When I was growing up, I witnessed one of my friends sister experience maltreatment. She tried to stop a domestic dispute between her mother and her mother's boyfriend. She was tragically killed in the process. On another occasion, another friend of was missing too many unexcused days from school and was on the verge of having to repeat the same grade. All of this was due to her mother having a mental break down. In this situation, my mom intervened, allowing the girl to move in with us. My mother got her the help she needed to get back on track at school so she was able to finish successfully.
Now, I understand what my mom was protecting us from. As a child, you are not aware of any of the dangers around you, especially if you're growing up in a nurturing, supportive, and healthy environment. Looking back, a lot more of my friends were being abused, neglected, maltreated but we just didn't know. It's sad how they became accustomed to it. They thought that was the way life is suppose to be but there is more to life than oppression, emotional abuse, or being malnourished.
Children worldwide are experiencing poverty. In Australia, about 500k children are living in poverty. Poverty affects the quality of life and any future opportunities that these children might have. When children are raised in stressful environments they tend to do poorly in school. For example, in a family of four, two adults and two children are living in inadequate conditions due to unemployment, it is extremely hard for children to focus on learning and their future plans when they are worried about their next meal or where they will sleep or if their parents will break up do to the down turn of the economy. I think some children take it personal and blame themselves for what is going wrong or unraveling in their family. In Australia, they are trying to minimize harm of poverty by providing better national job strategies, better employment entitlements to part time workers, improve the minimum wage to meet standard living expenses, and improve assistance to young people by guaranteeing at six months of paid work for those who have been unemployed for two or more years. (Melland, 2011)
For more information about poverty in Australia and how it is affecting child development, please visit: http://www.democrats.org.au/campaigns/poverty_in_australia/
I found your information interesting because just a few weeks ago I discovered the child obesity rate in Australia. It is sad to hear about both extremes. Unfortunately both are happening around the world.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about growing up in a healthy or protected environment sometimes makes us have blinders on for the people around us. I always thought growing up that bad things only happen in other countries, not our own. As an adult, and mother, I cannot stand to hear about poverty, abuse, or hunger especially so close to home, but it makes me thank God for what we have and the family I have been blessed with.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it interesting how we "see" things in their real form, as we get older. Things that you thought were going on, really weren't. My answer to the "not knowing" we didn't have much money is that apparently my parents gave us enough of the "non-materialistic" things that mean more.....love, nuturing, safety. When this is given to a child, then they could "miss" the lack of money. It is so interesting to talk with my parents today and listen to them telling me about going to GoodWill to get our coats or a particular outfit that someone on my mother's job gave her. All I knew back then....was that my clothes were clean and I was a loved and healthy child. I didn't "need" to know the process of how it happened!!!!
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