Uganda Women's Network (UWONET) is looking for dynamic, self-motivated, organised, innovative and outgoing individual to work for its focal point, the Secretariat, which is the nerve centre of the Network.

EDITORIAL: Issa Shivji on development discourse from colonial to neo-liberal times
COMMENT&ANALYSIS:
- Protocol on the Rights of Women conference builds power for women’s rights
- Using the law to realise women’s rights
- Negotiation as a tool for implementing the rights of women
LETTERS: Discussing forest pirates
BLOGGING AFRICA: Christianity in Nigeria, the aid industry, democracy in Kenya and referendums in Algeria
CONFLICT AND EMERGENCIES: News from DRC, Sudan and Uganda
HUMAN RIGHTS: NGO forum in Zimbabwe releases political violence report
REFUGEES: UNHCR agrees to assume global responsibility for IDP protection
ELECTIONS: Countdown to October 11 poll in Liberia
WOMEN AND GENDER: Perceptions of the Darfur community on the effects of the conflict on women and girls
DEVELOPMENT: Social forums continue to build opposition to neo-liberalism
RACISM AND XENOPHOBIA: Racism in South African schools
ENVIRONMENT: Corporate control over food chain deepens
AND…Links and resources on the Media, Internet, Fundraising, Courses, Jobs and Books.

Only 12 of 53 African countries have abolished the death penalty. On occasion of the World Day Against the Death Penalty, on October 10th, different NGOs, all members of the World Coalition against the death penalty are organizing different actions against the death penalty. You may also send letters to the different governments still practising such a penalty or you may sign a petition-appeal to the Governments of Africa at: http://www.abolition.fr/ecpm/french/petitionscoalitiongb.php?ref=11

On 29 September at Wits University, over 400 trade unionists gathered to pay tribute to 100 of their number who have successfully graduated from a demanding one year advanced trade union education programme. The programme, which is formally accredited by Wits University, is provided by the union-owned Development Institute for Training, Support and Education for Labour (DITSELA). Ditsela is Sotho for Pathways, and its slogan is 'Pathways to a Strong Labour Movement'. It is set to celebrate its tenth birthday next year, and has been responsible for providing training for literally thousands of worker leaders over this period. Though primarily funded by the Department of Labour, it is an independent learning institute that is owned and controlled by COSATU and FEDUSA, the two largest federations in the country.

EDITORIAL: There’s lots of rhetoric but little cash for human rights, notes Vinodh Jaichand
COMMENT&ANALYSIS: Three inspiring stories from the DRC, Argentina and The Philippines on how SMS is being used to confront power
- Issa Shivji critiques the myths behind the arguments for privatisation
- Human rights standards need to be applied in the US response to Hurricane Katrina, says Khalil Tian Shahyd in response to Mukoma Wa Ngugi’s article two weeks ago
PAN-AFRICAN POSTCARD: Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem remembers two Nigerian activists who died during September
CONFLICT&EMERGENCIES: Warning over DRC tension; Sudan peace efforts slammed
HUMAN RIGHTS: Adoption of an international treaty against forced disappearances a step forward, says rights groups
REFUGEES&FORCED MIGRATION: UNHCR helps South Africa tackle huge asylum backlog
ELECTIONS&GOVERNANCE: Somaliland elections go unnoticed
WOMEN&GENDER: Groups dismayed by “shameful lack of political will” at UN summit
DEVELOPMENT: EU Urged to Halt Regional Agreements
HEALTH&HIV/AIDS: ARV’s and the big pharmaceutical party in Africa
EDUCATION: Free schooling starts with huge logistical problems
ENVIRONMENT: Kenyan MP wary of GM crop trials
MEDIA&FXI: Free expression groups to mark global right to know day
PLUS…News about the internet, advocacy campaigns, courses, jobs and books and art.

This year, the International Day of Older Persons (October 1st) comes at a time when a lot has been achieved for and by older people in Africa. Older people have asked to be recognised as effective agents of change and contributors to the aims and aspiration of Millennium Development Goals. Indeed, if the poorest of the poor, including older people, are not targeted for assistance in the quest to halve poverty by 2015, the MDGs may not be achieved.

