Consequences of Stress on Children's Development

Violence:

Growing up as a child. I stayed fighting in order to defend myself because people use to underestimate my size and height.. There are a many of violent moments that I can remember as childhood memories, but I am going to tell you about the most memorable one that comes to mind. Well my siblings and I use to live in these hood or ratchet apartments named Holiday Apartments which was for people who was on Section 8 in which these apartments still exist until now. Every time we went outside there would end up being a fight because the kids were extreme messy. On this particular day, this girl had been picking at me by calling me names and talking about my mother, so when we came outside to play and she was already picking at me, but I ignored her and continue to play. Later on, we got into an argument and when we finish arguing she left and I started back playing. My back was turned and all I felt was something very HOT heat to my back and all I can remember is hollering. By then my mother had come from nowhere and she took me to the hospital and the doctor gave my mom some cream and a technical shot for me. I had to stay in the house until my burned mark had healed. Whatever my mom did to my burned healed up very well because even if today I showed someone there is not a scar there. My mother told me that she had so much hatred towards the girl's mother and her that it was eating inside her like cancer that she even stop speaking to them., then one day my said that she fell down on her knees and prayed that God will help her forgive them because God forgave her for her wrong doing and that is how she forgave them. Not long after that the apartment that we lived in had caught on fire and my mother went upstairs and got us and put her kids in her 1957 car and then went back upstairs through all that smoke and knocked on her neighbors door and told them get out it is a fire. She grab two house coats and went down stairs to where the girl had burned me with a straighten comb and gave them the coats to help them get out the fire. My mother end up saving their lives and everyone came out the fire safe. It was not long after that we end up moving. THE END


AFGHANISTAN: Domestic violence against children widespread - study

KABUL, 26 February 2008 (IRIN) - Corporal punishment of children by their parents is widely practiced across Afghanistan and is commonly accepted as a form of discipline, says a new study by the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU), a Kabul-based think-tank. 

“Violence towards children in the family is accepted as a normal part of parent-child relationships with little social judgment made toward the perpetrators,” says the study based on interviews conducted in Bamyan, Herat, Kabul and Nangarhar provinces. 

The report, Love, Fear and Discipline: Everyday Violence toward Children in Afghan Families, said many Afghan families perceived corporal punishment as a good way to bring up their children. 

Some parents lashed out at their children due to stress, frustration and economic insecurity, it said. 

“Slapping, ear-pulling, verbal abuse, kicking, punching, beating with sticks or electricity cables or shoes,” are the most commonly practiced forms of domestic violence directed against children, says the study released on 24 February in Kabul. 

Awareness raising 

AREU’s findings also indicate that many parents recognized the physical and psychological harm caused by violence to children and that corporal punishment was not always the best way to discipline their children. 

Some parents have said they were keen to adopt non-violent ways of bringing up their children, but they “have very little knowledge” about it.

“Any programmer working to tackle violence toward children must first recognize that there is a general awareness in the communities of the negative consequences of violence to children… sensitization campaigns should therefore focus on informing people about alternative parenting skills,” the study recommends.

Afghanistan's Ministry of Education (MoE) welcomed the study and said its findings would help the government and other non-government organisations tackle domestic violence against children through different programmers.

"We will establish an independent educational TV channel in the near future through which we will boost public awareness about the negative impacts of violence towards children and the effectiveness of non-violent behaviour with them," said Safiullah Zeer, director of Educational Radio and TV at the MoE, in Kabul.

Child labour 

The AREU study also said that besides being exposed to domestic violence, some children had been taken out of school in order to work full-time and support their families. 

“Significant numbers of families find survival difficult without the contributions of children’s labour,” the study found. 

The study said both male and female children had paid and unpaid responsibilities at home and outside. 

Female children mostly undertake domestic work such as sweeping, washing and cooking, both to assist their mothers and as training for their future roles as wives and mothers, it said. 

Boys typically engaged in outside activities such as collecting water or wood, running errands or taking care of animals.