English 100 Spring 2019 Blogs

After learning all the information from Syrian women refugees, I think what really moved me the most was the point when women had to be independent for their family to survive or to be dependent on someone else no matter what the cost was. One of the videos that I recently watched, talked about how a woman had to take a step in becoming the main provider for her family. This woman could no longer be the compassionate and comforting mother she was once before, for she had to be the stricter parent in order for them to protect themselves against the world. It was sad to hear that she had it all once this war broke out and when her husband became ill, she had no idea what to do first. In customs like these, I can see that it would be very difficult for her to adjust. Considering that we are a society that is very developed, women don’t depend on men to take care of them because we were grown to be independent and strong. I found what was really sad was the downfall of how some women couldn’t take care of their families, especially themselves. This led these women to either do sex trafficking or other sexual things in exchange for food, assistance or money.

I have to say that I appreciate each and every one of the classmates blogs, comments and reflections of what they are learning,it helps me to thinking another viewpoint and to research more on topics that have been disgusted in class.

The recent post from Jayna 44 I like her style of writing, she gives a personal perspective and she is honest about her thoughts, it’s very connective and thoughtful writing to the subject of refugee children with details of the facts that they’re experiencing mental health, physically conditions,traumatic experiences by seeing their parents killed from acts of violence. She shares her validated opinion that makes sense and is relatable.

I recognize and connect to her voice and her compassion and emotion in her writings.

“They have lost the special feeling of just simply being a kid, and living a “normal” child life. It is hard to read and learn about the tragic truths and stories of these Syrian refugee children.” short sweet and to the point.

Further I enjoyed Nokeakuahawaiied . I like what he wrote I also connect to what he he is researching. I am also interested in the children, I agree with his opinion of not turning a blind eye but to pay attention. right to be aware of it and so that we can help so this is important for us to know and to to read about ” I want my paper to appeal to people and open their eyes about what the children are going through so more people would want to help.” I also look forward to reading his paper and when I see statements like this it makes me want to be aware of it and it makes me want to help.

sweetleilani

1. “This article talks about the invisible scars that are left on the children during this time”

In the article “Invisible Wounds” it talks about the horrific scars that are left in the children’s minds and hearts. A teacher said “The children are psychologically crushed and tired. When we do activities like singing with them, they don’t respond at all. They don’t laugh like they would normally. They draw images of children being butchered in the war, or tanks, or the siege and the lack of food.” It’s heartbreaking to hear that a child’s future and life was taken from them because of violence and n matter what we people do or say they can’t unsee what they have seen or forget what they went through.

These children have witnessed countless deaths! They have seen their homes, schools and hospitals bombed and they have seen people even their families being crushed by the debris of the buildings as they came tumbling down. These kids are constantly living in fear, wondering if they will live till the next day or die due to lack of medicine, food and water. Statistics show that 71% of kids have PTSD, 51% turns to drugs in order to cope with their suffering, 59% of kids joined armed groups and 48% of kids lost the ability to talk. There are so much more statistics about what happened to these children the examples I just displayed was just the tip of the iceberg. I can’t even begin to understand what these children have been through and to be honest it is kind of disgusting to know that all these people and the especially the children’s lives have been ruined to due to violent acts. The article main focus is to inform people and make them aware of this situation and to have a better understanding that this is actually happening to these kids.

1. “This article talks about the Syrian refugee children”

In another article by “Ucef USA” it talks about the intense living environment for children and the suffering they have to go through on a daily basis. According to the article there is limited space for refugees let alone families, no access to any fresh water, multiple families are living together and their isn’t really an education system in place there for families and children are selling everything they have for scraps of food in order to get by. Due to the limited resources majority of kids are fending for themselves so some kids are doing hard labor to try and get food or water but a lot of other kids are joining gangs or stealing in order to survive there for violence is increasing.

The age of marriage is supposed to be 16 but a bunch of families are settling for 13 sometimes even younger so that their kids can get into other families that might be better off than they originally are. If that not bad enough there is no health care so many children are getting sick, it could be many things such as drinking dirty water, starving, not showering, eating spoiled food or even just diseases being passed from person to person the possibilities are endless and these refugees and children just can’t catch a break. These kids have seen things that majority of us won’t see in a lifetime, they had their homes and sometimes even their families taken from them a feeling that not everyone knows and wishes they won’t.

