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Author: Tavanell Dodd

Tavanell Dodd / Author

tdodd@antiochcollege.edu

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Dodd ’21 at Antioch’s Prison Justice Library in Yellow Springs, Ohio

20 April 2020

Culture, Power, & Change, Justice and Community/Identity, Policy, Advocacy, Law (Pre-Law)

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Tavanell Dodd ’21 at Village Impact Project in Yellow Springs, OH

25 February 2019

Education & Youth Empowerment (Pre-Education), Ohio

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Some of my skills include: adaptability, self-motivation, time management, dependability, organization, prioritizing, communication and conflict resolution. Some of my interests are: helping others, reading and learning new things.

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Struggles of Refugee Children

Introduction

“Despite tens of millions of refugees in this century, refugee research is sporadic, unsystematic, sporadic, isolated and cursory”(Stein, Barry N). This paper attempts to gather the struggle of children refugees across the globe.

Struggles of Refugee Children

The problem of refugees is indeed almost becoming an ubiquity in the world. No region or continent lacks refugees with brewing wars and fear of persecution has led millions to flee from their home to seek refuge in strange societies. Recent statistics from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that there are approximately 21.3 million refugees across the globe and about 65.3 million asylum seekers and internally displaced people. This number has in recent times escalated because of growing humanitarian crises in Yemen, Nigeria Colombia as well as Syria.

For the most part, the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol has set out the rights of refugees. According to this convection, refugees are entitled to seek protection from the host country. In addition, refugees are also entitled to work, access education, the justice system, as well as provision of travel documentation (UNHCR, 2015). The host country is not in any way supposed to expel refugees in a place where they seek freedom. However, while most countries that are signatory to the convection are supposed to maintain an open door policy, most countries do not in any way conform to the underlying treaties because they enjoy their own individual sovereignty. State sovereignty causes tension because organizations like the UN impose countries to uphold asylums for refugees at the same time states have a right to protect their borders by restricting movement of those who enter their borders (Terre des homes, 2016).

Although the refugee problem is an unending menace, reports have shown that children and women are the most affected (UNHCR, 2015). In this regard, they share horrors similar horrors to those experienced by adult casualties. In fact, UNHCR (2015) reports have shown that almost 50% of the world’s refugees were children. These demographics show that children without the presence of a parental figure have an increased risk of problems. For children, their vulnerability stems from the fact that children are robbed of a chance to live a normal and carefree life (UNHCR, 2015). Most are victims of diseases, malnutrition and emotional and physical trauma due to the years they spend growing up in a refugee camp and war-torn countries. Children are of course always caught up in warfare and conflicts. In essence unlike some adults children do not have a choice.

Also, a UN report on the “The Impact of War on Children,” showed that kid refugees faced multiple horrors on an ongoing basis. Children witness violence and atrocities and are also affected by ongoing killing, fights and maimings in both besieged and controlled government areas. Children as well as their families are being deprived of basic requirements for survival and are forced to resort to drastic mechanisms so as to cope (Terre des homes, 2016). Moreover, basic protection mechanisms are not available because of attacks on infrastructure and amenities.

Indeed, studies in Lebanon have shown that child labor has increased considerably since the number of Syrian refugees spiked in the country. There is apparently a high demand for Syrian and Palestinian children since they are far cheaper for child labor (Terre des homes, 2016). It is not uncommon to see children work on streets either selling tissues or flowers, cleaning cars or begging. Children also work in factories, markets, repair shops and even coffee shops at a fairly low rate. In the majority of cases, the children refugees are sent to work because of the desperate situation at home for the need to survive. They also beg or search for exploitative employment (Terre des homes, 2016). In other situations, child refugees are also held as domestic workers. These children are held in private households with restricted movements. Many are abused and forced into domestic servitude (UNICEF, 2015). Likewise, forced food cuts from international organizations means that poverty is increasing rapidly among refugees. To cope with a dire situation, refugees are forced to cut both the frequency and amount of their food

Reports from UNICEF show that recruitment of children in armed conflict is on an “increased spike towards recruiting even younger children, as young as seven, including girls, Recruitment of children in armed conflicts to be deployed as child soldiers or to play the supporting role away from the frontline or for sexual exploitation is considered among the six grave violations of children’s right in armed conflicts” (UNICEF, 2015). Large numbers of displaced children have been recruited in armies across warring states. In the 2015 report, the UN Secretary-General verified that 7 girls and 271 boys had been recruited in group affiliated armies in Syria (UNICEF, 2015). In most cases, children were used in combat for salaries that provided incentives for children under economic difficulties.

