Friday, June 14, 2013
What can we do for their future?
WHAT CAN WE DO FOR THEIR FUTURE?
The children are the hope and future of a country. They are whom should be the priority of a nation.
Every one in five children in Haiti does not have access to drinking water and end up living in the streets without ever stepping foot in a school. While living in the streets, they are obligated to depend on kindness from abroad. They often take to the streets to beg, and this public presentation of need makes them extremely vulnerable. The traffickers and the gangs then know exactly who to target. This is how our youth begin working as slaves, obtaining firearms, and committing sordid crimes - because they’re so vulnerable.
For the children living in densely populated urban slums, their lives are full of danger and difficulty. The children are defenseless to the gang culture, they have very little to eat, and they often have no possibility of ever learning to read or write. There are also few safe places where they can play with their friends in such a dense and hazardous neighborhood.
It is very common for parents to actually give up their children, because they don’t have the means to take care of them. This was the case for me. The luckiest kids are the ones who find a NGO (National Government Organization) to take care of them. Second best would be the ones taken in by an orphanage - hopefully one with some funds. Even the lives of the exploited are often better than living on the streets. They usually get fed, and a select few even gain the privilege to attend school! However, they pay for it in child labor or many times physical, sexual, and emotional abuse. The problem is, children have no option to speak out against the crimes against them. If they leave their abusers, they leave their only option for food and shelter.
The future of Haiti is dark because the children that survive in these instances will soon become the adult population. Then add in the hatred, the abandonment, instinct of survival, etc. The emotional wellbeing of our future will also be broken. When our future members of society are treated as and labeled an “animal,” how will they act as adults? How will they put their mark on Haiti? I can only anticipate that it won’t be a positive mark. Something has to be done to change this current track, or we’ll continue to cope with the product of our society.
The children are the hope and future of a country. They are whom should be the priority of a nation.
Every one in five children in Haiti does not have access to drinking water and end up living in the streets without ever stepping foot in a school. While living in the streets, they are obligated to depend on kindness from abroad. They often take to the streets to beg, and this public presentation of need makes them extremely vulnerable. The traffickers and the gangs then know exactly who to target. This is how our youth begin working as slaves, obtaining firearms, and committing sordid crimes - because they’re so vulnerable.
For the children living in densely populated urban slums, their lives are full of danger and difficulty. The children are defenseless to the gang culture, they have very little to eat, and they often have no possibility of ever learning to read or write. There are also few safe places where they can play with their friends in such a dense and hazardous neighborhood.
It is very common for parents to actually give up their children, because they don’t have the means to take care of them. This was the case for me. The luckiest kids are the ones who find a NGO (National Government Organization) to take care of them. Second best would be the ones taken in by an orphanage - hopefully one with some funds. Even the lives of the exploited are often better than living on the streets. They usually get fed, and a select few even gain the privilege to attend school! However, they pay for it in child labor or many times physical, sexual, and emotional abuse. The problem is, children have no option to speak out against the crimes against them. If they leave their abusers, they leave their only option for food and shelter.
The future of Haiti is dark because the children that survive in these instances will soon become the adult population. Then add in the hatred, the abandonment, instinct of survival, etc. The emotional wellbeing of our future will also be broken. When our future members of society are treated as and labeled an “animal,” how will they act as adults? How will they put their mark on Haiti? I can only anticipate that it won’t be a positive mark. Something has to be done to change this current track, or we’ll continue to cope with the product of our society.
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