September 30 is International Day of Solidarity with Haiti. The September 30th Foundation calls on people to mark the day by:
1. Make September 30, 2005 an international day of solidarity with the Haitian people.
2. Organize activities in the major cities of the world on Friday, September 30, 2005, denouncing the dictatorship and the repression in Haiti.
3. Denounce and condemn the dictatorship and the US/UN repression in Haiti.
4. Put in place an International Coalition to work for the return of democracy in Haiti, and for the return of the President elected by the people.
5. Establish a fund, administered by the September 30th Foundation, to support the victims of the repression in Haiti.

The MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY coalition expressed dismay at the prospect of the 2005 World Summit failing to honour commitments to tackle global poverty. The Summit takes place in New York from 14 to 16 September. The meeting was scheduled five years ago at the Millennium Summit with the purpose of assessing progress on the promises they made to tackle global poverty and to decide on further steps. The current agenda, however, indicates that progress on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) will not be examined; and now even mention of the goals is being put at risk.

With only 24 hours left before the United Nations World Summit, African Campaigners organised a last minute meeting with African leaders on the African position. African grassroots campaigners and civil society play an important role in the Global Call to Action against Poverty (G-CAP). This movement represents the biggest anti-poverty campaign in the world. The consultation will discuss the importance of securing commitments on trade, wider debt cancellation, increased and better financing for development. Other issues to be tabled include better quality education, health, water and other public services and protection of people from genocide, crimes against humanity and promote gender equality and women’s empowerment. The consultation which will be moderated by Brian Kagoro (Africa Region Action Aid –Policy Advisor) will also focus on the last minute negotiations and the review of the Millennium Declaration.

ActionAid International is looking for a committed and focused individual for the Regional HIV&AIDS Policy and Advocacy Officer position. ActionAid International's Global Strategy has HIV&AIDS as one of our Thematic priorities.

SANGONeT is a dynamic NGO providing a wide range of information communication technology (ICT) services to people and organisations promoting social and economic development in the Southern African region. In the past two years SANGONeT has expanded the focus and scope of its ICT advocacy activities. These include the introduction of Thetha: The SANGONeT ICT Discussion Forum and SANGONeT's Annual "ICTs for Civil Society" Conference and Exhibition. Both these initiatives will henceforth focus on Southern African ICT advocacy issues.

In search of MDG progress

In September 2000, 189 world leaders adopted the Millennium Declaration. They committed to "free all men, women and children from the abject and dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty".

In pursuit of this noble end, eight Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) were developed to: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; Achieve universal primary education; Promote gender equality and empower women; Reduce child mortality; Improve maternal health; Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; Ensure environmental sustainability; and Develop a global partnership for development. The deadline set for achieving these goals was 2015.

From 14-16 September 2005, the United Nations will host a Millennium+5 Summit to evaluate the progress towards the MDGs. Perhaps not surprisingly in a world where global agreements are not often worth the paper they are written on, world leaders will find a litany of broken promises and lack of political commitment. In Africa, it is estimated that some of the goals won’t be met until the middle half of the next century, at current rates of progress.

It doesn’t look like world leaders are likely to make any great efforts to change this rate of progress. A draft declaration for a UN text on the MDGs looks unlikely to get agreement after the US made demands that are seen by some as a reversal of the draft declaration and difficult to accommodate.

This week, our collection of articles in the Editorial and Comment and Analysis sections, tackle the MDGs, examining them from the perspective of aid dependency, women’s rights, and their application to grassroots communities. Throughout many of the articles, a clear trend emerges. Without debt cancellation, fair terms of trade and increased resource flows, Africa is unlikely to achieve the MDGs.