Refugee girls and women across the world face a heightened risk of sexual and gender based violence that arises in humanitarian situations. Studies do indeed show that this precarious situation makes children more vulnerable to certain kinds of sexual exploitation. Children are being sexually trafficked or held in sexual slavery. Disturbingly, children are at times forced to trade sexual favors in return for employment, rent or food. Reports also indicate that underage refugee girls are increasingly opting to settle for marriages because their parents arrange it (UNICEF, 2014). For the most part, child marriages are not brokered for commercial exploitation. On the contrary, reports indicate that refugee families make the decision to marry off their teenage daughters so as to protect them from sexual abuse and harassment (UNICEF, 2014). At the same time this kind of arrangement also helps a family to reduce the economic burden along with providing economic security. Nonetheless, young girls that enter an early marriage face a number of risks, including slavery in marriage, rape and domestic violence.

Even though education is a right which every child is entitled to, child refugees especially those in refugee camps are in most cases robbed of this right because of the situation of their upbringing or the conflicts. The opportunity to study within a refugee camp provides a sense of normalcy that allows children to live a normal life whilst empowering them (Human Rights Watch, 2015). However, even if established, schools within a refugee camp encounter several challenges.

For instance, finding teachers that would teach in a refugee camp is extremely difficult. Furthermore, these teachers may be lacking in skills that can provide care to traumatized kids. Another giant barrier that hinders quality education relates to overcrowded classrooms. In addition, owing to the experiences and situations of the humanitarian crisis, children are bound to have psychological or mental trauma that may inhibit their ability to learn effectively in classes, unfortunately this situation transcends beyond the educational (Human Rights Watch, 2015).

Indeed, studies have shown that terror and war trauma can cause high levels of stress among children. Subsequently, stress has been linked with the development of a range of psychological problems (Freh, 2015). For the most part, it is almost impossible for an individual to go through an upheaval and not develop mechanisms to deal with upsets and shock in life. Some children withdraw from the world, while others become emotionless. Studies also report on emotional outbreaks of hysteria. In other cases a child who has been exposed to countless destruction and death cannot be scared and thus become indifferent to the suffering of others (Khamis, 2012). Though studies show that a child will sooner or later return to normalcy, it is worth noting that recovery time is highly dependent on post traumatic treatment, the recovery period and the child’s coping capabilities. It’s however worth noting that at times the effects are irreversible.

Indeed a paucity of studies that have looked at the long-term impact of psychological and mental health following traumatic situations has shown that children who have been exposed to traumatic situations exhibit stress related trauma years after the onset of resettlement (Khamis, 2012). This means that a child is affected by an array of secondary stressors (social disruptions, separation and loss of loved ones, malnutrition, economic difficulties and so on) in the aftermath of traumatic experiences that continue to affect both the child and family (Freh, 2015). For instance, refugee children feel isolated in the host country and assimilation into a new culture is a difficult process and being in a vulnerable state adds to that stress.

Conclusion

Refugees are in most cases affected in innumerable ways. Unfortunately, these life trajectories have a more adverse effect on children than they do in adults. Children lose an opportunity for education; they are also forced to move into refugee or displaced people’s camps where they may have to wait for years for circumstances in their lives to retain to normalcy. It is not uncommon for refugee camps to be raided, along which children may endure physical harm, mental trauma and even death. Long after traumatic experiences of war and running away from war, the lives of these children may never be the same again. In this light, war and the underlying aftermath including refugees especially kid refugees should be looked at as a serious global concern, if a peace system can be devised within a small locality it is possible that the same can be achieved on global scale, it would be nonetheless naïve to suggest that this can be easily achieved.

