Imagining the Future of a Child in the Developing World
Article
Imagining the future of a child born today in the developing world
Life used to be simple and beautiful in the villages of Africa. Families lived together peacefully. While parents farmed, grandparents remained at home taking care of their grandchildren. Children played in the sand, while the elderly sat quietly under the trees nearby. Such was life in African villages, that is, before the reality of evil and horror in this world brought to Africa a new concept. War, disease, poverty, famine and death.
Africa is not the only part of the world that suffers from these tragic problems. Families living in countries such as Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Cambodia and many other parts of Asia are surviving in severe poverty, countries known as the developing world.
Gone are the beautiful and uniquely cultured lives of those families. Too many children are left alone in this cruel world with no parents, no grandparents, and left with no support system whatsoever. As is the purpose of this article – to imagine the future of these children, I must be honest and say I struggle to. I struggle because the topic is one of great tragedy, and to speak the complete and utter truth, I struggle because I just don’t see a future for them, at least not future in the sense of the word that I know.
If I was asked to think of my own future, it’s almost a reflex that I would think of what career I would like, where I want to travel and about the possibilities of having a family. I don’t take into consideration the struggles I might come across throughout. When I’m asked to think of the future of a child in the developing world, careers and travel plans are not what comes to mind. As it is at the minute, every day is a fight for survival for these children, battling poverty, starvation, loneliness, fear and in many cases HIV/AIDS. I want to be positive and focus on the thousands of people working for charities to ease the suffering of these children, but it becomes more and
Imagining the future of a child born today in the developing world
Life used to be simple and beautiful in the villages of Africa. Families lived together peacefully. While parents farmed, grandparents remained at home taking care of their grandchildren. Children played in the sand, while the elderly sat quietly under the trees nearby. Such was life in African villages, that is, before the reality of evil and horror in this world brought to Africa a new concept. War, disease, poverty, famine and death.
Africa is not the only part of the world that suffers from these tragic problems. Families living in countries such as Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Cambodia and many other parts of Asia are surviving in severe poverty, countries known as the developing world.
Gone are the beautiful and uniquely cultured lives of those families. Too many children are left alone in this cruel world with no parents, no grandparents, and left with no support system whatsoever. As is the purpose of this article – to imagine the future of these children, I must be honest and say I struggle to. I struggle because the topic is one of great tragedy, and to speak the complete and utter truth, I struggle because I just don’t see a future for them, at least not future in the sense of the word that I know.
If I was asked to think of my own future, it’s almost a reflex that I would think of what career I would like, where I want to travel and about the possibilities of having a family. I don’t take into consideration the struggles I might come across throughout. When I’m asked to think of the future of a child in the developing world, careers and travel plans are not what comes to mind. As it is at the minute, every day is a fight for survival for these children, battling poverty, starvation, loneliness, fear and in many cases HIV/AIDS. I want to be positive and focus on the thousands of people working for charities to ease the suffering of these children, but it becomes more and