The ongoing budget debates in Washington taking place under the ominous cloud of sequester will likely tell us a lot about who we are as a nation. Difficult decisions have a way of exposing the most basic core of our collective character, and how we deal with the hard choices...

The federal tax code has long provided an incentive for charitable giving. And yet, the modest adjustments made to U.S. payroll taxes, an uptick of 2 percent that returns the rate to 2010 levels, could have more than a moderate impact on what people donate to nonprofits. In fact, if...

Last month's tragedy in Connecticut has precipitated profound discussions on a number of topics. Foremost among them: how can we better protect our children? It is a question that I have been asking for more than 30 years, not only on occasions of such calamity and heartbreak, but on a...

Children in 47 countries weigh in with green priorities, concerns

"Children," offered Desmond Tutu, "have an extraordinary capacity to see into the heart of things." That wisdom is the foundation for our annual survey of children around the world. The third annual Small Voices, Big...

The merchandising of the holidays has descended on us again this year, perhaps earlier and more ubiquitous than ever before. But if it succeeds in infusing our days that much sooner with the underlying spirit of what this time of year is supposed to be all about -- more about...

As a practical matter, the ever-shorter days of autumn -- for most of us -- offer only modest inconvenience. Once the sun has dipped beyond the horizon, we instinctively reach for the "on" switch, illuminating our evenings and nights so that we can extend our waking hours beyond the sun's.

The school day for a child in a developing country is a far cry from what our kids experience here at home.

The advent of a new school year brings with it an uplifting sense of hopefulness, a sentiment that knows no geographic boundaries. For students throughout the world, this...

Fear over Ebola is understandable, given communication challenges

It's more than 7,000 miles between Uganda and our Atlantic shores, and so if the recent outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus there seems unthreatening and distant to Americans, I suppose that's understandable. Even the name of the virus, named after the...

How two men from divergent backgrounds wound up on the same path.

Gene Simmons has lived most of his professional life behind a mask. Veiled in his signature black-and-white makeup, the celebrated KISS guitarist has full license to embrace his rock 'n' roll persona. On stage, his concerts are an...

Among the cruelest of ironies may be this fact: countries least prepared to deal with natural disasters seem the most susceptible to them. The earthquake in Haiti, the typhoon in the Philippines, the floods in Thailand -- collectively they killed thousands of people, left many more homeless and put a...

With Mother's Day come and gone, it is an apt occasion for asking some hard questions. Of all of the objectives to help lift the world's poorest people out of poverty, why has progress toward improving the health of mothers been the most elusive? Given the risks involved in childbirth,...

Some months back we joined with the alliance of ChildFund sister agencies around the world in commissioning a global survey of the world's poorest children. We asked 10- to 12-year-olds in more than 30 developing countries a series of questions about their lives, giving voice to children whose...

Threats to the world's children come in many forms.

I am one of the 80 million people who have watched the Kony video, and I will confess to being absolutely riveted by it, although not for the reasons you might think. Yes, I was moved and incensed by the atrocities...

A few weeks ago, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a dire but largely dispassionate report on the economic impact that child maltreatment has on the United States. A team of researchers examined domestic child maltreatment cases for the year 2008 and calculated all of...

For world's poorest children, everyday life could qualify as natural disaster.

The New Year is as much about looking backward as ahead. After all, the past holds perhaps the most abiding lessons. And so as I reflected recently on 2011, chief among the challenges I contemplated were the pulverizing body...

Yet children set their sights high, global survey finds.

One of the comforting prerogatives of childhood is the permission to dream. When we are young, our aspirations soar as high as we let them, unbound by the restrictions and limitations that come with passage into the adult world. And so...

During a recent trip to Kenya, I met a young boy named Lomoru. He told me that he was about four years old the last time a good rain came to his village. Now, a decade later, the barren road to the remote part of northern Kenya he calls home...

Much has been made of the graying of America, the seismic demographic shift taking place in this country as tens of millions of Baby Boomers place unprecedented demands on our retirement and healthcare systems.

And yet there is another demographic explosion taking place that portends far more demanding consequences....

Our work with children around the world has a common partner: mothers.

With Mother's Day soon upon us, it's an apt time to recognize the role that mothers play within the developing world. Their burdens are profound and their sacrifices unending. So many mothers in every country bear the...

Perhaps not since the days of European imperialism has the world's focus been directed so keenly on Africa. Uprisings are sweeping across the continent's northern coast, already having toppled autocrats in Tunisia and Egypt. The leaders in Libya, Algeria and Morocco now find themselves uncomfortably in the crosshairs.

As the...