As the war in Ukraine has been going on for nearly a year, new findings reveal the devastating effects of the war on children in the Kherson, Kharkiv and Dnipro regions.
The international relief and development NGO ‘World Vision’ conducted a survey on a total of 457 children between the ages of 9 and 17 in December of last year along with Arms of Mercy, an organization that is cooperating with Ukraine support projects. According to the survey, 83% of children are extremely anxious about their safety, with more than one in three citing violence as one of their main concerns.
“Ukraine’s children desperately need peace,” said World Vision Ukraine Crisis Response Director Chris Paluski. In February, even before the conflict began, one in five children in eastern Ukraine were smoking or using synthetic drugs while coping with ongoing stressors such as violence, displacement and separation from their families. The fact that about 80% of teenage boys have experience with smoking and drugs is shocking.”
Since the outbreak of war on February 24, 2022, the situation in Ukraine has deteriorated rapidly. There are 54 civilian casualties every day, and more than 17 million people in Ukraine are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. Many children lost their homes or had to move to safer places. Nearly half (47%) of the children surveyed said their families had been damaged in some way, large or small.
“Children are struggling to cope with the trauma piled on top of it,” says Palusky. It can be expected that more than 1.5 million children in Ukraine may suffer from depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder or mental illness as a result of the experience of war.”
“In addition to the rise in substance abuse, children are struggling to keep their emotions in check, such as fear. Twenty-one percent of the children responding to the survey said their peers used ‘physical violence’ as a way to cope with the current situation. This includes violence between children. “They see their relatives and families hurt by shelling, see their parents on the front lines and feel the desire to take revenge on others, all of which is extremely unfair.”
As a result of the war in Ukraine, they are suffering economic damage and have lost their pre-war lives. The necessary education to grow into a healthy adult is almost impossible. Frequent power outages and flight alerts have left many children unable to go to school and struggling to connect to online classes in their bunkers.
Cho Myung-hwan, Chairman of Korea World Vision, said, “It is very important for children to recover not only their physical health, but also their healthy mind, and all parties to conflict must respect and abide by international humanitarian law and human rights law. Without peace, children in Ukraine will continue to suffer severe psychological damage.”
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.