Impacts on Early Emotional Development
This week we had to look deeper into a region around
the world that was of interest to us and I chose to look at East Asia and the
Pacific region which includes areas such as: Vietnam, Mongolia, and Myanmar to
name a few. Since starting with Walden back in 2009 on my Bachelor’s degree I have
learned and research many topic that both hurt and help our children everywhere
and it never ceases to amaze me how children end up being the victims in every
situation. Children in this region suffer from malnutrition, unhealthy water
resources, since 1990, the proportion of people in the region with improved
sanitation has risen from 49% to 66% – but this still means that around 670
million people do not have access to proper sanitation facilities. On top of
this, some 236 million people, or 12% of the total population, lack access to
clean water. (http://www.unicef.org).
In many of these areas children are subjected to war zones that they have no
way of escaping and often are made to fight for their survival and that of
their families. Living in these conditions affects not only a child’s physical
and mental health but most definitely their emotional health to an even greater
degree. The East Asia and Pacific region encompasses one-third of the world’s
population – or around 2 billion people. It also contains over one-quarter of
the world’s children – around 580 million children in total. The region
stretches from Mongolia in the north to Tonga in the south, and from Western
China to the Cook Islands. The smallest country in East Asia and the Pacific,
Niue, has 1,700 people while the largest, China, has 1.3 billion people. There
are around 30 million children born in the region every year.
“In every country, in every culture, there is violence against children,” said UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake. “Whenever and wherever children are harmed, our outrage and anger must be seen and heard. We must make the invisible visible.” The damage to children caused by sexual and physical abuse is often very serious and lifelong. These children are more likely to be depressed and experience other types of mental health problems, to think about or attempt suicide and to engage in more high-risk behaviors than their non-abused counterparts (http://www.unicef.org/eapro/media_21211.html). The region has significant diversity – in peoples, cultures, environments, economies, political systems and potential. It includes some of the fastest-growing economies in the world as well as ten of the least-developed countries – six in the Pacific and four in East Asia. The Pacific is a distinct sub region within the wider region, with its unique characteristics, dynamics and challenges.
This region has many challenges that can affect children’s emotional well being and development because many are living in a war zone and do not have their basic needs met adequately. They are in many areas not given the resources to become educated as we are in the United States and other countries.
Doing the research this week has helped me to gain better insight into what we in America have and many take for granted and how children around the world have to fight for the smallest right that should be freely given to them. The children in this region need us to help them get what is rightly their and stand up for them in any way we can and that starts with being a child advocate for children everywhere. We need to hold the governments accountable for what is happening in all countries and not fall for the lies they spout daily and that many believe at the expense of children.
UNICEF, 2013. http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/index.html
East Asia and Pacific
region: http://www.unicef.org/eapro/activities.html
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