Equal Opportunities

If we make a comparison between the lifestyle of the present and the lifestyle of the past, we can notice major changes occurred. Before life was so complicated everything was based only on man’s work, he should provide his family financially and he was the decision maker and woman was not allowed to work outside her home, she was only responsible of her households and taking care of her children.

Nowadays woman works more than man, she helps him in earning a living and sometimes she is a decision maker. Consequently we should raise our children on the equal opportunities policy, in sequence to have a better future without any obstacles and to guarantee a better lifestyle for their future.

In general, adults and children have the right to share in the society and they should be treated with equal respect no matter of their gender, religion, race, nationality and social needs. Also children have the right to get their needs met in the best way for them.

In general when we explain the term equal opportunities by dividing it into two parts, the first part equal means “same” and the second part opportunities means “good chance for advancement or progress” and when we combine the two words we get “same good chance for advancement or progress” (Merriam-Webster online dictionary).

As defined in the encyclopedia, equal opportunities stands for “ A descriptive term for an approach intended to provide a certain social environment in which ensure people are not excluded from the activities of the society, such as education, employment, health care on the basis of immutable traits. Equal opportunities practices include measures taken by organizations to ensure fairness in the employment process” (www.wikipedia.org).

In my opinion, equal opportunities means that each person could be an adult or a child has the right to access and benefit from the available assets in order to fulfill his/her needs.

In 1990 Lebanon signed the UN Convention on the Rights of Child (www.inf.org.lb). The UN Convention is set in order to protect all the children against inequality, to provide a safer childhood and to seek the best interest of the child. “Every child has certain basic rights, including the right to life, his/her own name and identity, and to be raised by his/her parents within a family or cultural grouping and have a relationship with both parents, even if they are separated.” (www.wikipedia.org)

In reference to the Convention article 24 that state the right of each child to get “a standard of health and to facilities for the treatment of illness, also to diminish infant and child mortality.”(UN Convention of Child Rights in Castle 2000). In Lebanon, the infant mortality rate under five has declined; in 1990 there were 37 death cases and the last statistics done in 2005 showed 30 death cases. Further more since 1994 there were no polio cases recorded in the country (www.unicef.org). On the other hand, the latest statistics showed an alerting increase in the number of children who got the HIV/AIDS, either these children caught it from their mothers (in the womb or by breast feeding) or by blood transfer. However, the Lebanese government is implementing different programs for Doctors and interested people such as organizing medical conferences about the most common diseases: HIV/AIDS, Polio, children cancer, also the Ministry of Health and with the collaboration of the UNICEF does once a year vaccinations campaigns in different Lebanese areas . Besides, many private schools are inviting doctors from different fields: Dentists, pediatrics… to talk to children about common diseases and how to prevent from the most common diseases.

Article 28 of the Convention states(UN Convention of Child Rights in Castle 2000). that primary education has to be compulsory and provided for free to all. Lebanese public schools are under the authority of the government and they are free of charge (maintained by indirect taxes). The government provides the public schools with books that are often free of charge or sold at a very low price (www.higher-edu.gov.lb).

In addition, the school attendance is obligatory until the age of 12 years. Nowadays the attendance rate of children till the age of 12 in schools is getting higher each year, on the other hand, the attendance rate after the age of 12 years is low because of the expenses that parents cannot afford therefore children are sent to work in order to provide their parents with an extra amount. Child labor in Lebanon is becoming a big social problem. Most of the working children are in the poor urban neighborhood of major cities, where children work as artisans, in construction works, hair dressing salons