AIDS in Canada

      AIDS in Canada was discovered in 1982. By 2005 approximately 58,000 people were living with AIDS.  An estimated 15,000 people are unaware of their positive status. The number of people getting infected with AIDS is increasing by 2,500 people per year. In 2009 there were 2,417 positive results in Canada. About 2,300 and 4,300 new AIDS infections occur each year.

By: Jaya Vester

Child Soldiers

      

      Child soldiers is a huge issue all over the world. The number of children under the age of 18 who have been coerced or induced to take up arms as child soldiers is generally thought to be in the range of 300,000. These children have no understanding in life, so how can we expect any more. Every child deserve a life of freedom, hope, and security.Over 50 countries currently recruit children under age 18 into their armed forces. Usually the the youngest child soldiers are about 7 years old. We really need to take this social justice into huge consideration.
 
http://www.unicef.org/emerg/files/childsoldiers.pdf

By: Logan Flodell

Bullying

        Bullying is an issue most teens face everyday. Those who are bullied suffer from as little as a lowered self-esteem to doubting their own lives. For me, bullying is a serious issue and it needs to stop, starting with us. Bullying is most common when someone is of a different race or has a lower class. In terms of these two social injustices, people are treated unfairly and are just left alone with no help whatsoever. From our perspective, being bullied might seem not that too big of a deal. This is only easy to say because we are not the victims of this horrible act of putting someone to shame. We might think that the only thing the victim has to do is to tell their parents or guardians about their situation, but, in most cases they can't.
     The effects of bullying isn't just shown in the psychological being of the victim, almost everything about their lives gets turned around when they are bullied. This affects the person's physical, mental, and emotional welfare as well. An estimated 160,000 students miss school everyday because of their fear of being bullied by other students. In the most severe cases, bullying can drive someone off the edge and cause them to commit suicide. In North America, as much as half of the suicides done by people aged 10-24 is because of bullying. Thus, most people indirectly cause the death of another person without even knowing it. And so with that said let's all take a step against bullying and give other people a chance to live their lives to the fullest.

By: Vincent Aparato

Child Abuse

      In North America child abuse occurs to 1 in every 3 girls and/or 1 in every 6 boys before the age of 18, child abuse is mistreatment of a child by a parent, or guardian, including neglect, beating, and sexual molestation. The abuse doesn't always come from home either, sometimes it comes from organizations like schools or communties the child interacts with. Every 10 seconds a child is abused, raped or even killed in the US, in a day around 5 children die from being beaten, raped, etc. Only about 28% of children identified as harmed by abuse are investigated. Child abuse is a big problem that shouldn't exist and should be looked into more and watched more closely to by the government and police. Children can't pick there parents so how is it fair that from day 1 they get abused, and hurt, and have to bleed for no reason at all. Around 14% of men and 36% of women in prison were abused as children, so it does make a major impact on the world even for the people who are not getting abused.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/child+abuse?s=t

By: Brady Reid

Verbal Abuse

      Verbal abuse is defined as a negative defining statement told to the person or about the person; or by withholding any response thus defining the target as non-existent. Verbal abuse includes the following: countering, withholding, discounting, verbal abuse disguised as a joke, blocking & diverting, accusing & blaming, judging & criticizing, trivializing, undermining, threatening, name calling, chronic forgetting, ordering denial of anger or abuse, and abusive anger. Someone could be saying anything whether it be about weight, race, or sexual orientation. 84%of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) students report being verbally harassed because of their sexual orientation. It can also happen anywhere such as at school, in the workplace, and even at home. 58% of substantiated emotional maltreatment involved exposure to family violence. 97% of high school students report hearing homophobic remarks regularly from peers. The best way to stop verbal abuse is speak out and tell someone if you are being verbally abused. Remember, If don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.

http://www.youthprideri.org/Resources/Statistics/tabid/227/Default.aspx

http://www.safevoices.org/statistics.php

www.safekidsbc.ca/statistics.htm
By: Olivia Kulbida

Women's Rights

Women rights around the world is very important in understanding how the world works. In spite of empowering women by the majority of the countries of the world there are still many issues exist in almost in all areas of life, cultural and political. Around the world women are the ones suffer the most poverty because they do not have power to fight poverty. Many think that women rights are only in countries where religion is a law, such as Muslim countries but also in other places around the world. Women faces with challenges around the world including discrimination, unequal treatment in society and sexual abuse. This should not be happening to women in the world. Women rights is a global concern because women are the one who gift birth, they have in their hands the survival of the next generation.

            There are many victims of this social justice issue about women in Afghanistan. Women in Afghanistan are “doesn’t get treated in the right way, and doesn’t have enough freedom.” This issue affect individuals by “human trafficking and destroyed the status and safety of afghan women.” According to U.N. “nearly 90 percent of Afghan women suffer from domestic abuse” including sexual abuse and throwing of acid on the face of women. In many countries around the world, women cannot obtain human rights for granted. This issue indirectly affect individuals by limiting their ability to use methods and take out of control over their own bodies. Their husbands or other people hurt harmed or hurt them but they can’t fight back because they need money for them to eat. This issue affect other countries around the world by the products that only found in Afghanistan. This might affect the other countries that are importing products from Afghanistan that are made by women like jewerlies that are exported around the world particularly in the US.