References

Freh, F. M. (2015) Psychological Effects of War and Violence on Children. J Psychol Abnorm Child S1:e001. doi:10.4172/2329-9525.1000e001

Human Rights Watch (2015): When I Picture My Future, I see nothing – Barriers to Education for Syrian Refugee Children in Turkey. Retrieved from https://www.hrw.org/report/2015/11/08/wheni-picture-my-future-i-see-nothing/barriers-education-syrian-refugee-children

Khamis V. (2012) Impact of war, religiosity and ideology on PTSD and psychiatric disorders in adolescents from Gaza Strip and South Lebanon. SocSci Med 74: 2005-2011.

Save the Children (2016): Uncertain Futures. The impact of displacement on Syrian refugee and Iraqi internally displaced youth in Iraq, https://stcc.yeeboodigital.com/wpcontent/uploads/2016/03/ Uncertain-Futures-low-res.pdf

Stein, Barry N. “The Refugee Experience.” The Refugee Experience, msu.edu/course/pls/461/stein/MNREXP1.htm.

Terre des hommes Lausanne (2016): FGD, Syrian refugee children, aged 11–17, Lebanon,

UNHCR (2015): The future of Syria – Refugee Children in Crisis, https://unhcr.org/FutureOfSyria/executive-summary.html#syrian-refugee-children

UNICEF (2014): A study on early marriage in Jordan, https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/UNICEFJordan_EarlyMarriageStudy2014.pdf

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Dodd ’21 at Antioch’s Prison Justice Library in Yellow Springs, Ohio

Apr 20, 2020

For my current co-op, I decided to work with the Antioch College Prison Justice Initiative (PJI) on their Prison Justice Library project. The PJI was founded in 2014 by Dr. Emily Steinmetz along with Antioch students and other faculty, and works to uplift people impacted by incarceration and to start a dialogue about the criminal justice system’s impacts.

Here at the Prison Justice Library, we send books and zines to people who are incarcerated all over the country. We receive over fifty letters weekly from people all over who are requesting reading material. One of the main goals is to get as many letters filled as possible. While doing my co-op here, I work 10 hours a week to get as much done as I can. Something that I have noticed is that we lack volunteers (you can get involved here) so letters pile up weekly.

I enjoy working here because I am doing something to help others. I know for a fact that I want to help people, so working at the Prison Justice Library gives me an idea of what it’s like doing something for a good cause.

Photo credit: Dennie Eagleson

Tavanell Dodd ’21 at Village Impact Project in Yellow Springs, OH

Feb 25, 2019

Village Impact Project is a mentoring program in Yellow Springs, Ohio whose mission is to provide children in the Yellow Springs area with responsible mentors from our community who share their interests and to help make a lifelong difference in both of their lives and in our village through monthly events with community partners. Our goals are 1) for all children in the community who want or need a mentor to have one who shares their interests, and 2) for the people in the program to become an integral part of the community through activities, fundraisers, and community services opportunities. Our motto is, “Changing our community two people at a time,” because we believe a mentoring relationship changes the adult as much as the child and that our entire community will change for the better because our young people have good role models and positive experiences within the community.

Most children involved in the program are from Yellow Springs School District, but children may also come from The Antioch School or another private school, be homeschooled, attend a school outside the district through open enrollment or an alternative school (such as the Greene County Learning Center or Outdoor Advantage through the Greene County Educational Service Center). Most children in our program are between the ages of 6-18, though exceptions can be made for older students who have not graduated by the age of 18.

My role with the Village Impact Project is focused on organization and planning fundraisers. However, my day-to-day experience is me sitting on my laptop categorizing files. Village Impact Project is a program I would be interested in continuing to work with because this experience is important for my future goal of being a social worker.

Photo credit: https://www.facebook.com/VillageImpactProject/

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Author: Tavanell Dodd

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