Refugee Children

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As decent humans, we hold our hope that those defending our country spare the lives of children. That families with small children are able to provide for them and protect them. Children hold the innocence of the world with them which is shown through Ruth in the youth novel Refugee. She was too young to remember much of living on the run from Nazis or her family that died to protect her, but she knew that their cause was just and that they were pure.

 Some of us may know how hard the life of refugees are, through constant trials, mistreatment, and abuse. For myself personally, I would often imagine groups of refugees as adults, I couldn't bring myself to picture children in that type of environment.  
Children of climate change refugee, are at risk of injury, disability, and death because they are still growing. Death often comes due to malnutrition, diarrhoeal disease, and malaria. World Vision is working with communities around the globe to try and help these children, and families struggling with starvation.


Operation Pedro Pan was a program that ran from 1960-1962 where children in Cuba were brought to the States without their parents so that they could have a chance at freedom. The program airlifted more than 14,000 children fleeing from Cuba. Many families were only separated for a short amount of time, but when the Cuban Missile Crisis came to be in October of 1962 all flights to and from the island were abruptly grounded, separating many children from their parents for years. While many families have found each other, there are still many who still search for theirs.  

Today in American it is unclear how many children have been separated from their parents as they tried to cross our border. Who knows the level of psychological damage this will do those children now and for the future. While it is said about 520 of these children have been reunited with their parents, there are 1425-1720 probably more, still waiting to be reunited but more being separated every day.

With the Honduras caravan making its way toward our southern border, what are we as a country going to do in order to help these children in a devastating situation?

Comments

  1. AnonymousOctober 30, 2018 at 2:54 PM

    Love the topic, it holds so much significance. Children are the world's future, and it's so crucial they grow up as healthy and stable as possible. With the situations refugee children face, their future is truly at stake. I fear what our country will do, as a whole, to help them.

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  2. UnknownOctober 31, 2018 at 12:30 PM

    I found the Operation Pedro Pan program to be very interesting. I had never heard of that before and I enjoy that it was a play on Peter Pan. It had to be difficult for those kids to leave their families in Cuba, but I was glad to hear many of them were reunited. Very interesting topic!

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  3. UnknownOctober 31, 2018 at 1:36 PM

    I really love this post. While reading Refugee all I could keep thinking about was how fast the children have to grow up. I felt like the kids who were even 12 years old like Josef kind of have to keep hold of the family. When Josef's family went on board the ship, he had to help his father keep it together by slapping him and yelling at him, then felt guilty when his father yelled at him for lying. It seems like the roles sometimes reverse and it is definitely something that I think will need to be thought about and studied.

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  4. AnonymousOctober 31, 2018 at 2:04 PM

    it's always so interesting how the government can ping pong between doing helpful things for refugee groups (like Op Pedro Pan), while ignoring the plight of others (or just unceremoniously stopping aid programs, making more problems than before)

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  5. Climate Crisis: Africa, Asia, Latin AmericaNovember 2, 2018 at 5:34 PM

    I agree with Emily and Amy about how important your post is. The way children are treated is at the heart of what indicates a mature and loving society.

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