For the children of Syria

My post on this subject is long overdue as is any post for that matter, but my heart has been heavy for the Syrian children since the conflict started several years ago. I have protested the US's bombing of Syria when that proposal was brought up and I have looked into what is being done for the Syrian children who find themselves refugees in neighboring countries. There are thousands of children who have fled from their homes, with or without their parents, and who have been adjusting to life as a refugee. A lot of them are not in school due to the turmoil and the stretch of resources available to them as refugees; and as for those who are still in Syria, who knows what their situation truly is. As much as I believe children are resilient, I also believe that children are the most fragile and vulnerable. We as adults really need to go to great lengths to protect children - any children - so that they can improve the society we live in. It is what we put them through today that will determine what kind of people they will be tomorrow. But it seems that the US news channels have now forgotten about these events and have moved on to others. Of course there are plenty of other current events that are captivating our attention, but I cannot shake the burden I have for these children and all those other children in that area that are suffering due to the actions of the adults. Children should not have to suffer because adults cannot find peaceful solutions to their conflicts.

More recent news articles and reports on Syria can be found here:

http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/witness/2014/08/syria-no-strings-2014817105747216504.html
https://news.vice.com/article/airstrikes-pound-islamic-state-forces-in-syria-as-rebels-gain-an-unlikely-ally
UNICEF calls Syria one of the most dangerous places for a child.

And of course this also reminds me of the children in Gaza, who are suffering the same things as the Syrian children having already been through several conflicts depending upon their age. The only difference is that the children of Gaza have nowhere to go, no neighboring countries to flee to. It is a truly tragic situation - again, children suffering because adults cannot find peaceful solutions. Here's an article about the children of Gaza:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-28803447

To Add to the Tragedy in China....

As if the tragedy we have seen in the news in the wake of the earthquake in China is not enough, Human Rights Watch researcher and analyst Kay Seok writes about another group of children suffering from the loss of a parent....and a group of children whose suffering has flown below the media radar.

China shares a border with North Korea and in a city in the Jilin province, there are many children who have North Korean mothers. And yet, these children cannot even be registered and given a legal identity because their mothers are North Korean refugees. If their mothers are discovered, they will be separated from their children and repatriated. If these women return to North Korean they face a lot of persecution, as if the fact that they are separated from their children is not persecution enough. There have been more attempts to crackdown on these refugees as the Beijing Olympics draw closer....

Despite China's international obligation towards refugees, as well as their law that declares that all children regardless of their legal status are entitled to nine years of free and mandatory education, schools demand evidence that children are legally registered in the country..... So parents are unable to get any services for their children as well as basic education. If they want to, the mothers have to leave...or risk getting caught and repatriated.

For more on this injustice refer to the article written by Kay Seok here.