“The loss of childhood, the crippling effects of trauma, the narrative of grief, and the cruel removal of any sense of hope or of a secure future have been seeping into global discourse about children for many years now. Isn’t it time to begin to see their global crisis for what it is: one of the major threats to a stable future for the planet?”
Bill Moyers:
The United States has shown little concern for the refugee crisis and the children of the war-torn areas of the Greater Middle East. In fact, the Trump administration's budget calls for a cut of more than $130 million in funding for UNICEF, the signature agency providing relief and services to children in need globally.
Karen J. Greenberg, director of the Center on National Security at Fordham Law School, asks:
For every dollar that goes toward a weapon or the immediate struggle against terror outfits, shouldn’t another go to the support of those children, to the struggle to stabilize their lives, to provide them with homes, education, and care of the sort that they so desperately need? For every short-term prediction about the possible harm refugees could bring to a country, shouldn’t there be some consideration of what the children who are taken care of will want to give their new homelands in return? Shouldn’t some thought be given to the world that the rejected or deported young, if left in distress, will someday create?
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Alia and Basma, both 12,
tackle a math question at a temporary school
in northern Lebanon, set up by UNICEF
and Lebanese NGO Beyond Association
with the help of UK aid.
(Photo by DFID - UK Department for International Development |
Flickr CC 2.0)
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By Karen J. Greenberg
