I chose the Middle East and North Africa region
because of it’s current status in the news with all of the war and turmoil
happening in this region. I am interested to learn what children are
experiencing in these nations.
The nations in this region are:
Clean drinking water and other sanitation needs
HIV (Aids) Epidemics
Low birth weights
Anemia
Lack of fresh foods
Chronic Malnutrition
Access to education Or Children refusing education for the need to work
to earn money for the family
Refugee camps
Family’s separation
Families in transitional housing
Teachers being trained on psychosocial support
Emotional Distress of children following emergencies
Lack of vaccinations - Polio
epidemic, Measles
Unsafe living conditions (homes that are in rubble)
Female genital cutting
Child labor (All of the above learned from UNICEF,
2011) . These challenges affect children in this region in many ways. Negative early experiences can impair children’s mental health and effect their cognitive, behavioral, social-emotional development (Trustees of Columbia University, 2010). Children in the Middle East are experiencing many of these risk factors all at the same time. When a child has lost a parent to death or displacement, they could have attachment disorders. “Attachment is an important marker for social-emotional development. Poor attachment, especially maternal attachment, can negatively impact children’s social-emotional health, and development (Trustees of Columbia University, 2010). Children in this region are in the fight or flight mode. Some are fighting to stay alive the best they can and some are fleeing to where they think they will have a better life – both are delaying physical, cognitive, and social growth the children need and gain from having a stable home life.
My heart aches for these children
and all of the turmoil they have experienced at such a young age. As a mother, reading the things these
children go through puts my children’s life into perspective. Just today I was
frustrated with my son ignoring some of my requests and my daughter was
over-emotional about everything today. I
snapped a few times and I feel terrible about it. My children are loved, they
have two adoring parents, they have more food than they could ever want, they
have a nice warm/cool home, they have age appropriate toys to challenge them,
they have clothing, technology, and “peace” in their world.
When I think about the
students I work with, they come from
homes with turmoil – different than what the children of the middle east are
experience, but still turmoil. My
children are experiencing divorce, homelessness, hunger (not to this extreme
but…), fear in their safety as well as their mothers/siblings etc. The children I teach are living in states of
turmoil and this activity has definitely made me step back and realize that
they need the basics before I can help them. They need to feel safe and loved
first and then learning can occur.
References
Trustees of Columbia University, The. (2010). National
Center Center for Children Children in PovertyPoverty (NCCP). Retrieved from: http://www.nccp.org/publications/pub_882.html
UNICEF (2011). Retrieved from:
http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/
Danielle,
ReplyDeleteYour post really shows how most of us in America cannot truly relate to the extreme of issues people face in other parts of the world. Most of us will never really know extreme starvation or the inability to have clean drinking water. Although we face many problems in America I cannot even image how difficult it would be not to know when your next meal will be or if you will have clean water to drink. In America we do have people living with some of these issues but many times it has been because of their own choices. Unfortunately adults make poor decisions and bring children into these difficult situations. In America if you are at least trying and seek out help for food and shelter many times it can be found. I do not believe that is true for many of the other parts of the world.
Danielle,
ReplyDeleteI am a female and I am disgusted that this type of custom is being put into practice. The fact that Middle East and North Africa’s society puts social pressure for their daughter to endure Female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) is disgraceful, outrageous, disgusting, and repulsive. “FGM/C may cause severe pain and can result in prolonged bleeding, infection, infertility and even death” (UNICEF, 2015). I tried to look at some pictures on the Internet of the procedure, but had to close the page because I became too nauseated. UNICEF is dedicated to stopping this epidemic and our society needs to be more proactive as well. “If rates of decline seen in the past three decades are sustained, the impact of population growth means that up to 63 million more girls could be cut by 2050” (UNICEF, 2015). It is depressing.
Reference
UNICEF. (2015). Female genital mutilation/cutting. Retrieved from http://www.unicef.org/protection/57929_58002.html