-author Richard Wilson, Ph.D., director of The Genome Institute at Washington University. “The results provide new targets for therapy and a way to use genetic tests to identify ETP-ALL patients early and earmark them for more aggressive therapy.”

The pattern of mutations identified in ETP-ALL was reminiscent of changes associated with AML, Mullighan said. The alterations were concentrated in genes in the cytokine receptor and RAS signaling pathways that are involved in the type of cell regulation disrupted in cancer. The mutations, which included NRAS, FLT3, JAK3, IL7R, and other genes, were found in about 67 percent of patients with ETP-ALL, but in only 19 percent of other T-ALL patients.

In addition, mutations in genes known or predicted to disrupt normal development of blood stem cells or lymphocytes were identified in 58 percent of ETP-ALL patients, but in just 17 percent of other T-ALL patients. The affected genes included ETV6, RUNX1, IKZF1, and GATA3. GATA3 helps regulate the early stages of T cell development, and mutations in the gene were found exclusively in ETP-ALL patients.

Epigenetic mutations, which are alterations affecting genes that indirectly influence the activity of other genes, were also more common in ETP-ALL patients. These genes, including EZH2 and SUZ12, were mutated or deleted in 45 percent of ETP-ALL patients, but in just 11 percent of the comparison group. The targeted genes modify proteins known as histones, which control gene activity through DNA binding.

Researchers also showed that ETP-ALL includes recurring mutations in about a half-dozen genes not previously linked to blood cancers. The list includes the genes RELN and DNM2. “The pattern of mutations we found in those genes suggests they function as tumor suppressors and their loss contributes to the malignant transformation of developing blood cells,” Mullighan said.

Mullighan said work is underway to develop laboratory models of human ETP-ALL and to use these models to identify AML drugs that are most likely to benefit ETP-ALL patients. The list of possible drugs includes high-dose cytarabine and targeted chemotherapy agents that inhibit activity in the cytokine receptor and JAK signaling pathways found in this study to be disrupted in ETP-ALL patients, researchers said. Those pathways help regulate cell division and normal development of the blood system.

“This is the first of a series of important discoveries on the genomic basis of childhood cancers that are emerging from the Pediatric Cancer Genome Project, which is on schedule to fully sequence 600 pediatric cancer genomes by 2013,” said Dr. William E. Evans, St. Jude director and CEO.

James Downing, M.D., St. Jude scientific director, St. Jude PCGP site leader and a corresponding author of the study, added, “This study highlights how the genome project is generating new insights into the genetic alterations that underlie some of the most aggressive childhood cancers and in turn is pointing us toward new therapeutic options that may increase the survival rates for children with these cancers.”

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Safe Kids Pennsylvania announced that they will exhibit at the 2012 Pennsylvania Farm Show to reach thousands of parents and caregivers with information about preventing childhood injuries.

The games for children, engaging activities, curricula for teachers, and resources for parents will offer a multifaceted experience to increase awareness for child passenger safety, poison prevention, sports safety, fire and burn prevention, safe sleeping habits, toy safety, fall prevention, gun safety, and much more during the January 7-14, 2012, event.

“Educating parents and caregivers is vital to preventing accidental childhood injuries, and the Farm Show is a great way to reach thousands of families and deliver important awareness messages in fun and interactive ways,” said Allyson Fulton of Safe Kids Pennsylvania.

A large display of poison look-alikes—medications and household products that resemble common food and beverages—will remind parents to keep potentially poisonous items locked up and out of children’s sight and reach. Children can play a special Safe Kids safety game and receive take-home activity books.

“There’s no substitute for active supervision, but childproofing your home provides extra protection and peace of mind,” says Fulton. “It’s easy to eliminate the most obvious hazards, and it doesn’t have to involve a lot of expensive equipment.”

Certified safety technicians will be available during all shifts throughout the week to answer questions about car seats and what types of child passenger safety seats should be used as children grow and show proper installation.

Visitors can even bring their own helmets for fitting by a safety expert, or purchase a bike helmet at the booth for ten dollars. “Kids should always wear helmets when they snowboard, ski, sled, play hockey, or ride a bike,” says Fulton. “Make sure your child’s helmet meets federal safety standards and have an expert check that the helmet fits correctly, so it won’t come loose at a critical moment.”

