Consequences of Stress on Child Development

Stress can come from a lot of different places and affect children in so many different ways.  In my community growing up, one of the biggest stresses on  myself and my peers was parental divorce.  My own parents separated when I was thirteen and divorced when I was fifteen.  My twin sisters were nine when my parents separated.  They both responded to my parents' divorce than I did, differences that I can still identify now, twelve years later.

While most of my childhood memories include both parents and the trauma of their divorce tainted only the end of my middle school years, my sisters underwent the transition in the midst of finishing elementary school and entering the stressful times of middle school.  While I was a typical overachieving first born through middle school, my sisters struggled to perform as well, struggled to find acceptance of themselves and from my parents, and struggled to balance different extracurricular activities.  Juggling the back and forth between two households and navigating the relationship between my parents, who have never since gotten along, was very challenging for my sisters as they worked their way through middle school.  They had more identity confusion, more bullying problems, poorer performance in school, and deeper self confidence issues than I ever had.  While some of those problems are probably natural discrepancies between siblings, the timing of my parents' separation had to have also been a factor.  For me, at the end of middle school, my parents never had to attend parent-teacher conferences or dance recitals together, they never navigated who would take me to a sleepover or who would help with a science project.  I was fairly self-sufficient already.  My sisters, on the other hand, had to work out all of those moving parts, while dealing with the natural stresses of middle school, and mediating between two parents acting like small children.

My sisters and I coped with the stress of the divorce by growing incredibly close, especially the two of them.  We also grew much closer to my dad as he became an advocate for us.  Additionally, all three of us were incredibly well supported by my mother's friends, relationships we still hold close today.

Syrian refugees in Lebanon during a winter storm.

© UNICEF Lebanon/Ramzi-Haidar,Bekaa-Al-

Ramzi-Haldar, Bekka-Al. (2015). UNICEF. Retrieved from http://www.unicef.org/appeals/syrianrefugees.html

 Last post, I wrote about the impact of insufficient clean water access for Syrian children in the midst of the civil war and refugee crisis.  As a follow up to that post, I would like to continue to share what stressors could be affecting Syrian child refugees in Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, and Turkey, and what is being done to limit the impact of these stressors on displaced children in the region.  The number of applicable stressors in the lives of these children is seemingly endless: war, poverty, hunger, chaos, disease, violence, and family separation, and even recently, a significant winter storm.

As of this previous December, UNICEF reported 5.6 million children in need within Syria and and additional 1.7 million refugee children in the surrounding nations (UNICEF, 2014).  A strategic response plan has officially been implemented to coordinate relief efforts seeking to aid in the reduction of trauma associated with the war and subsequent displacement.  Trucks are actively working to deliver supplies like family and baby hygiene kits, winter clothes, high energy biscuits, and nutritional supplements.  The coordinated strategic response plan hopes to "focus on building the resilience of families and systems in the longer term to withstand and overcome shocks" (UNICEF, 2014).  In addition, the plan hopes to target 4.5 million children from 3-17 years needing important education interventions, as well as reactivating routine vaccination programs disrupted by the conflict.  Water and nutrition interventions are also in place and looking to expand, especially in treatment of 22,000 severely malnourished children under five (UNICEF, 2014).  Finally, the plan seeks to expand psychosocial support services by building up permanent and mobile spaces friendly to the at-risk adolescent population affected by the crisis (UNICEF, 2014).

In light of the most recent winter storm this past December, UNICEF was able to distribute winter clothing and blankets, heating supplies, and other important resources to 916,200 refugee children, focusing specifically on those in elevated areas or young children.  UNICEF is working hard to provide unmet needs of baby blankets, electric heaters, tents, and heaters in schools (UNICEF, 2015). 

While the developmental needs of these at-risk children are tremendous, and the resources to minimize the impact of these stressors are minimal compared to the task at hand, I do believe tremendous efforts will dampen the long term impacts of the crisis.  Obviously long term education, nutrition, family planning and stability, and other outcomes will suffer, but perhaps not as greatly as they would have without the important efforts of NGOs in the region.