World now is mixed of good and bad. There are people that do not have the right way to be treated and there are people that are VIP or very special who get treated so differently. Women in Afghanistan doesn’t have the right way to be treated as a human and as a women so why would I care? Because I am also a women and I don’t want to feel or to experience the violence that they are fighting on. Why would you care, because we are all human being and we want to be treated as others, we want to be treated equally no one is higher, no one is lower, you are men or women, or you are gay or lesbian , we all want to be treated equally. Women in Afghanistan experiencing violence and they are not treated equally as man, they need help, they need your help and they need the right that they should have. I dare you to do something for the afghan women or to make women and men treated equally.

By: Chelsea Almojuela

Retrieved from

            http://www.womenforwomen.org

McDonalds, M. (2009, April 4). Reuters. Retrieved from 

http://blogs.reuters.com/pakistan/2009/04/04/defending-women-rights-in-  afghanistan-and-pakistan

No To Drugs For A Better Life

A drug is any chemical you take that affects the way your body works. Doctors call a drug addictive if it makes you dependent on the drug. Unpleasant withdrawal symptoms appear unless you take the drug. Addictive drugs also make you crave them - you have an overwhelming urge to continue taking the drug, even after withdrawal symptoms have disappeared. Addictive drugs make you depend on them.  The number of people that are using drugs is on the rise.  A large number of these people are teens.  Teens are the largest users of drugs in Canada.  Many people feels that teen use drugs because they feel it is the cool thing to do, but in truth not all teens just want to look cool.  Teens turn to drugs for many different reasons. One is they want to escape in the reality. Some teens are full of problems and depressions. Drugs can relieve teens stress. Another reason teens use drugs is to fit in and be like their peers. To some teens, using drugs is a way to be liked or accepted by other people.  If a teen does not have a lot of friends and a group of people ask the teen to go smoke-up with them, the teen will most likely agree to go.  Also teens that do not use drugs may be bullied or made fun of because of what they chose not to do.  This may cause teens to start using drugs just so they stop being harassed by their peers.

Drugs are not the solution to every individual’s problems. Well it's wild because youth are getting drawled in easy with this drug trend. For some as soon as you try it, you are hooked and for others there is no interest but we would have work together as a society and encourage those who do drugs that drugs are NOT good. Don't be scared let them know or you can lose a friend. Drugs can’t let you have a good life. Drugs will never make your life in success. Drugs don’t give a good life in you. Don’t waste your life in drugs. Better stop before it’s too late. Many opportunities are coming to every individual. Do you want to waste it in your young age?

http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/WhoAmI/FindOutMore/Yourbrain/Howdodrugsaffectyourbrain/Whatisadrug.aspx

http://hrsbstaff.ednet.ns.ca/engramja/projects&evals/sem2_mag5/magazine/drugs_eassy.htm

http://nif.websitetoolbox.com/post/WHY-TEENS-DO-DRUGS-1781766

By: Katrine Martinez

The Affects Media Has on Teens

            “The effect media has on a teenagers' body image is immeasurable. Each year, thousands of teenagers use diet and exercise to conform to an image that has been created by the media.”

            Teenagers see over 25,000 ads in a year and it affects their thinking. Males and females both see plenty of ads in a day and over 70% of those claim attractiveness as a reason to lose weight. Teenagers start to think they need to buy the latest product, have muscular body, or be tall and fit to be happy.

            At least one out of every four advertisements sends a message about attractiveness. Teens see these messages and advertisements every day and once they think they need to look that way they can start ruining their body to represent this image they would think is normal. Teens have lower self esteem if their bodies don't measure up to the image they think is right.

More Information at: http://teens.lovetoknow.com/The_Effects_Media_Has_on_Teenagers_Body_Image

By: Zach Altose

Human Trafficking

      Human trafficking is a huge global concern. Humans are the second most trafficked "product" in the black market [internationally], surpassed only by drugs. Many people realize it’s occurring but assume that it’s not happening in Canada. They’re wrong! Canada is known worldwide as a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children who are being trafficked for the intentions of prostitution and forced labour. Eight hundred thousand people are trafficked across international borders annually, mostly women and children destined for sex trade. Children as young as nine are being sexually exploited and by the age of eleven to twelve they are being forced into prostitution. Approximately 80 percent of human trafficking victims are women and girls, and up to 50 percent are minors. A real life example of this horrible crime in Canada takes place with a fifteen year old girl. She’d been abducted from her parents, her name had been changed and been trafficked to Calgary. She was sold up to twelve times a day, seven day a week. Over a three year period her captor acquired roughly three hundred and sixty thousand dollars. This issue is growing and becoming more serious every day! Want to learn more about this topic and find out ways to fight against it? Go to: http://4mycanada.ca/HumanTrafficking.html

By: Kyra-Dawn Thomas