Engaging activities and displays, safety experts, and a wide variety of free tip sheets and safety checklists are sure to make the Safe Kids Pennsylvania booth one of the most popular again this year.

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Three-fourths of preschool-age children in the United States attend child care, and many are not getting enough outdoor physical activity, which may be due in part to parental and societal values about injury prevention and kindergarten readiness.

A team led by Kristen Copeland, MD, division of General and Community Pediatrics at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Faculty Scholar, conducted a focus-group study of 53 child care providers from 34 child care centers in Cincinnati to examine their perceptions of potential barriers to children’s physical activity in child care.

Researchers identified three main barriers to children’s physical activity: injury concerns, a focus on academics over outdoor play, and financial constraints. Because many children spend all daylight hours in care, and because some lacked a safe place to play near their home, these barriers to physical activity in child care may limit children’s only opportunity to engage in physical activity, according to Dr. Copeland.

The child care providers who were interviewed for the study said that they felt pressure from parents to make sure that their children did not get injured while playing outside and, at times, were asked to keep children from participating in vigorous activity to keep them from being injured.

Similarly, child care providers noted that recent stricter licensing codes have resulted in playgrounds being less physically challenging and interesting to children. The new play equipment that was safe according to these standards soon became boring to the children as they quickly mastered it. Teachers noted that children would then start to use equipment in unsafe ways for which it was not intended such as walking up the slide.

“Child care providers mentioned that they appreciated having state inspections of their playground equipment and strict licensing codes because it helped them feel confident about the safety of the equipment,” says Copeland. “But several of them expressed how overly strict standards had rendered some of the equipment unchallenging and uninteresting to the children, which hampered the children’s physical activity.”

Another issue discovered during the study was that care providers felt pressured by parents (both upper- income and lower-income) and early-learning state standards to prioritize academic classroom learning over outdoor and active playtime.

“Several of the care providers agreed with this goal in principle, but they also recognized that children learned through active play and that the energy release and creative stimulation of outdoor activities helped place children in a better mindset to learn and concentrate later either indoors or outdoors,” says Copeland.

“We were surprised to find such a strong focus on academics for children as young as 3 years old. At this age, most children do not know how to skip and are still learning how to share and negotiate peer relationships. Yet teachers told us that many parents wanted to know what their child ‘learned’ that day, but were not interested in whether they had gone outside or had mastered fundamental gross motor skills.”

Many of the participants also cited budgetary reasons for why their centers could not offer children optimal physical activity opportunities. Most centers had tight operating margins and could not afford equipment for the children to play on. Yet Copeland does not feel the financial barriers present an insurmountable barrier to children’s physical activity in child care.

“There are plenty of things centers can do to encourage physical activity that cost little to no money—such as putting on a dance CD, taking nature walks, running races on the playground, or learning how to skip.” Copeland and her team say that these findings show that there may be a need to reset the balance of the priorities of injury prevention and kindergarten readiness with physical activity promotion.

She says, “Given that childhood obesity is a national epidemic and a major cause of childhood morbidity and that time in child care may be the child’s only opportunity for outdoor play, licensing standards may need to explicitly promote physical activity in as much detail as is devoted to safety.

“An important message from this study is that well-intentioned policies may have unintended consequences for preschool-aged children’s physical development. Daily physical activity is essential for preschool-aged children’s development and for preventing obesity, yet parents’ and teachers’ concerns about injury and school-readiness may be keeping children from being physically active.

In essence, in ensuring that young children are smart and safe, we may also be keeping them sedentary.”

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As millions of children get ready to open their iPhones, iPads, and other smart devices Christmas morning, SkM Consulting sent an urgent “tweet” and letter to Twitter’s CEO demanding that the popular social networking site immediately delete Twitter profiles targeting children with hard-core pornography.

