The last Monday in February. This is Free Range, our Monday Free chat with an environmental focus, attention to this blue planet and all things living and non-living, above and below, bright and dark, future and past.
Today I’m thinking about war and I’m thinking of one of earth’s most valuable and most exploited resources, one which must be protected at all costs if we want life on the planet to survive. What is that resource? It’s children, and we’re reminded that many of affected by war, right now, and that fact may have implications for the future of the planet.
Think about it. “The psycho-social wellbeing of an entire generation of Ukrainian children is at risk from war in the country’s eastern Donbas region, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund. With legions of Russian troops pouring in, the situation is only worse, as VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias reports. (It’s not new; the Ukraine has been under threat since 2014).
Experiencing armed conflict during childhood and adolescence poses serious mental health risks and threats to a child’s development. Exposure to different types of violence, the duration of the conflict, and the nature of experienced and witnessed traumatic events are all associated with the onset and severity of mental disorders among conflict-affected children.
The Red Cross
Children of War, living under a persistent sense of fear, tension, confusion, possible displacement, disruption in education and activities, disruption in regular medical care and family income, may carry the effects of trauma into adulthood, into their own families, into old age, into the next generation. These effects can limit life choices, interfere with potential and perpetuate violent solutions to family, political and cultural problems in an ongoing way.
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The threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine is rattling nerves across the West. But people living in Ukraine’s eastern border region have already faced years of conflict. Now, schoolchildren and teachers are preparing for an escalation of fighting. Ukrainian schoolchildren prepare for possible war | DW News – latest news and breaking stories | DW | 29.01.2022
For these reasons, the eradication of war and the focus on the healthy development of children is THE priority when it comes to healing the planet.
And on that note, feel free to chat– no need to chat on this topic; BYOT, all topics all the time, within reason, and within the bounds of civil discourse😁 (aren’t I sounding all hoity-toity today?) I guess I could say it the non-hoity-toity way– you know, respect the bounds of non-asshole-itis. . . . .
Happy Monday again, NV, and whatcha got?
Source: Voice of America