EDITORIAL: Demba Moussa Dembele explains the hidden political and economic costs of the aid dependency syndrome
COMMENT&ANALYSIS:
- The MDGs can advance women’s rights only if they adopt a rights-based approach, argues Yifat Susskind
- Esther Mwaura-Muiru goes looking for the role of grassroots communities in the MDGs
- The MDGs might be flawed but “they’re all we’ve got and they’re worth striving for” says Ezra Mbogori
- Cancellation of debt, increased resource flows and fair trade are needed to make the MDGs a reality, writes Charles Mutasa
- It’s not all doom and gloom, Hellen Tombo believes. Some of the MDGs can be achieved
- Rebecca Ajabo Asaba wonders how many hundreds of years Africa will have to wait before the global economic, financial and trade architecture is restructured
- Find out how Egypt, Ethiopia, Nigeria, South Africa and Zambia are doing in their efforts to reach the MDGs
LETTERS: Capitalism as genocide, indigenous as relevant, poverty and injustice
PAN-AFRICAN POSTCARD: Hurricane Katrina could teach the US that it is a co-tenant in the world and not a landlord, writes Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem
- The US response to Katrina, links for further information and fundraising sources
BLOGGING AFRICA: Bloggers get poetic
GLOBAL CALL TO ACTION AGAINST POVERTY: 300 000 say NO! to poverty in Accra, find out about an event near you for White Band Day 2, Use your cellphone to demand an end to poverty
CONFLICT&EMERGENCIES: Hunger threatens southern Africa
HUMAN RIGHTS: Rich countries hold world hostage on human rights
REFUGEES: Improving decision-making in asylum determination
WOMEN&GENDER: Progress of the world's women 2005: women, work & poverty
DEVELOPMENT: UN MDG report urges global leaders to avoid 'one more empty promise'
HEALTH&HIV/AIDS: In search of an HIV/AIDS vaccine
ENVIRONMENT: Export subsidies for dams: a Trojan horse for environmental destruction
ADVOCACY&CAMPAIGNS: Sign a letter to President of Botswana Festus Mogae urging him to reverse his expulsion of academic Prof. Kenneth Good
PLUS…Internet, Courses, Fundraising, Jobs and Books.

"President Mogae, we urge you to reconsider and – if only on moral and humanitarian grounds – to revoke your earlier decision to declare Prof. Good a prohibited immigrant. Let him allow to return to his workplace and home. Allow him to finish his contractual obligations with the University of Botswana until the end of 2006. This would also allow him to reunite with his daughter, who by then will be able to complete her schooling in Gaborone. Show your citizens and the wider world that the notion of good governance is not a foreign word to you and that academic freedom and the freedom of opinion are precious goods protected by your government."

EDITORIAL: Capitalism has presided over some horrific genocides, notes Jacques Depelchin
COMMENT&ANALYSIS:
- Shola Oshodi discusses gender and development
- People in rich countries are being lied to about the causes of African famine, says Judith Amanthis
- Indigenous communities must be recognized in Africa, argues Angela N. Khaminwa
LETTERS: On Zimbabwe’s debt, making poverty history, in support of Chidi Anselm Odinkalu and the other side of John Garang
PAN-AFRICAN POSTCARD: Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem asks why Nigeria can’t get its act together
BLOGGING AFRICA: A roundup of commentary from African blogs
BOOKS AND ARTS: Chenjerai Hove says freedom of expression should also mean freedom after expression
GLOBAL CALL TO ACTION AGAINST POVERTY: The GCAP coalition is mobilizing for the United Nations Millennium +5 review
CONFLICTS AND EMERGENCIES: Links to news about DRC, Niger, Sudan and Zimbabwe
HUMAN RIGHTS: Remembering the slave trade and the international day of the disappeared
REFUGEES AND FORCED MIGRATION: UN endorses new guidelines on property rights of displaced persons
WOMEN AND GENDER: SADC summit presents many challenges for gender equality
ELECTIONS AND GOVERNANCE: UN reform unlikely, plus links to news on Egypt, Kenya, Liberia and Nigeria
DEVELOPMENT: African civil society speaks on the road to Hong Kong
HEALTH AND HIV/AIDS: Nestle hammered over breast milk substitutes; responding to the health workforce crisis in Chad
MEDIA: "Idiots like you will be killed one by one" Ivory Coast newspaper editor told
AND…Sections on Advocacy, Internet, Fundraising, Courses and Jobs.

SAY NO TO POVERTY

Support the Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP). Text ‘NO TO POVERTY’ and your comments with your name and surname to

+27 82 904 3425

Your message will be posted on the website and used to demonstrate support for the GCAP movement.

