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Post-Conflict Projects | ||||||||
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Consequences of conflict to be addressed by OVC interventions Conflict has a negative impact on all children. It creates many more OVC and, and children who are already vulnerable become even more so. Below is an overview of the common consequences of conflict on different groups of vulnerable children. These are the consequences that will need to be addressed by post-conflict projects. (For a particular taxonomy of the mental health issues related to conflict and OVC see the attached table adopted from the document: Integrating Mental Health and Psychosocial Interventions into World Bank Lending for Conflict Affected Populations; A Toolkit. Also, for more information on addressing psychosocial distress and trauma, please refer to the health section. ) All OVC: Conflict has a disproportinally devastating impact on OVC. It often deprives them of adequate shelter as well as a safe, secure environment in which to live. It decreases their access to primary health care and basic education, as social infrastructure are destroyed or abandoned. It exposes them to epidemics in the often unsanitary and crowded conditions of camps for internally displaced people or refugees. It makes them vulnerable to traumas, such as separation from or the loss of their parents, siblings, and friends. It makes them vulnerable to recruitment into the armed forces, rape, injury, and death. Street Children: Conflicts create more street children as children migrate to the cities in search of protection, help and opportunities, either because they have become orphaned or separated from their parents, or because insecurity, economic collapse, isolation or direct fighting afflict their home communities and prompt their migration to urban areas. Although street children are generally perceived as poor and undisciplined recruits (compared to the more docile children recruited from the countryside), some street children have been (forcibly) recruited into the armed forces. Yet others are severely exploited in the chaos that normally follows crisis and war. The lack of appropriate child care and child rearing, as well as exposure to violence and drugs make it a major challenge to rehabilitate former street children. Orphans: Conflicts create more orphans, as parents die in combat, war acts against civilians or as a result of poor nutrition, lack of access to health care, land mines, etc. Conflict also produces social orphans; children who become separated from their parents by refuge and chaos, and who may not even know if their relatives and caretakers are alive. Children who are already orphans at the outbreak of conflict and who lack a stable and secure family situation are again at increased risk of being recruited as child soldiers. Conflict also puts a strain on the absorption capacity of the extended family as both resources get shorter and dependency burden higher. Finding living arrangements for orphans thus becomes an increased challenge. (For a project example, see the PAD for Eritrea’s War Orphan Project) HIV/AIDS affected children: Armed groups often spread the HIV/AIDS virus as they move from one region to another engaging in unprotected sex and in some cases rape. Prostitution also flourishes when armed men are around, often attracting under-age girls and the single mothers of (vulnerable) young. Soldiers globally have a 2-5 times higher incidence of STDs than civilians. Almost all the girls who had escaped the Lord Resistance Army in Northern Uganda were found to be suffering from STDs – including HIV/AIDS. It is often unrecognized that young boys also experience sexual abuse during conflict situations; therefore it is important to assess their HIV status as well. Harmful Child Labor: During a conflict situation, school and education systems often collapse, locally and, in some cases, nationally. This produces a sudden surge in the number of children available in the labor market. Concurrently, the demand for child labor often also increases as adult males are in shorter supply. Farming is often affected by conflict, either because it becomes too dangerous, or because necessary supplies and markets are cut off from the production areas. This creates new income needs for already war-impoverished families, something that may result in children being sent early into the commercial labor market. The risk of exploitation increases, both due to generally reduced parental protection and the often increased distance to such labor markets. In addition, children are recruited into the armed forces to fight or to work as porters, cooks, and prostitutes. In a post-conflict situation, there is a risk that children, who have been out of school for several years, may not return, either because there are not enough schools and/or teachers left, or because their family cannot afford to pay school fees and needs their children to work to support the household. Child soldiers and other children associated with armed groups: Conflicts are often caused by an up-swell of popular frustration. The conflict itself then causes even more popular frustration as people’s lives and communities are disrupted by violence. Increased poverty, violence and a feeling of powerlessness lead many children to join armed forces (see for instance “Young Soldiers - Why They Choose to Fight” ), and yet others are forcefully recruited. Life with the armed forces impacts on children both mentally and physically, and life skills learned during conflict are generally inadequate for making a living in a peaceful community. Injuries and illnesses of children who have been with armed forces must be urgently addressed, the latter not least to prevent a further spread of STDs. Part three of this section, “Demobilizing and reintegrating children associated with armed forces” further explains related issues and needs. Children living with a disability: Disabled children suffer disproportinally during conflict. They are in many places the first to be neglected in times of scarcity, and they are at times abandoned together with elderly and other less mobile community members when families are fleeing a conflict area. Conflict also creates more disabled children, especially in countries where the conflict involves deliberate maiming and the use of landmines. Even in cases where mines are not involved, the conflict disrupts routine activities such as health care and immunizations and can result in an upsurge in disabling diseases such as polio, trachoma and other preventable diseases. Conflict sometimes leads to malnutrition and even famine when communities are isolated, farming abandoned or people are forced to flee into resource poor areas. This can result in both cognitive and physical stunting as well as nutritional deficiency related disabilities such as blindness. Children required to carry heavy loads for the armed forces may also suffer from injuries or deformations to their bones that result in later disabilities. |
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