The Impact of Armed Conflict on Children

The Impact of Armed Conflict on Children

In November, 2004, the World Forum Foundation and NIPPA - the early years organisation hosted Working Forum Belfast which explored the power of early childhood education to bring communities together during and after periods of armed conflict. We brought together a working team of early childhood professionals from major conflict areas of the world to share and compare their healing strategies and practices. The Working Team came together again in Montreal at the 2005 World Forum to continue this work. One member of this team, Felicien Ntakiyimana from Chad, shared some of his experiences in the May 2005 issue of Exchange in the article, "Impact of Armed Conflicts on Children, Families and Communities." The following is an excerpt from this article where Felicien describes the impact of armed conflict on children's socialization:

"The feeling of loneliness, and perhaps of injustice that follows post conflict societies creates a sort of marginalization of the other. Children are not free to associate with whom they like. Parents or caregivers choose for them. I witnessed lots of friendships in Rwanda that were rigged with mistrust, especially due to ethnic belonging.

"When I was in prison, a son of mine, Parfait, was attending kindergarten. He would leave the other children and walk away with another child whose father was also detained, and the two would throw stones on any military vehicle. He was just four. He asked himself why the military would not let his father go. He said that if the military were not there, he would take his father home. And he did not feel a sense of belonging to the group of children whose parents were not detained.

"When he came to visit me, I explained to him in the two minutes allowed to us that he should not nurture hatred against the military, that he should love them, that God did not allow him to hate. Fortunately, he accepted my advice.

"But when now I look at my children, I notice that each has developed self protection mechanisms against the outside world. When they enter into their shell, it is sometimes difficult to make them assist to weddings or other social ceremonies. For most of them, there is no love, or love is just pretension, make believe, a sort of drama played by the society. And this feeling I noted during my visits to children-headed households.

"In July 2003, in one District of Kibuye, I asked children whom they refer to when they have a problem. The answer was clear: they refer to children experiencing similar problems. No trust in adults. Adults would rob them of their property, or abuse them, or exploit them economically or sexually. This distrust was so much rooted that we had to devise a social and psychological support program through some non-governmental organizations.

"My experience with these children heading households, generally having to care for their siblings, makes me acknowledge that the impact of armed conflicts do not last only decades. They may last generations. In the case of Rwanda, if no proactive action is taken to build society through early stimulation and early childhood development programs, the impact of the genocide on the society may last centuries and I am not being pessimistic, given the current trends."

An expanded version of this article is available in the Free Resources section of our web site at
http://mail.ccie.com/go/eed/0652.

In addition, the proceedings of Working Forum Belfast with contributions from participants from Croatia, Israel, Colombia, the Philippines, South Africa, Albania, Northern Ireland, Mali, and Nepal are now available on a CD at http://mail.ccie.com/go/eed/0653

For more information about Exchange's magazine, books, and other products pertaining to ECE, go to www.ccie.com.

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