This week my assignment is to write about how myself or someone I know was affected by any of the following: war, poverty, hunger, natural disasters, racism, isolation, noise, chaos, disease, environmental pollution, or violence. Fortunately, I have not had to deal with any of these horrible things in my life. My mother's brother died of leukemia when I was about 2 1/2 and while it did not affect me directly at the time, it had a profound effect on my mother and her family. It is something that is still very difficult for them to talk about and there remains an emotional grief that I do not believe has been adequately dealt to this day. While I have not experienced any of the things on above, my parents divorced when I was about 5 or 6 and it was very difficult on my sisters and I because of the things that the adults in our life were going through. I was sent to live with my grandmother for a time as I was in school, my sisters were not yet. Being away from my mother was difficult and it remains a time that is vivid in my memory. It took my mother a long time to recover from her divorce and to get back on her feet and of course this had a huge impact on my sisters and me. Without getting into specifics, times were very hard emotionally and it was very stressful on us me, as I was the oldest and responsible to help with my younger sisters.
The second part of this assignment was to pick a part of the world and the stressors children face there. I would have picked Taiwan, but it is an industrialized country and I did not think that their stressors are very much different than ours. So I thought about where children are facing the worst kinds of stressors. Somalia came to mind. Somalia is a worn torn country on the Horn of Africa, bordered on the east by the Indian Ocean and the countries of Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya to the west and south. Somalia has been in constant chaos and anarchy since the early 1990's. Warlords and Islamist militias have battled each other. Droughts have plagued the area for decades. According to UNICEF (2013), children in this country face the worst kind of deprivation and abuse in the world due to "restrictions on humanitarian access, reduced coping mechanisms, poor performance of crops, lack of access to markets, restriction of commercial and population movements, lack of income generating opportunities, and deep rooted poverty. High prices present the overriding barrier to food access." 1 in 10 Somali children die before their first birthday; Somalia has the largest population of unvaccinated children. As they grow up, they face poverty, war, drought, hunger, disease, chaos and violence. Boys are recruited as child soldiers, girls face early marriage and genital mutilation. Obviously, repeated exposure to all of these stressors is going to take a toll on these children's development. We know that stress affects the brain and traumatic or stressful events can cause major depression, PTSD, and ADD/Hyperactivity, and other physical, mental and emotional disorders and brain damage.
Considering that we live in relative safety and security in this country, it is extremely difficult to imagine that so many children face these horrible things on a daily basis. It really makes us put our own stressors in perspective.
References:
UNICEF. (2013). The situation of women and children in Somalia. Retrieved from http://www.unicef.org/somalia/children.html
Beth Ann,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your post to your blog. I agree with you on the fact that basically in America we feel safe for the most part and have a better chance at providing our children with their needs and wants. We often get lost in the midst of things and not really realize what others are going through that is ten times more traumatic that what our families are going through. I am like you on the fact that I hate to imagine how life is for those babies in other countries. They do not feel a sense of safety or security and are basically trying to stay alive. However, with so many stressors on them they do not know which way to turn or what to do. Just a day in our shoes would be a dream come true for some of them in which they would be able to receive the best resources, services, and health care possible. I just hope that one day things will change for them in which they are able to live in peace.
Yes, I also talked about the devastating situation in Somalia and how it has impacted mothers and their children. the family unit has been broken because the men usually have to go back and farm and try to make a better life for their families if and when they become reunited.
ReplyDeleteI was watching a movie about a littlr boy who was part of a drug family. The boy did not use drugs but learned how to distribute these drugs by watching his family. He was no older than 10 or 11. This boy knew how to diguise his fears and his feelings but the end of the movie he finally broke down in tears. My heart broke as I watched this movie because even though it was not real, totally fictional, some where it is for some young boy or girl.
ReplyDeleteWar-stricken lands have the same effect on young children. Kids live in environments that to them, feels like everyday life. This is their reality, like the boy's drug environment in the movie. I understand ptsd well, having been dianosed with it myself having let a very abusive marriage. Your reality, is your reality and you know nothing different until someone says, this is not normal however they deserve more.
My thoughts and prays go out to the children of Somalia. They deserve a better day.
Thank you for sharing
BethAnn, you make great points and you bring up a good issue to know about. We are very fortunate in America and I feel that so many don't realize how fortunate we are. It really does put our lives and "problems" in perspective when you understand just how bad so many countries have it. Some children only know war and its effects on the environment around them. Thank you for bring up such an eye opening subject.
ReplyDelete~Jalice K.
You're right. When you read about children in countries like Somalia, who are struggling just to live, it puts things into perspective. Those of us who live in and grew up in American know that we have our fair share of societal issues, but when compared to countries where every day you are just doing what you can to try to make it to the next day makes our issues seem less insurmountable.
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