VIOLENCE
I live in the northern part of Nigeria which in the past
decade has been a flash point for so many religious conflicts between the two
major religions: Islam and Christianity. I lived in kaduna at the time which
has been having inter-religious conflicts as far back as 1987. The particular
incident I want to talk about happened during one of the worst part of the
conflict which occurred in February, 2000.
On the first day of the conflict, my little nephew was in
school when the maiming started. The school is a walking distance from our
home. On his way back, he met a lot of dead bodies piled up on the way. He
witnessed people being hacked to death on the streets. This had a huge impact
on him as he developed so many phobias, lost appetite and had frequent
nightmares. It was a traumatic event for him.
Unfortunately at that time, little professional help was
offered to him. This is due to the fact that in Nigeria we don’t usually
consider such stressors as significant enough to seek professional help.
Families believed that the effects from such events were temporary and the
children will eventually forget them. At that time all we could do was try to
explain to him that those people doing such things were bad people and that
they would be arrested by the police. We assured him that the people were not
dead and are in the hospital responding to treatment. Though prompted by
regular gunshots, we tried to act as if everything is normal. So in essence, we
offered a kind of psychosocial approach to help ease his seeming confusion. As
he grew older, he let us know that all our attempts to change his mind at that
moment were all in vain as he saw through all of our maneuvers.
Many children do undergo many stressors during early
childhood that have an impact on them later in life. These children, especially
in sub-Saharan Africa get little or no help. I will try to raise awareness on
this issue with the knowledge I now have about the psychosocial development of
children.
THE CHILDREN OF SOMALIA
Somalia, a regular appearance in many news stations because
of the ongoing conflict that has been ravaging the country for so many
decades.Also adding to the problem is the increase in the frequency of drought
in eastern Africa. Growing up, it was probably one of the most infamous
conflicts in Africa. The picture of malnourished children has always had a huge
impact on me. It was as if I was in a different part of Africa. As usual in all
conflicts, women and children bear the brunt of the conflict more than any
other group in the population.
Somalia is what I describe as having a “salad” of stressors.
This stressors work in a viscous cycle, each intricately connected and mutually
magnifying the other. Poverty, violence, hunger, disease, pollution are just a
few among some of the hardships that are faced by Somali children. An unstable
polity coupled with lack of health facilities has made Somali children to have
one of the highest incidences of under-five mortality and morbidity in the
world.
So many interventions have been made in Somalia to put the
country back on track. Most of the interventions that have been put in place
are to restore security, peace and order which is crucial and upon which all
other interventions will try. So many non-governmental organizations, usually
with external funding, have been involved in provision of food and health
services. This has greatly helped in providing a means of help for the people.
Also, Somalis themselves have been developing programs to help themselves.
REFERENCES
4. http://www.unicef.org/somalia/children.html
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