“Children don’t start wars, and they have no power to end wars,
Catherine Russell
but they are the ones who suffer the most.”
Though we have become desensitized to war, with daily reports of catastrophic bomb blasts in the Middle East, Ukraine, and other regions, have we ever noticed that, behind those headlines, a whole world of an innocent child may also be shattered?
Thus, in order to increase the awareness of the world regarding the amount of suffering and trauma that war orphans go through, SOS Enfants en Detresses, a French organization, has introduced the World Day of War Orphans which is commemorated on every 6th of January.
The ruthless war been waged to overcome geographical and political aims of ruling parties, claim innocent lives of people, make them homeless, destroy their natural lifestyle, displace them, and cause traumas that will remain for generations. For instance, the Hiroshima Nagasaki bombing that took place on 1945 still have effects on innocent lives of human beings who even have never witnessed the World War 2.
In every war, the women and the children are considered as the most suffering or fragile part of the community who become widows or orphans and have to spend the rest of their lives lacking the security and protection they used to experience before the war. According to UNICEF, nearly a quarter of the world’s children live in conflict or disaster-stricken countries. Those children may lose their families, their freedom, their access to education and health care, almost every sense of normalcy of their childhood.
Imagine a little child who used to play with their siblings or parents has to witness the tragic deaths of them by his own eyes. Most of the children in conflicting areas see their own parents or siblings dying in front of them which causes indescribable traumas in their pure, innocent minds which only used to see the beauty of world.
The psychological, social and physical impact of a war on orphans are beyond repair. Majority of the orphans tend to live with a remaining parent, grandparent, or any other surviving family member (aunts or uncles) or in the foster care system, where they have to face horrible living conditions. Many cases of child abuses, discriminations, mistreatments and issues like malnutrition are being reported in these situations. The pure hearts of the little children have to suffer from the devastating pains that they even can’t bear. The war orphans experience psychological issues like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety and self-isolation which cause some to never successfully get back to living a healthy normal life.
These impacts of war showcase the cruciality of supporting those innocent children with providing psychological, social and physical assistance. Organizations like UNICEF, the Red Cross, and various NGOs have been actively involved in supporting war orphans to improve their wellbeing. SOS Children’s Villages engage in providing permanent family homes, education, and healthcare for those children who lost their families and homes.
Thus, the World Day of War Orphans raises awareness about the plight of war orphans emphasizing the psychological, social, and physical obstacles that children experience as they grow up. Moreover, it highlights the importance of the general public to be empathetic when reintegrating the orphans into society. By educating the people on the ways that war can impact an orphan, we can uplift and empower those innocent hearts. Thus, “The violence against children, the most vulnerable among us, must end.”
