Children in Armed Conflicts

nlazzara

Oct 30

Last week one of our required readings was a UNICEF article that focused on the crimes committed against in children during acts of war. The part of the article that continues to stick with me is the statistic that stated an average of 10k children have been killed or maimed each year from 2016-2020. Additionally, in the year 2020 explosive weapons like bombs and missiles were responsible for 47% of these causalities. These horrifying stats are a perfect representation of the state of the world at this time and the persistent conflicts that threaten the most innocent and vulnerable among us. Sadly, I honestly believe these statistics will continue to rise year by year. Since World War I, we have entered the world of modern warfare, which no longer includes soldiers fighting each other in bunkers, but rather consists of military personnel bombing cities and other locations comprised of a majority of innocent civilians. Each year into the future, military technology not only becomes more sophisticated and deadly, but also more accessible to more countries and armed factions. As I write this, there is currently a crisis between Hamas and Israel on the Gaza strip that continues to produce horrifying images of dead children that did nothing wrong other than being born in an area that is prone to constant conflict. I don't know what any of this means for me or my career and trust me, I understand the privilege that this sentence demonstrates. I can acknowledge that we are in the midst of a refugee/displaced persons crisis and understand that I will care for many of these victims going forward. I just hope that I will have the cultural competency and empathy to provide these patients with care that they deserve and need. While I know this won't come close to making the difference our global community needs, I selfishly hope it will provide me with some solace as I try to make sense of why as a modern species we are ok with such persistent atrocities.