When one becomes a parent, one seeks to have answers. Answers to the child's questions and concerns, to his concerns, assurances that everything will be beautiful, everything will be fine. On the other hand, at the same time, a multitude of worries, anxieties, and questions arise in him: Will I be a good parent? Will it be healthy, will it be safe? Will I be able to offer him everything? What if he grows up? Will it grow???
Parents all over the world share common anxieties about the health, safety, happiness, fate of their children. And it is this fate that determines and differentiates their anxieties. Because it is a matter of luck where a child will be born. Thus, anxiety about a child's health can be about fortifying him against serious illnesses. It may, however, concern his survival from the moment of his birth, whether he will have clean water so that he does not get sick from drinking contaminated food, whether he will have basic medical care so that he does not die from a simple virus, in the event that happens to be born in one of the most vulnerable areas of the world.
“Will it be healthy?”Halimo is expecting her 9th child in an IDP camp in Somalia. The region is suffering from the worst drought in decades. Water is hard to come by and mothers may walk for hours to secure it for the family. Therefore, they can neither cultivate nor maintain their animals, thus facing a problem of survival. ActionAid is providing emergency financial assistance and food supplies to vulnerable populations in East Africa to respond to this crisis. “It can take me up to 5 hours to find water and sometimes I may not find any at all. This also has consequences for our food. Thirst makes babies cry…”, states Halimo with despair.
“Will he grow up safely?”What measures will the parents take to safeguard the safety of the child coming into the world? A warm place, a bed and seats that meet the safety standards, will remove the dangerous objects… Vira was forced to move the whole family, with 4 children and an infant who was born prematurely and weighed just 1.1 kg. ActionAid helped Vira move to a refugee camp in Poland and provided food for the family. Millions of children in the world are born and grow up in war zones, in areas affected by dangerous weather phenomena, in conditions of extreme poverty and basic shortages.
“Will he be happy?” What does happiness mean to a child? The carelessness, the carefree play, the tender moments with the mother, the association with other children, the opportunities to learn. For Zera and her children, this happiness is a dream. She raises her three children alone and struggles to make ends meet by working on a tea plantation in Kenya. The conditions are harsh and what makes them even more difficult is that she is forced to have her 21-month-old son with her in the field, which is definitely not a place for a child to grow up. The little boy often gets sick from the cold, while Zera is unable to harvest enough crops to provide her with a better income. Many children work with their parents in the fields to help support the family's income when they are not in school. Wages are poor and ActionAid is conducting training on the rights of tea plantation workers so that they can demand proper conditions and wages.
“What will happen when he grows up?” Every mother, looking at her child, envisions his future. Will he have opportunities to learn, the right stimuli, will he be able to dream and make them come true? Millions of children in the world are deprived of the opportunity to go to school, girls stay at home to do chores or are married at an early age and boys work to contribute to the family income as parents cannot support their education. Lack of opportunity perpetuates the cycle of poverty and precludes a better future for children and entire communities.
Health, safety, opportunities, happiness are not certain things. That is why they compound the anxieties of all parents in the world. There are, however, things that for some children start out as givens, since they happen to be born in the so-called developed world. Like a safe house, daily food, education, dreams. For some mothers, the very survival of the child is a daily concern. They live day by day, without being able to envision the distant future. It is for them the question “what will happen IF they grow up”…
Where each child will be born is definitely a matter of luck. Each of us, however, has the ability to take a bit of luck into our own hands and help change it. Through ActionAid's Fostering Programme, mothers around the world find answers to their anxieties about their children. They find better living and hygiene conditions, security, education, opportunities. And they can only keep one question unanswered that allows them to dream: “What will happen when he grows up?”
See here how you too can support ActionAid's work, offering a better future for all children in the world.