Skillful Means Consulting (SkM), led by lawyer Craig Perra and his wife Michelle, discovered that pornographers are exploiting Twitter’s weak and poorly-enforced anti-porn policy and describe their findings, “Twitter is overflowing with hard-core pornography with no real restrictions to prevent child access.” Attorney Perra states, “If you have an e-mail address, Twitter gives you access to porn.”

The social networking site “supports more than 100 million active users, who fire off 250 million daily tweets,” says Laura Segall at CNNMoney in her December 19, 2011 article. “Children use the site,” says Attorney Perra, “and it is clear that pornographers know this, too. Twitter’s porn problem is prolific. It compromises future investment and advertising dollars from legitimate companies.”

“Porn peddlers tweet kid-friendly search terms like Disney, Toy Story, Bieber, Tinkerbell, along with pornography links, explicit language, and graphic pictures (#disneyporn),” says Perra, founder of vicereport.com.

Michelle Perra, Mother and Chief “WTF” Officer of SkM, explains, “Twitter searches like ‘Tinker Bell’ and ‘Disney’ produce tweets with a children’s picture then linking to extremely pornographic videos and pictures. I never imagined that I’d have to demand that a company fix its #disneyporn problem.

“I was shocked to learn that hard-core pornography was linked to kid-friendly words and that the average age of exposure to Internet porn is 11. My son is 8; the thought is horrifying. One profile picture showed a young woman with a particular bodily fluid covering her face, and another depicting a naked girl spread-eagle with duct-tape over her mouth.”

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What do the U.S. Postal Service and Santa Claus have in common? Neither rain nor snow nor heat nor gloom of night will keep them from delivering dreams this holiday season. December 1 marked the start of the Postal Service’s annual “Letters to Santa” program, a campaign that’s helped fulfill the holiday wishes of children and their families for nearly a century.

“Letters to Santa” is an annual letter-writing program through which members of the public and charitable organizations respond to children’s letters addressed to Santa Claus, the North Pole and other seasonal characters. To announce that the letter adoption period has begun, a ceremony was held today at New York City’s Operation Santa command center at the iconic James A. Farley building with a special appearance by Santa Claus.

“We are delighted to once again kick off the holiday mailing season with the start of our annual ‘Letters to Santa program’,” said Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe. “The Postal Service is gearing up for a huge mail delivery to the North Pole to help Santa and his elves get ready for the big day.”

The Postal Service expects to deliver more than 16.5 billion cards, letters and packages between now andNew Years Eve. This year, a postmark of Santa in his sleigh being pulled by six reindeer will appear in the upper right-hand corner of holiday cards and letters.

“While Santa’s been making wishes come true a bit longer than the Postal Service, for more than two centuries he’s relied almost exclusively on postal employees to bring him letters from girls and boys around the country and to help him deliver their presents,” Donahoe said. “For nearly 100 years, the ‘Letters to Santa’ program has made dreams come true for those in need.

This is a time to celebrate how postal employees, charitable organizations, and businesses have made a difference in the lives of children coast to coast.” To learn more about the USPS “Letter to Santa” program or to view a list of participating Post Offices, visit usps.com/2011holidaynews

Visit USPS on Facebook at www.facebook.com/usps to learn how USPS can help simplify your holiday shipping needs. The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.

A self-supporting government enterprise, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation, 150 million residences, businesses and Post Office Boxes. The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses, and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.

With 32,000 retail locations and the most frequently visited website in the federal government, usps.com, the Postal Service has annual revenue of more than $65 billion and delivers nearly 40 percent of the world’s mail. If it were a private sector company, the U.S. Postal Service would rank 29th in the 2010 Fortune 500.

Black Enterprise and Hispanic Business magazines ranked the Postal Service as a leader in workforce diversity. The Postal Service has been named the Most Trusted Government Agency six consecutive years and the sixth Most Trusted Business in the nation by the Ponemon Institute.

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Since science has been able to intervene in the reproductive process of humans, a certain level of controversy has surrounded the technology. This growing science allows for a wider number of people who would normally be unable to conceive naturally, the ability to have their hopes of a child of their own come true.

But even when couples through the use of donor eggs or sperm, or a surrogate mother, are able to finally bring home their bouncing bundle of joy, little consideration is given to the anonymous gift that was essential to creating new life.

