My heart goes out to children who have to deal with stressors. Fortunately, I have never experienced any of these stressors (and I give God all praise for that); however, when I was younger worked at a summer camp for a few summers, and I met children who did experience these types of things. For example, I met a child who dealt with poverty. I remember him coming to camp everyday with soiled clothes, hygienic discrepancies, no shoelaces, and no hair cut and hungry. He was one of six children living in a small, one bedroom apartment. To me, this young gentleman dealt with living in poverty by coming to the summer camp every day to eat lunch.
While there, I attempted to purchase items for the young man and I also got the city to sponsor a Personal Care Day. When I asked the city to sponsor the Personal Care Day, I was initially told it couldn’t be pulled off (because it was only a summer program), however I looked at the children I serviced (ones like the young man I mentioned earlier), and I couldn’t have a defeated attitude in their name. Therefore, I had local cosmetologist and barbers come out to give the children free hairstyles and haircuts. I also had Wal-Mart provide the children with toiletry bags. While the Personal Care Day was in no way a permanent fix, I wanted the children in the program to know that I cared. I have never been hungry, or in need of something so badly that my mother didn’t work diligently to provide. We didn’t always have everything we would have liked to have, but we were never in a situation like the some children I say while working at the summer camp.
I am not sure if children are every really able to get over these types of stressors; however, I believe in these situations plasticity will occur based on the experiences these children have faced.
This week, I researched how children in Africa are affected by poverty (among the other many stressors they face). After reading about poverty in Africa, I realized that many of the stressors children face in Africa overlap. For example, their poverty is surrounded by inadequate medical care, insufficient nutrients, and much more. However the children there die from poverty or it’s dealt with through programs like United Nations, Feed the Children and many more that support those countries to help alleviate some of the burden. However, even with the information I read, I wanted to hear the voices of their children from Africa. I feel that we read a lot of information but the best sources are the sources themselves. I would like to hear from children from the country to attempt to understand how they feel. Nevertheless, I still believe that children this country can have lasting effects.
