The French charity SOS Enfants en Détresse initiated an international day dedicated to war orphans years ago.
It aims to raise international public awareness of the fact that children’s rights must be respected during armed conflicts, in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
According to UNICEF estimates, some 5,700 children are orphaned every day as a result of conflict, natural disasters, poverty, disease and lack of adequate health care.
Some 25,000 Ukrainian soldiers have lost their lives in the war in their country and other 15,000 are missing, while the American press estimates a much higher figure of 70,000 casualties. Hundreds of the victims are children, according to UNICEF.
The Romanian-speaking press in Chernivtsi announces almost daily funerals of Ukrainian heroes, most of Romanian origin. Many of them are parents of children who will no longer benefit from the protection, encouragement and resources that any father brings to his family.
Meanwhile, of the total number of casualties in Gaza, which has exceeded 20,000 (out of a population of two million), half are women (i.e. mothers) and children – about as many as have been killed in two decades of conflict in Afghanistan.
War orphans continue to exist in the 21st century. They face poverty first and foremost, but also the trauma of violence and – above all – the absence of parents killed in conflict.
In the absence of fathers killed in conflict, some orphans, if they come from large families, are forced to take on the role of head of household much earlier than they would have expected or been prepared to do.
One of the saving ideas that Christianity has preached throughout the world has been that children should never have to pay for the sins of their parents or, more generally, for the mistakes of adults.
These children need not only awareness that they exist, but also material and moral support. Donate for children in Ukraine here. Donate for children in Gaza here.
Poto credit: © UNICEF/UN041513/Alshami (2016 – orphan from the war in Syria in an underground children playground)
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