As generations of children conceived through a donor or a surrogate becomes adults themselves, the question of their origins is sometimes shrouded in mystery. Often in heterosexual couples, the true parentage is withheld from the child for fear that the child would not bond in the same way with the non-biological parent.

Even in same-sex couples, the identity of the genetic parent is kept sealed and in some cases records have been destroyed. The desire to know one’s biological parent is no new feeling. Adopted children, even ones that come from loving homes with adoptive parents they still refer to as Mom and Dad, still go on searches for their biological parents.

The motivations for such searches vary widely, but most often it stems from the need to see where they get their genetic traits from, or a concern about any health complications in their biological family’s medical history.

The problem is that while many adopted children are given access to their adoption records, children conceived with donated eggs and sperm often have no records available. Because little regulation is in place in the United States for those who choose to donate their genetic material, records are often permanently sealed, or even destroyed.

A recent NY Times article highlighted another complication that comes with poor regulation on sperm banks. Ms. Cynthia Daily, after creating a registry with a unique identifying number of her son’s sperm donor, watched the number of half-siblings grow to over 150.

Concerns about accidental incest and the increased risk of spreading rare genetic diseases have been raised, but as of yet, legislation has still not addressed many of the concerns of the donors, the parents, and the children involved.

Because of the large number of children born from single sperm donors, it creates problems when the children want to see their biological fathers. Having seventy children born from the sperm you donated twenty years ago come knocking on your door would be overwhelming.

Even those interested in developing a casual relationship with their genetic offspring would find it difficult to make time to get to know their dozens of adult children. When the first “test tube” baby was born in England in 1975, many of these concerns were brought up and regulations were set in place.

Unfortunately, not every nation, including the U.S., has adopted these practices and it has resulted in a number of difficulties for everyone involved. Considering that an estimated 20,000 to 60,000 babies are born every year from artificial insemination, the need to create more regulations is becoming more and more important.

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Have you ever looked in your closet and realized that you had so many clothes that you didn’t even wear? A former Harvard Business School student, James Reinhart, looked into his closet and tried to solve that problem. By launching a web-based company to make swapping adult clothes easy called ThredUp, Reinhart also realized that adult clothing was not the right market to enter.

According to Bloomberg Businessweek, Reinhart realized that right market to tap into was kids’ clothing. Reinhart stated, “Once you start dipping into the data, it turns out to be a $6 billion-a-year market.” According to U.S. Agriculture Department data and a survey of 412 mothers conducted by ThredUp, the average American spends approximately $14,300 on clothes and grows out of about 1,300 items by the age 17.

As a kid-to-kid clothing swap service, San Francisco based ThredUp was re-launched in April 2010 and has tapped into a secondhand market. As a member on the ThredUp site, sellers follow a two set process: package 15 “new to you” items in a box and input the items by brand, gender, size, and style on the site.

The purchaser or “thredders” can easily purchase the 15-item package for only $5, not including the cost of shipping, and contribute to the “thredding” processing by selling their own items one day. To gain access to newly posted boxes, shoppers can become premium members for only $30 a year. Instead of buying secondhand, Reinhart estimates shoppers can save $50 per box using ThredUp swapping clothing.

As of July 2010, ThredUp has signed up nearly 200,000 members across the U.S. with a growing rate of 1,000 members per week. ThredUp members not only spend a total of over $8,000 per day on shipping but also have given the company a chance to recycle more than 50,000 pounds of clothes.

Expanding into toy sway last December, ThredUp members begin trading children’s books just last month. With millions in investment led by Red Ventures and the former EBay Chief Executive Officer Brian Swette as advisor, ThredUp may enter at least one European or Asian market before the end of 2012 says Reinhart.

SwapBabyGoods.com and Zwaggle.com are other sites that encourage the swapping of kids clothing. The three competitive advantages ThredUp exercise are the opportunity for their members to have access to thousands of boxes of goods instead of goods just from one use; prepaid mailing labels and empty boxes directly to users’ homes; and the reduction of postage due to packaging several items together.

According to Neal Gordenflo, publisher of the online magazine Shareable, ThredUp has “cracked the nut and proven their model works…and that the swap business can be scaled up.”

