When it comes to war, it is a devastating truism that the innocent suffer the most. As conflicts rage all over the world, children will inevitably bear the brunt of the hardship that prolonged fighting brings to a region.
That’s why this year Trócaire are asking people to consider “Children Caught in Conflict” as they launch their annual Christmas Appeal. The goal is to highlight the devastating impact of war and conflict on children around the world.
Conflict has raged in Somalia for all of Paul Healy’s time in the African nation. “This is a protracted conflict, it’s been going on for 30 years,” Trocaire’s country director in Somalia explains. “But this year in particular, we’ve gone through repeated crisis after crisis after crisis in Somalia with children at the forefront of suffering.”
The ongoing conflict ultimately means the State is unable to create any form of safe environment. “Every day, that plays itself out brutally in the lives of children in particular,” Healy admits.
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A heartbreaking example is the work Trócaire does at the main stabilisation centres for severely and acutely malnourished children in Gedo, one of the regions in Somalia with the highest conflict-induced displacement numbers. “Our hospitals are filled with children being treated for outbreaks of diseases, for measles, mostly for extreme malnutrition. The Gedo area is slightly bigger than the size of Ireland and so every day those stabilisation centres are absolutely jam-packed,” Healy says. “In fact, we’ve had to clear out the male and female wards because the number of children suffering from acute malnutrition with complications remains at such a high level.”
This, he says, is an excruciating consequence of the ongoing violence. “You’ve got people displaced internally, walking away from what was their livelihoods and coming into new places where they have no recourse to sustainable livelihoods. This means major issues around nutrition because their livelihoods are gone and their animals are gone - partly reduced because of conflict, partly because of the intersection between conflict and climate change.”
This is compounded by the ever present threat of disease given the lack of access to clean water. “Parents are cooking with dirty water or giving it to children because they’ve no choice - they have to drink.”
Unsurprisingly, the children’s education is also regularly and significantly disrupted. Healy recalls clan violence in a rural town some months ago. “The whole school was shut down,” he says. “The teachers, the students, the parents - there were over 45,000 people displaced over a single weekend. They had to move about 50 kilometers away to set up camp in an area where they felt safer and re-establish the school, now with traumatised children.” Trócaire’s support was crucial in providing some semblance of stability for those affected.
A huge risk, Healy adds, is that children - some extremely young - will be used as pawns in the ongoing conflict. “You’ve got armed opposition groups bringing young boys into armed conflict and recruiting them as young soldiers, while you’ve got clan militia also recruiting children,” he says.
Men often stay behind when conflict enters an area, desperately trying to protect whatever parts of their livelihood they can. This means women and children who are displaced are particularly vulnerable to abuse and sexual exploitation - something Healy says they sadly see every day. “Girls are also being married off at a young age because parents can’t cope and they don’t know what to do, and we’re talking about children here, not young women.”
Trócaire aims to combat this with its network of safe spaces for children, as well as specific school feeding programmes and its stabilisation centres for health. Healy says they provide a crucial lifeline for those suffering while the conflict rages on. “These all exist as a result of a very fragile society that is very prone to ongoing conflict, and women and children are the first and worst to suffer.”
As Trócaire launches its Christmas Appeal, Healy is keen to praise the longstanding support of the Irish people. “We have been extremely fortunate that the Irish government and the Irish people have remained steadfast in their support of Trócaire and other organisations who are working in these contexts. We know that children suffer the most and thankfully, the Irish government and the Irish people have got that message and have been amazingly supportive of the work that we do.”
Christmas is the perfect time to help children and families whose lives have been upended by ongoing conflict in these regions, Healy says. “While everyone at home is in good cheer, and they should be, we will still be there with severely malnourished children, we will still be working with traumatised children, and we will still be working with their mothers who have experienced exploitation and abuse in its worst forms. We’ll still be there. And we rely on the people of Ireland to remember that.”
Trócaire is asking people here at home to support the Christmas Appeal which will provide support for children suffering in conflict zones as well as supporting critical work across Trócaire’s global programmes.
For more information visit https://www.trocaire.org/