Swazi King Mswati III has announced he will abandon a campaign meant to combat the spread of HIV by urging virgin girls to remain abstinent, coinciding with the release of a Ministry of Health and Social Welfare study showing that 29% of Swazi teens are HIV-positive, the SAPA/Independent reports. No official reason was given as to why the campaign is ending a year ahead of schedule, but it was considered unpopular among young people, according to BBC News.

EDITORIAL:
- A new campaign seeks to put an end to political disappearances in Africa, write Polly Dewhirst and Ewoud Plate
- Pambazuka News comment: Why did the G8 and international agencies say and do nothing about the crisis brewing in Niger during the recent Live 8 extravaganza?
COMMENT AND ANALYSIS:
- Abdelbagi Jibril reviews the life of John Garang and assesses the chances for peace in Sudan
- Tristen Taylor and Simon Delaney explain the legal minefield that must be negotiated in South Africa in order to exercise the right to protest
- Is there a life after office for ex-presidents in Africa? Henning Melber investigates
LETTERS: Readers on mass struggles, being divided to death by EPAs and Charles Taylor in Nigeria
BLOGGING AFRICA: Read the second edition of our column on the African blogosphere by Sokari Ekine
CONFLICT AND EMERGENCIES: Famine in Niger and Mali; Army officers take power in Mauritania; Violence in Khartoum following Garang’s death
HUMAN RIGHTS: Human rights and the WTO; DRC rights campaigner murdered at home
WOMEN AND GENDER: Call for more women’s rights protocol ratifications
ELECTIONS AND GOVERNANCE: Mugabe goes east and goes home; Of stuffed ballots and empty stomachs in Zimbabwe
DEVELOPMENT: Discontent on WTO talks; Structural injustice and the MDGs in Zambia
CORRUPTION: Making the G8 accountable
MEDIA: Journalists’ group calls for change in Egypt
INTERNET: Blogging and podcasting come to Africa
PLUS…Email newsletters, Fundraising and Useful Resources, Courses, Jobs, Books and Art...

Imagine your loved one simply “disappeared”. You approach the local authorities and are met with blank stares. Years later you are still searching, wondering what happened to them or whether they are still alive. “Disappearances” have long been used as a brutal tactic of repressive regimes. In Africa, it has been documented that disappearances have taken place in 25 out of 47 countries in the region. But now a new campaign is calling for the speedy finalisation of a UN Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances. It’s critical that families of the disappeared, civil society organizations and individual human rights activists in Africa get involved in the campaign, say Polly Dewhirst and Ewoud Plate.

Enforced disappearances are an ongoing worldwide phenomenon. While the exact numbers for and extent of disappearances in Africa is not known, estimates clearly run into the tens of thousands. After twenty years of debate, the United Nations is now poised to finalise an international treaty to deal with disappearances in September 2005. It is critical that African civil society organizations and families of the disappeared join the debate and ensure that this international legal instrument becomes a reality and addresses the needs of African victims.

The United Nations currently defines a disappearance as the deprivation of a person’s liberty, in whatever form or for whatever reason, brought about by agents of the State (or by persons or groups acting with authorization, acquiescence or support of the State) followed by an absence of information or refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or information, or concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person. It is the combination of the two main elements - the deprivation of liberty and the following refusal to admit by authorities to have anything to do with it - that make this practice particularly perverse.

Disappearances are considered ongoing crimes which should by their nature not be subject to prescription or statutes of limitation. The crime only comes to an end when the truth about the fate of the disappeared is revealed and the remains returned. The psychological consequences of this ongoing crime on the family members of the person made to disappear are enormous. Relatives are often trapped in an ongoing cycle of hope and despair about the fate of their loved ones and find it hard to find closure that is possible for victims and survivors of other human rights violations. Disappearances are very damaging for a civil society as a whole, as they are almost always committed with the purpose of repressing political opponents. When someone disappears, their entire family and sometimes community is terrorized, silenced and isolated from society.

The phenomenon of disappearances first came to light in the 1970s when it was used by repressive regimes in Latin America - notably in Chile and Argentina where thousands of political opponents of the Pinochet regime and Videla junta were detained and disappeared. Since then the practice has been become widely used by repressive governments around the world. In Sri Lanka alone an estimated 60 000 people have disappeared since the mid-1980s. More recently disappearances have been perpetrated in the former Yugoslavia, Iraq, Indonesia, Nepal, India (Kashmir), Burma and Colombia.