Eventually ThredUp will enter different markets beyond swaps, Reinhart says, “The American mom is the most powerful consumer in the world. In a world where we have a lot of moms who are just an e-mail away for us, there are a lot of opportunities.”

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McDain’s Restaurant in Monroeville, PA made headlines recently when the owner decided to ban all children six and under, stating that they were disturbing the other customers. The restaurant has been open for nine years, and in that time owner, Mike Vuick, noticed a pattern among some of his patrons. Parents would bring in their young children, and not leave or try to quiet their children when they would get unruly.

Starting July 15, Vuick decided to solve this problem by prohibiting any child six or under from entering his premises. He did not make this decision out of any malicious feelings toward the children themselves. In fact, in an interview posted on www.wtae.com, a news site local to the area, he explained that the problem is because although there is “nothing wrong with babies, […] the fact is you can’t control their volume.”

He understands that children and babies can be loud sometimes, and that there are times when the parents are not able to prevent their child from getting upset. The problem began when parents would keep their noisy children in the restaurant, instead of removing them from the restaurant. As a result, Vuick decided to take matters into his own hands and simply prohibit all children six and under from entering, since that is the age group that he feels was causing the most problems.

His regular patrons have expressed gratitude, indifference, and anger after learning of the decision in an email that he sent out the week before the new policy was enacted. Some long-time customers feel that they are being forced to choose between their children and their favorite place to eat together. It has stirred up a lot of interest and other restaurants have started enacting similar policies following the wide publicity that McDain’s Restaurant has received.

In Vuick’s case, he enacted a ban on all children under six, while another restaurant in Carolina Beach, N.C. recently put up a sign informing customers that “Screaming children will not be tolerated.” By singling out a certain behavior, it attracted the attention of a mother with an autistic child. Autistic children will scream and cry when upset, and often there is little the parent can do but wait for the child to calm down.

Because the sign specifically pointed out behavior that is common among autistic children, this mother felt that her son’s rights were being violated. She is currently considering building a case against the establishment for unlawful discrimination.

While neither restaurant is allowed to prohibit certain classes of people, such as the elderly, preventing children from entering a restaurant is not considered unlawful. By placing a ban on all children, Vuick managed to avoid the discrimination lawsuit that the restraint owner in Carolina Beach could now be facing.

There is a fine line between enacting policies that unlawfully discriminate, and trying to cater to a certain clientele. In any case, if patrons of McDain’s Restaurant want to keep coming to eat, they’ll have to set a little extra money aside for the babysitter from now on.

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Does your gender define who you are? If so, does being labeled a male or female result with certain treatment of children, which will then effect their development into adults?

Kathy Witterick, 38 and David Stocker, 39 from Toronto, Canada seem to believe so. Witterick and Stocker became the proud parents of their third child, Storm, on Jan. 1 of this year. The parents of three have decided to keep this baby’s gender a secret, until Storm is ready to disclose it.

“This is not a secret without consequences,” said Mike Brody, a child psychiatrist in Washington, D.C., and instructor at the University of Maryland. “This seems more controlling than the helicopter parents.”

The parents justified their decision, “we’ve decided not to share Storm’s sex for now  a tribute to freedom and choice in place of limitation, a stand up to what the world could become in Storm’s lifetime (a more progressive place? …)” Witterick wrote in an email to love ones.

Only a few people know the baby’s gender, the midwives who delivered the baby and the child’s two older brothers, Jazz, 5, and Kio, 2.

“When the baby comes out, even the people who love you the most and know you so intimately, the first question they ask is, “‘Is it a girl or a boy?’” Witterick told the Toronto Star. Her husband Stocker, a teacher at an alternative school, added: “If you really want to get to know someone, you don’t ask what’s between their legs.”

Does concealing a person’s gender change the way people view them, and in little Storm’s case, will it change the way people treat him or her? With the parents concealing the child’s sex people will not have the ability to label the child as a girl or boy and buy them things associated with that gender, such as dolls for girls and trucks for boys.

“What we noticed is that parents make so many choices for their children. It’s obnoxious,” Stocker told the Star.