Resources
UNICEF. (2014). Syria Crisis Monthly Humanitarian Situation Report. 13 November-12 December 2014.  Retrieved from http://www.unicef.org/appeals/syrianrefugees_sitreps.html

UNICEF. (2015). Syria Crisis Winter Humanitarian Situation Report.  Retrieved from http://www.unicef.org/appeals/syrianrefugees_sitreps.html

Access to (clean) Water

I chose to read more this week about access to healthy water around the world.  Growing up in Colorado, drought and water rights were hot topics in the news, so I have always known that water is an important and sought after resource.  I cannot say, however, that I don't take for granted my ability to take a hot shower whenever I want.  In fact, I hardly think about it when I turn on the tap to fill my water bottle or wash my hands.  This, however, is a luxury that 783 million people around the world cannot claim 9 (United Nations [UN] Water, 2013).

Here are some of the difficult facts I found about access to water worldwide:

• Children lose 443 million school days a year to water related illnesses like diarrhea (Water.org, 1990-2015).
•  Nearly one in five, or 1.5 million, child deaths each year are caused by diarrhea from unsafe water.  In fact, diarrhea kills more children than malaria, AIDS, and the measles combined (Water.org, 1990-2015).
• Ninety percent of these child deaths from diarrhea are among children five years or younger (Water.org, 1990-2015).
• Perhaps most alarming," estimates indicate that...3.5 planets Earth would be needed to sustain a global population achieving the current lifestyle of average European or North Americans" (UN Water, 2013).

Access to clean water is important globally, but certainly gets a lot of attention in times of emergency.  The UNICEF website highlights that in times of emergency the "restoration of primary health care services, mother-and-child and nutrition services, as well as access to clean water and a hygienic environment are key parts of an integrated early childhood development response" (UNICEF, "Early Childhood Development in Emergencies," 2013).  These important first steps by trained UNICEF care workers can begin to dampen the devastating effects of emergencies in potentially damaging early childhood development.

The area I chose to further investigate access to clean water was Syria, in light of three years of civil war and turmoil and the millions of displaced people.  Already a desert nation with limited access to water resources, the conflict in Syria has significantly deteriorated the Syrian infrastructure's ability to adequately treat and distribute water.  There has been significant damage to pumping station and other infrastructure in areas of high violence, as well as power outages, fuel shortages, and inadequate maintenance on pipes and water works.  Utilities also lack necessary chlorine for water treatment.  In addition, shelters for displaced persons are extremely overburdened, so access to clean water and proper sanitation is lacking.  In Syria, children make up half of the four million people in need of urgent water relief, posing a significant risk of diarrhea among the young population (UNICEF, "Running dry", 2013).

This map shows the severity of the water crisis in war torn Syria.
(UNICEF, "Running Dry", 2013)

I believe this information may impact my future work in two very different ways.  First, I do hope to find myself in a position of international influence in the future where I may advocate for important resources for quickly developing young children.  Working for an organization like UNICEF to empower and enable people globally was once a very prominent dream of mine.  Second, and maybe more likely, I hope to use my influence as a teacher to encourage young minds to think globally and recognize the plentiful resources we have available.  I worked in a preschool room a few months ago where the teacher was constantly reminding her children to "remember the polar bears" as they washed their hands.  The reminder was from a story they had read in class teaching children to be mindful of their water consumption.  While the amount of water physically flowing from the facet while each preschooler washes their hands can't actually benefit either the polar bears or the displaced Syrians, raising up a generation of conscious, generous preschoolers could.  What a dream, right?



Resources
UNICEF. (2013). Early childhood development in emergencies. Retrieved from http://www.unicef.org/earlychildhood/index_40745.html

UNICEF. (2013). Running dry: water and sanitation crisis threatens Syrian children.  Retrieved from www.unicef.org

United Nations Water. (2013). Water cooperation: facts and figures.  Retrieved from http://www.unwater.org/water-cooperation-2013/water-cooperation/facts-and-figures/en/

Water.org. (1990-2015). Water facts: children. Retrieved from http://water.org/water-crisis/water-facts/children/