Giving girls even an elementary education is vital to improving the world's economic development and breaking the vicious cycle of poverty, said UNICEF in its annual report on children.

The organization's research shows 121 million children, including 65 million girls, many of them in Africa and south Asia, are missing out on elementary education with dire consequences for themselves.

Key quote:

"Education is the most effective way to break the crushing cycle of poverty and combat some of the harshest realities in the children's lives, including the risks of trafficking, exploitation and contracting HIV/AIDS," said David Agnew, president of UNICEF Canada.

The holiday season is a time for sharing generosity and love with friends and family. This affection is often manifested in the form of gifts. This year, you can give much-needed support to proven community-based organizations and get a great gift for a family member or friend.

For instance, The Enterprising Kitchen works within the context of a small business that produces high quality, hand-made soaps and other bath products. The program provides women facing significant barriers to employment with the opportunity to receive hands-on, intensive assistance that includes: paid employment, work and life skills training and a variety of other support services. The revenues generated by product sales help to sustain and develop the program. The income from the sale of their products covers the cost of materials and a portion of their fixed costs. TEK operates a micro-enterprise that produces high quality products in an environment that enables women to maximize their individual potential and self-esteem.

The Temporary Extended Unemployment Compensation program for the long-term unemployed was launched in March 2002, to secure additional weeks of federally-funded unemployment benefits to individuals who received all of their regular, state-funded benefits but still have not found a job. The program -- already extended twice before by Congress -- is once again about to end.

According to the Center On Budget And Policy Priorities, no individuals who exhaust their regular benefits from December 21 onwards will be eligible for TEUC benefits, and between 80,000 and 90,000 jobless workers will be exhausting their regular benefits every week. By the end of January 2004, about 500,000 people will have run out of regular benefit options and will not have received any TEUC aid, reports the Center.

If Congress and President Bush act in time, no jobless workers will be harmed.

According to IRIN News, Africa is facing an enormous water crisis afflicting 300 million Africans and claiming 6,000 lives a year. Though there is plenty of water available on the continent, bad management of resources is making way for a catastrophic crisis.

African ministers are seeking $16 billion a year from major financial institutions to stem water woes. The desertification of the continent as well as years of poor management and widespread environmental degradation must be reversed.
The water crisis could also spur further political dissent.

Under plans being drawn up, African governments are looking to work together to harness the power of rivers on the continent to avoid the threat of "water wars," IRIN News reports. More than two thirds of Africa's 60 river basins are shared by more than one country – further fuelling potential clashes over how they should be used.

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"Water scarcity is fast becoming a potential source of social and political conflict," Anna Tibaijuka, head of UN Habitat, noted. "Poor service provision is extremely detrimental to the health and economy of the African continent."