Kenya
Eighty percent of Kenyan
children attend primary school, which is free, but less than half are able to
pursue a secondary education because of the cost. This disparity leaves millions
of poor children vulnerable to trafficking, commercial sexual exploitation,
child labor, or early marriage. There are an estimated one million child
laborers in Kenya. Most live in rural communities and are often trafficked into
urban or tourist settings where they are sold into commercial sex work,
domestic work, or agricultural work. Girls from poor families are often given
in marriage at an early age for the dowry or bride price. http://tinyurl.com/oxcespb
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Please pray all
children in Kenya are able to receive both a primary and secondary education. Pray
the promise made by Kenya’s president to introduce free secondary education
within three years will become a reality.
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Pray for children
who attend school now, but are so tired from caring for siblings, fetching
water, making fires, cooking, and/or tending fields they cannot focus on school
work. Pray for children at risk of dropping out of school because they are too
fatigued to keep up with homework.
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Please pray for
the health, safety, and freedom of all child laborers in Kenya. Pray for an end
to the cycle of poverty that perpetuates this form of child abuse.
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Pray the laws
against child labor in Kenya will be enforced and those who exploit children
will be punished. Pray children are seen as beloved children of God and not as
commodities to be exploited.
Mexico
The violence between powerful
drug cartels and the military has displaced hundreds of thousands of people in
what non-governmental organizations consider a hidden humanitarian crisis. Many
have been forced from their homes in Mexico’s northern and western rural
communities by violent drug cartels intent on seizing land. This displacement
hasn’t been publicly acknowledged by Mexican authorities because often those
fleeing are in small groups and the mass migration of Central Americans moving
through Mexico to the U.S. masks the issue. Many families fleeing drug cartel
violence have experienced kidnappings, killings, extortion, and threats. Children
and adults who’ve escaped often lack identity papers, housing, medical care,
and jobs. Without identity papers, children may not attend school and adults
may not work. Children who lack these documents are at great risk of being recruited
by drug cartels because they won’t leave identifiable fingerprints at crime
scenes. http://tinyurl.com/ozufr2u
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Please pray for
displaced children and families in Mexico. Pray they’ll find safe shelter from
the violence and support from Mexico’s federal government which has an
emergency system in place to assist the displaced.
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Pray for families
who’ve lost everything to cartel violence. Pray for children who’ve been
separated from their families because of the violence.
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Please keep in
prayer the loved ones of those killed by drug gangs or in the fighting between
the military and cartels. More than 85,000 people have been killed in this
violence since 2006.
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Pray for peace
and healing in the regions of Mexico affected by drug violence. Pray the demand
for illegal drugs in North America and around the world will stop. Pray for those
addicted to illegal narcotics—that they may be freed from the addictions that
fuel drug trafficking and violence.
South Sudan
Thousands of children are
affected by a rapidly spreading cholera epidemic in South Sudan. Cholera causes
severe diarrhea and can kill within hours if left untreated. The beginning of
the rainy season, a lack of sanitary facilities, and a scarcity of safe
drinking water threaten to intensify the epidemic. Adding to the misery, aid agencies
believe the country is on the brink of a massive man-made famine. Months of fighting
between the government and rebels has displaced more than a million people and
disrupted food supplies in the northern regions of the country. Aid agencies
are treating more than 1,000 children a month for malnourishment. http://tinyurl.com/mvaawje http://tinyurl.com/l43enjm
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Please keep children
affected by the cholera epidemic in South Sudan close in prayer. Pray those who’ve
contracted this frightening disease will have access to medical care and make a
full recovery.
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Pray for
increased awareness about the ways to avoid contracting cholera. Pray communities
will understand the importance of treating drinking water and providing proper
sanitary facilities.
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Pray for children
who are suffering from malnutrition, who lack food and medical care because of
the civil war. Pray for those who are hiding in the bush and have gone for
months without sufficient food.
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Pray aid agencies
will be able to reach children and families in greatest need and that
government and rebel troops will stop looting these much-needed supplies.
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Please pray for a
lasting peace between the government of South Sudan and rebel troops.
