CHILDREN AT WAR

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CHILDREN AT WAR

• NOT PROTECTED WHEN MOST NEEDED
• By Magne Raundalen, Center for Crisis Psychology,
  Bergen
• For the Dag Hammarskjöld Program
• Child Soldier Conference at Voksenåsen 6 Nov 2009

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20 YEARS WITH CRC

• THERE ARE MANY REASONS TO CELEBRATE THE 20TH
  ANNIVERSARY OF THE CONVENTION ON THE RIGHTS OF
  THE CHILD
• BUT WE HAVE TO FACE THAT IN CASES OF WAR AND
  ARMED CONFLICT THE CHILDREN HAVE BEEN TOTALLY
  UNPROTECTED

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CHILDREN AND WAR HEADLINES

• THE BETRAYAL
• THE LOSS
• THE TRAUMA

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THE BETRAYAL

• This concept is meant to cover the immeasurable
  cognitive impact among children after wars. The
  mental work they have to do when they try to
  piece together a framework to rebuild the trust
  in the adult world after the collapse. They often
  report that they felt being let down and betrayed
  by the adult world.

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THE LOSS

• The second aspect of tremendous emotional impact
  on children in times of war is the loss of lives.
  Since modern wars affect more and more civilians,
  and since even children are becoming the target
  of the parties in conflict, the loss of all
  categories of close relatives has increased. In
  the worst-hit areas in an armed conflict, you
  seldom find a child who is not affected by loss
  of a close persons. Almost everyone reports loss
  among close family members, in their extended
  family or network of relatives.

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THE TRAUMA

• The third issue to cover the mental sufferings of
  children in war and crisis, is the trauma. War
  affected children are often haunted by traumatic
  sense impressions that are stored as anxiety and
  tension in their memories. Images and sounds may
  constantly bother the child by returning to the
  mind as vivid, sudden and uncontrolled
  recollections. These recurring, intrusive
  memories seem to disturb the whole network of
  feelings and thus become very disruptive to other
  cognitive functions.

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STUDENTS OF WAR

• Children are scientists, they are constantly
  doing research, sometimes desperate, to be able
  to understand what is going on around them. They
  are studying war, peace and politics at a much
  earlier age level than we have imagined.

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EXPLANATIONS

• In the mind of the child the understanding of war
  may become an intolerable and untouchable site of
  horror and trauma, and it will form a negative
  network of anger and revenge against a demonized
  enemy. If we want it to become, and we should, a
  cognitive frame of explanation based on truthful
  and comprehensible information, we have to
  include political understanding. Even if children
  are correcting and updating their frames
  constantly throughout childhood, this is a
  process depending on adult input, adapted for age
  and developmental level.

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PROTECTING THE BRAIN

• My main issue here and now is that the whole area
  of research on early child development in concert
  with cognitive neuroscience have sent warning
  signals related to early adverse childhood
  experiences and later health problems. In my
  opinion they have made it inevitable that we the
  next decade has a constant focus on babies in
  war.

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CHILD-BRAIN-PROTECTION
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THE USE-DEPENDENT DEVELOPMENT OF THE BRAIN

• BORN WITH MORE THAN ONE BILLION NERVE CELLS
• ONLY 10-15 CONNECTED AT BIRTH
• EACH CELL MAY HAVE 15000 CONNECTIONS
• HAS TO BE FORMATTED BY EXPERIENCES
• There is nothing more biologocal than
  experiences
• Bruce Perry, University of Texas

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REPAIRING THE BRAIN

• WE ALL HAVE AN AFRICAN BRAIN
• WE MAY ALL GET A PTSD
• POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER
• WE MAY ALL BE HELPED
• THE MAIN ROAD IS THE LANGUAGE
• TALKING MEDICINE
• NEW METHODS ARE IN THE MAKING
• EVEN METHODS FOR REMOTE REPAIR
• NEUROSEQUENTIAL MODEL OF THERAPEUTICS NMT -
  (Bruce Perry, 2009)

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IMPORTANT REFERENCES

• Bruce D. Perry
• Examining Child maltreatment ThroughaNeurodevelop
  mental Lens Clinical Applications of the
  Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics.
• Journal of Loss and Trauma, 14240-255, 2009
• Sprang R. et al.
• Translating Neurodevelopment into Practice
• How to go from fMRI to Home visit.
• Journal of Loss and Trauma, 14325-346, 2009

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BECOMING A CHILD SOLDIER

• A SHORT REPORT BASED ON PERSONAL COMMUNICATION
• WITH CHILD COMBATANTS IN
• UGANDA, SUDAN, MOSAMBIQUE, SOMALIA, SIERRA
  LEONE, LIBERIA, ANGOLA, RWANDA, SRI LANKA

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CHILD SOLDIER 2

• wanted revenge for specific events
• enrolled by desperation
• a gun is a meal ticket
• was attractive as recruits/a needed person
• children among the first to join (Liberia)
• schools destroyed/closed/dangerous

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CHILD SOLDIER 3

• coerced participation
• round-up/forced/abducted
• children preferred as combatants (Renamo)
• more brutal than adult soldiers
• more obedient/easier to command
• street children more easy to recruit

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CHILD SOLDIER 4

• manipulative as pressure
• participation/joining was an anti-depressant
• gave sense of identity/nationalism
• schools were also recruiting/training centers
• declining school system
• militarized refugee camps
• had witnessed extreme violence/traumatized
• desire to take control over events

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CHILD SOLDIER 5

• obtained long term subsistence/survival
• the route poverty-social injustice-recruiting
• the better of only bad alternatives
• being an orphan/Uganda
• protected at the shooting side of the gun
• siblings tell attractive stories about camp life
• peer-group pressure to join
• join for a cause ideology and indoctrination

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THE GREAT ACHIEVEMENT OF OUR TIME

• ESTABLISHING THE GLOBAL EMPATHY
• WHO DID IT?
• THE JOURNALISTS
• THE HAND HELD CAMERA
• STAYING BEHIND
• TELLING THE STORY