Disappearances have long taken place in all parts of Africa. In a preliminary research done by the Dutch project Linking Solidarity, disappearance cases were reported in 25 of 47 countries in the region, with eight of these countries reporting disappearances taking place on a large scale. These disappearances took place under differing circumstances. For instance in Algeria an estimated 3000 people have been disappeared since 1993 after being arrested by security forces. South African civil society organizations and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission have documented over 1500 apartheid-era cases. Thousands of persons have disappeared and continue to disappear in the large-scale conflicts of the DRC, Rwanda, Burundi and Angola as well in the less-publicised conflicts in places like Chad, Congo-Brazzaville and Cameroon. Despite the hard work of civil society organizations in some countries, it is very hard to pin down exact figures and very little formal information and documentation of disappearances currently exists. Sadly this lack of information has impacted badly at the international level where disappearances are not seen as an African issue.

Since 1981 the Latin American Federation of Associations of Relatives of Disappeared-Detainees (FEDEFAM) with strong assistance of international human rights organizations have struggled to have disappearances recognized as a crime against humanity and for the creation of a binding international instrument to stop and prevent them. Their pressure during the 1980s was successful: the UN adopted a Declaration on the question of disappearances in 1992 (which is a legally non-binding instrument). Two years later the Organization of American States adopted a Convention that is a binding treaty but only applies to the Latin American countries that ratified it. Since then family members of disappeared from Asia, Africa, Europe and the Middle East have joined them in a world movement campaigning for improving the means in international law to address the problem of disappearances everywhere where that violation occurred or could occur.

But the discussions and the drafting attempts of the text of a legally binding instrument with a universal scope stagnated for almost a whole decade, before they got re-launched and entered into its final stage three years ago at a meeting of UN Open-Ended Working Group tasked with developing this instrument. This working group has now met several times and will meet again in September this year. It is hoped that the country delegations conforming this UN working group will adopt a final text for the instrument so that it can be adopted by the Commission on Human Rights and the General Assembly of the United Nations next year. It is important that African families of the disappeared, civil society organisations and governments enter this debate and ensure that a strong and effective instrument is finalised, adopted and ratified by States as soon as possible.

The Importance of a Disappearance Convention for Africa

The instrument is important for Africa in many ways. Firstly the new treaty will fill in many gaps in existing international legal framework for the protection against enforced disappearances. The instrument will remedy the weakness or absence of norms by creating a wide range of obligations for the States that will ratify it.

The existing human rights norms at the international level prove to be particularly weak for the African continent. The African Charter of Human and Peoples’ Rights does not contain any reference to enforced disappearances, which leaves the African Commission of Human rights ill-equipped to address disappearances case as such. Ratifying the new UN instrument will be a first recognition of the specificity and the particular seriousness of the violation of enforced disappearance by African governments.

In international criminal law, the only reference to enforced disappearance is to be found in the Rome Statutes establishing the International Criminal Court (ICC). The ICC only recognizes enforced disappearances as a crime against humanity (that is when disappearances occur as part of a ‘massive and generalised attack against the civilian population’). There is no norm for disappearances occurring in a non-systematic way. Moreover the ICC only has jurisdiction over cases occurring on the territory of states that have ratified the Rome Statutes. Currently only 27 African countries have ratified the Rome Statute leaving just under half of the content outside its scope.

The most important new obligation set forth in the new treaty is that States will have to include the crime of enforced disappearance in their domestic penal law codes. Unlike Latin America, there is not one African country which has the crime of disappearance defined within its domestic law as a specific offence. The new treaty sets sharp standards that will guide the legislators of countries to adopt legislation that will become a deterrent for any person tempted to participate in the act of disappearing a person.

When ratifying the new instrument, States will have to recognise family members of the disappeared as another category of victims of the violation. States will have to take measures to respond to a right of these relatives to know the truth about the fate of the disappeared and to receive reparation. This reparation has to be interpreted in a very large sense as it will encompass compensation, rehabilitation, and guarantees for non-repetition.

