The Great Depression
As a nation living through a recession I can't help but think about many of the children in our own country and wonder what they are going through. And then I began to think about the Great Depression and how devastating that must have been to the children living during that time.
I became mindful of the stories that were told by my ex-husband's grandfather who was born in March of 1910. As a young boy in the 1920's and then a young man in the 1930's, he lived through the Great Depression. He told us stories about his family trying to find work on any farm they could. Friends left town and travelled from place to place to find any work they could. He said that many families lost their children because there was not enough food. In later years he was fortunate enough to plant a lima bean crop. With the proceeds he and his new wife bought a house, paid in full. All four of their children were raised there.
What happened to him affected how he lived the rest of his life. Nothing was taken for granted. Food and household items were not to be wasted. Even used tin foil was saved and utilized repeatedly. He saved many items which were neatly stored in the basement. He never owned a credit card and paid everything in cash. He worked for Dupont for over thirty years. He made sure he saved money and had insurance. His house was open to those needy and less fortunate. Many nights they were feeding the neighborhood children.
Many of the decisions throughout his life were made because of what he went through as a child during the depression.
Stress on Children in Haiti
January, 2010
Some children in Haiti are malnourished, dehydrated, and left abandoned in bushes or on the streets. Some need medical attention. They don't play. Some have lost the one and only toy they have ever owned. Even before the devastation, only half of Haiti's children went to school. In January 2010, teams were doing search and rescue for people. But that does not mean that professionals were not thinking about the consequences to young children in these conditions. Emotional scars and future medical conditions were on the minds of many. Since stability is an important factor for children, adults were trying to find family members or homes for thousands of children. And many people were surprised to see that many of the post-trauma systems we, or other countries like us, have in place were non-existant in Haiti.
Deb,
ReplyDeleteThis is very familiar to me, as a child growing up in Senegal. We experienced severe droughts almost every five years. These types of natural disaster affect children because when children are thirsty or hungry, they cannot focus on education. Likewise, it affects parenting. Parents are very worried about the welfare of their children. They are also stressed, and I remember being spanked for “wasting” water. Stress affects every structure of the family unit. I think we have to work on awareness as well as prevention of natural disasters.