Witterick and Stocker believe children can make meaningful decisions on their own and when it comes to their two sons, the boys have already exercise that ability;  Jazz and Kio pick out their own clothes and choose not to cut their hair.

The children do not attend school, but instead are taught by their mother through “unschooled,” which is a type of home schooling that occurs based on a child’s curiosity.

The idea to keep their child’s gender a secret came to the parents from a book Stocker came across, “X: A Fabulous Child’s Story,” by Lois Gould. In this book, the child is raised with no gender and grows up to be happy and grounded. “It became so compelling it was almost like, how could we not?” Witterick told the Star.

But, regardless of how many times people ask, ‘when will this end?’ the couple simply asks the same question, “Yeah, when will this end? When will we live in a world where people can make choices to be whoever they are?” they told the Star.

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Authorities often are depriving victims of needed lead testing, treatment, and prevention, as stated in a 75-page report researched by New-York based Human Rights Watch released on Wednesday, June 15, 2011. The report also stated that the government has failed to force polluting factories to close and clean up contamination despite its high-profile effort to crack down on heavy metals pollution.

Millions of Chinese children suffer from lead poisoning despite a crackdown on contamination, and local officials are systematically withholding the right to medical testing in order to cover up the problem. “Children with dangerously high levels of lead in their blood are being refused treatment, and returned home to contaminated houses in polluted villages,” said Joe Amon, health and human rights director at Human Rights Watch.

China has launched a campaign to crack down on lead poisoning, and to clean up contamination. The campaign closed down hundreds of lead-acid battery factories in eastern China’s Zhejiang province after several major pollution cases were brought to attention by state-run media. In the recently reported case, more than 600 people, including 103 children, were reported sickened from tinfoil processing workshops in the Zhejiang town of Yangxunqiao.

All the children and 26 adults suffered from severe lead poisoning. Human Rights Watch’s researchers conducted detailed interviews in heavily contaminated villages in four provinces—Hunan, Henan, Yunnan, and Shaanxi, and found authorities were systematically seeking to silence those who sought help or spoke out. Authorities had even refused testing or given distorted readings to relatives of sick children.

Lead poisoning can damage the nervous, muscular, and reproductive systems. Children are the most at risk because their bodies absorb up to half of what they are exposed, potentially disabling them for life. “Chinese experts are saying lead is one of the leading causes of pediatric health problems,” Amon said. Many parents interviewed for the Human Rights Watch report said that even when their children were confirmed to have dangerously high levels of lead in their blood, doctors just advised them to give their children milk or certain types of foods. Parents reported that local police threatened individuals seeking treatment and information, and those trying to protest against polluting factories have been arrested. Even journalists have been intimidated and threatened when trying to report on lead poisoning.

It seems that the Chinese government is falling back on how they have handled other recent health crises, including AIDS, the SARS outbreak in 2003 or the toxic milk scandal of 2008. The first instinct is to deny, conceal and block any further discussion of the problems.

Though this secrecy is not new, it does make it harder for anyone to bring this problem to light without risking their life. Once the problem is exposed, the Beijing government can act swiftly to reduce harm like in the other crises. However, at what stage is the China lead a crisis? How many more children must become sick from the poisoning, refused treatment, and sent home before Chinese government takes an action? Covering up this epidemic is not the solution; they must protect their children.

Image Courtesy of  Times Union

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One cheaply wise man told me one day that a journey begins the second you clearly make the decision to leave. On the one hand, sure, you must get prepared, inquire about the country, try to picture what it looks like, realize that I leave soon and that I really need a mosquito net. Kind of foreplay with your tourist guide. On the other hand, this theory remains pretty dumb, especially if your project is called India.

Forget about the globe-trotter stories, the neighbors’ pictures or Tintin In Tibet: you should entirely assume your ignorance before landing there your foot. I bought five or six books about India but I only read one because I had to go to the barber. It was about sacred cows and semolina cakes, I decided to check the other books on the plane. I could say I like surprise effects, but the truth is I don’t know where to begin. I’m getting ready to have a six months working experience in Kolkata, so if I may choose, I prefer being emotionally slapped by some seedy slums than a detailed Lonely Planet. Or perhaps this “not-ready” theory is just my peculiar laziness disguised as a two rupees prude opinion. Still, here I am flying from Paris to Kolkata, cultured about India like an Inuit about mangos but my five senses all set to experience.