1. “This source is about stranded Syrian refugee camps and living situations”

In the article published by the “New York Times” it talks about the refugees and their living situations. I decided to put this in my paper because I can tie this with violence as well. According to the “New York Times” there is over 660,000 registered refugees this doesn’t include the non registered or the ones who are still making their way to other camps. Statistics show that out of all the refugees fleeing for safety around 50% of them are children. Children are making the journey in order to seek safety in Jordan through all they intense heat and cold nights they are striving to try and find a better life than the one they are living now due to the violence that is occurring in their homes.

According to the article Jordan was not at all helping and said “The situation is grim, and we know more people are on their way” even after stating that it is easy to tell they aren’t supporting the refugees they in fact did the opposite and sent their military to the borders and started to drive away the children and their families. Even knowing what the children and their families witnessed and sacrificed in order to survive they used more violence from their military forces to drive them away. The families were to scared to go back home so they all ended up sleeping outside of Jordan in the intense weather hoping that they would be saved but the next morning more than 5 children didn’t make it sources say they were stung to death by scorpions. When will their suffering stop? Who will help them? How much kids and families have to die for people to notice the problem?

1. “This article is about refugee children being caught up in the violence”

In the article from “unicef USA” it talks about a lot of the struggles that the Syrian refugees are going through because of all the violence that is happening around them but it’s main focus is talking about the children and their living environment and the violence they are facing on a daily basis.

For kids certain places make you feel safe and secure such as homes, schools, playgrounds, hospitals or even parks but that is not the case here statistics show that 13.1 million children have witnessed violence or attacks on these places leaving them heartbroken and devastated. They place where they can act their age and have fun was taken from them because of violence and now they can never have that secure feeling of being safe again. The truth is no one is safe now statistics show that in December of last year around 10,000 children died because of the violence. These violence caused many families to leave and run away according to the “World Health Organization” families fled for a camp to the North East it sounds like a good plan but not if everyone has the same idea. So many people fled their mostly women and children but due to the lack of tents families were forced to sleep outside in the cold weather and that exposure claimed the lives of so much innocent children who tried to run away so they wouldn’t perish. It’s hard to hear about all these kids struggling for survival but then dying because of what the violence forced them to do. It isn’t right for the families that have so seek asylum but it’s even worse to strip a child of their childhood let alone their life as well.

For my bibliography I have decided to talk about the refugee children and what they are going through but more specifically the violence that is occurring and affecting them not from other countries but from their fellow refugees. I decided on this topic because I wanted to appeal to the readers hearts and show them the pain and suffering these children are going through.

1. “This article is about multiple things but mostly about refugee violence”

According to the article “Shattered Lives” majority of the violence that is occurring in the refugee camps is due to domestics. Statistics show that male spouses are the number one perpetrators with a 37%, second would be fathers or caregivers with 27%, tied for third is female spouses and mothers with 8% and so on so forth. It also shows us a chart of where these violent actions take place. The top spot for where violent actions take place is in home tents where people can’t witness what is going on for girls it is 47% and boys with 23% the second most common place is in the showers or bathrooms 25% for girls and 19% for boys. If it’s not bad enough already being scared of going home to the place where you would think is the safest place their are also a bunch of other violence occurring in the camps such as gang formation and children associating with other armed groups. These kids are going through all this in order to survive but in the process they are being scarred and traumatized from all the things they went through or are facing at such a young age.

I am beginning to learn more about the Syrian refugees who are children/teens. Hundreds of children as young as 5 years old are experiencing major traumatic events that will forever damage them mentally and even physically. I am reading different articles about children who are trying to leave Syria with their families, but get separated or they witness their families violently die right before their eyes. Children who get to their destination successfully, but are immediately forced to work and endure harsh labor. Children who are no longer the same after everything they have seen and been through. They have lost the special feeling of just simply being a kid, and living a “normal” child life. It is hard to read and learn about the tragic truths and stories of these Syrian refugee children.

I think we have fine examples of refugee integration working out both wonderfully and horribly. In my mind this means we simply need to focus on what works. Which appears to be refugees being spread out across larger areas, rather than being concentrated in one place. This provides easier access to jobs, housing, and the attendant benefits that kind of security provides. Conversely it seems when large groups of people are in one place there is a shortage of work and housing which is a common cause of many issues such as poverty, crime, and substance abuse.