The Role of African Countries in Negotiations

Participation of diplomats from African countries (with the sole exception of Morocco) has been very limited during previous working group sessions. The absence of Africa from discussions can be explained only partly by the typically limited diplomatic staffing of embassies of African countries in Geneva. It can also be attributed to a lack of concern of most African countries with this specific issue, even among countries that have a history of disappearances. Among those African representatives present there seems to be a critical lack of understanding of the technical issues at stake and it often appears that they are speaking without clear instructions from their home ministries.

Sadly most interventions from African countries are not very supportive of the NGO positions favouring a strong and effective document. Their positions often seem to be inspired by the sole concern of African governments to avoid contracting new obligations (especially if those entail financial costs) and not by any apparent solidarity with victims - African or otherwise.

One positive exception was the intervention of South Africa during a session in 2004. It was therefore a disappointment to note their absence from the debate in this year’s first session.

Current debates

Progress has been made on most of the substantive issues in the working group. Although there is consensus on most of the substantial issues, several questions remain open on the agenda of the next and possibly final session of the working group.

Key among these is the working group’s need to find an agreement on the exact wording of a reference to comparable acts to disappearances when committed by non-state actors. A few countries have also demanded a clause allowing states to refuse information about an alleged disappearance to relatives on grounds of ‘state security’. Families and NGOs find this unacceptable and in contradiction with the whole spirit of the instrument.

The group will further have to decide on the form of the instrument and on the monitoring body to be set up to watch over the compliance of states with their obligations under this new instrument. An autonomous convention on disappearances is by no means guaranteed at this point. There has been extensive debate at the UN about addressing the issue of disappearances through an additional protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) rather than a convention in its own right. Family groups and organisations worldwide are opposed to the idea of an additional protocol because it lacks not only the symbolic impact but also the legal and political teeth associated with an autonomous monitoring body.

The establishment of an independent and truly effective monitoring mechanism to deal with disappearance cases is considered a crucial feature of the new instrument. Considering those existing at the universal and regional level the envisaged UN monitoring body should be warmly welcomed by African citizens. Under the proposed convention a monitoring body would be created with powers to request, comment on and follow up reports from specific countries where disappearances may be taking place. Based on these reports it can condemn states and order investigations and even the payment of reparations. It can also organise its own independent inquiries, missions and investigations. This body will also produce an annual report of its activities which will make it more transparent and accountable.

The convention will have great symbolic value and raise awareness for disappearances around the world. Disappearances are a global plague and should receive the same recognition as torture for which the UN created the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment in 1984. Its creation can provide the impetus for African families to speak up about the issue and put pressure on their governments not only to ratify the convention but also to start taking the issue more seriously in their home countries.

* Please contact the authors on the email addresses below if you are interested in getting involved in this campaign. Copies of a campaign letter are also available in French and Spanish. Polly Dewhirst ([email protected]) is the Project Manager at the South African Disappearance Project at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR) in Johannesburg, South Africa http://www.csvr.org.za Ewoud Plate ([email protected]) is the Coordinator of the Project Linking Solidarity at the Humanist Committee on Human Rights, The Netherlands http://www.linkingsolidarity.org

* Please send comments to [email protected]

A national immunisation campaign targeting almost 9 million children has kicked off in Mozambique. The campaign aims to vaccinate children aged between nine months and 14 years against measles; children under five years of age will be vaccinated against polio; children aged six to 59 months will receive vitamin A supplements.

A human rights campaigner and Christian Aid partner who pleaded with Tony Blair for justice in Congo has been murdered in his home. Pascal Kabungulu Kibembi was executive secretary of Heritiers de la Justice, a Christian Aid partner founded in 1991 to challenge the brutal excesses of the then Congolese President Mobutu’s dictatorship. Mr Kibembi, whose uncompromising campaigning put him in the line of fire, was shot in the early hours of Sunday morning by three men who broke into his home in Bukavu in eastern DRC.

Children are often forced to work due to chronic poverty. Globally, work is the main occupation of almost 20 percent of all children aged under 15. This is considered a major obstacle to achieving the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of universal primary education by 2015. Research from the University of Oxford in the UK suggests that child labour is often essential to household survival. Children who do household work release adults from domestic responsibilities to earn a wage; those employed outside the home contribute to family income.