It’s four o’clock sharp when the plane opens its doors. My rucksack on my back I go out the airport, find my way through the fruit dealers, beggars and cabdrivers, and head for a welcoming palm tree. I stay there for two-cigarettes time because I don’t have a clue where to go yet. Then a very short guy comes to me, he’s a taxi driver and sometimes guide for tourists in a hurry when he’s in the mood (now he shows me a non-laminated card). After chatting about why I am here or the different price of bananas according to Indian towns, I’m surprised at the dozen more people around me. “Give the man a tip, sir”, my original friend says pointing at a sleepy fellow leaning back against a wall behind me.

I look straight at the dude’s eyes, I never saw him before and except sunbathing he doesn’t look so busy. The confusion makes me smile: I am in India, no doubt. “What for?” I ask, so he quietly shrugs his shoulders in answer. Well I can’t blame him, he tried. I tell him “NO” right in his face and get into his yellow cab. After haggling over during two sunsets, I feel comfortable and tell my driver to hit the road downtown. I get ripped off a bit, sure, but not that much. Also I kind of like his circle glasses, so who cares.

Hundreds of tiny shops, some buffalos chewing plastic bags, five girls wearing shiny purses, an old bearded man selling vegetables and car wheels, two kids water-fighting, lots of advertising posters which don’t belong to reality, and in the distance a gigantesque palace building site: this is what I see through the taxi window. I spend time to ask myself questions I can’t respond and even to breathe in gasoline in abundance. I drop my luggage off the cheapest guesthouse in the quarter, I kick the cockroach’s ass under my bed and I go outside, making one’s way towards the sun so I finally find out where it sets.

“Children from Kolkata” is one of the ten thousands nongovernmental organizations of the city. It’s situated in the deep South Pallisree district, where the usual tourist doesn’t go probably because there is nothing to visit.

The single underground line –three other ones would open sooner or later (since 1995)– takes me to one rickshaw which drives me to a spot by the roadside, between a rusty bus and a homemade fountain. The driver shouts at me some inaudible english speech meeting sign language, I tell him back “yes” because that’s my philosophy in case the instructions are unclear. I start walking in a labyrinth of alleyways in order to find the NGO. I get lost four times, turn back twice, ask my way to all living beings I pass and then I stop for a while so I can sweat in silence. At last one student helps me to look for the address and ten minutes later I am standing at the bottom of a five floors building which doesn’t look Alice-wonderful but the door gets cute colors, therefore I come in without ringing (there is no doorbell). “Hello, you must be the french volunteer!”, I hear as my foot is on the last stair.

The voice belongs to Sohail who runs the organization while the Boss is back in France. He shows me the place, introduces me to the children I will teach and offers me a memorable big-time-sugared coffee. My first pupil is a five years old boy who only speaks a few words of english: the numbers until twenty, the word “cat” and all the most sophisticated cricket vocabulary. It sounds like a good start, so I ask him to describe the game rules, and after lots of Hindi sentences and an approximate Pictionary, I still don’t understand. Only dumb people don’t change the subject, so I decide to teach him numbers until fifty. The three next students are teenagers who have good English skills and who study for an exam. We are supposed to revise free-market economy lessons but on the first day we talk about Bollywood actresses and Brazilian football players.

Around four, it’s free time: the children play football and cricket outside, occasionally Russian roulette, but most of the time it means football and I play with them. (At first I was crushing them, but after thirty minutes out of breath, I felt consequences of Parisian nights showing up and the opposing team scored six goals in eleven minutes.) Anyway, after this stinging defeat I study with a group of seven little boys: I help them with their homework and read them tales, they teach me some Hindi phrases and show me magic tricks. Fifty-fifty, you guess. At eight o’clock I leave the NGO my eyes sparkling and I join the main street without getting lost this time. Sleep tight, Kolkata.

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