Consequences of Stress on Children's Development

 

 

 

I was five years old when my parents’ divorce.  This had a life altering effect on my life.  I didn't understand why my dad didn't live with us anymore.  I notice a change in my mother and the way she was.  She went from being happy and energetic to sad and depressed.  Now at five years old I didn't know what the change was called I just knew there was a change.  This change affect my school work as well.  I regressed and became silent and unwilling to do the work required to complete the kindergarten.  I unfortunately had to repeat the kindergarten.  There was not much conversation or explanation for the change in our household we just had to deal with it.  My father would pick myself and my sister up on the weekend and drop us back off Sunday nights.  After a year or two of going back and forth from house to house my parents finally realized that hey this didn't just hurt them but had a dramatic impact on us.  My parents gave up the arguing and became friends.  My father would have dinner with us sometime.  How I cope with the divorce was with the help of my mother.  Ounce she could full deal with and understand what happen, she came out of her depression and focus on us.  My mother went back to school and received her Associates in Social Work.  We became closer as a family and we were happy again.

 At the age of fourteen, my father moved to Atlanta, GA.  This was another stress I had to deal with.  This time was prepared to be strong.  I didn't see my dad most of my teenager years, but I did speak with him often.  I was fortunate to have a great support system.  My grandmother (my father's mother) made sure myself and my sister had the best possible childhood.  We visited her every school break, and holiday. 

The stressor I choose to focus on is poverty.  I was fortunate to not have to deal with poverty directly. My mother was not the riches mother but she made sure we had everything we needed to survive.  But other children across the world are not as fortunate. 

One in six children is underweight or suffering from stunting; one in seven has no health care at all; one in five has no safe water and one in three has no toilet or sanitation facilities at home.

• Over 640 million children live in dwellings with mud floors or extreme overcrowding; and over 300 million children have no TV, radio, telephone or newspaper.

 

• Over 120 million children are shut out of primary schools, the majority of them girls.

 

• More than 30,000 children die of preventable causes worldwide every day.

  (Save the Children, 2004)

 

In Brazil the level of poverty is well above the norm for middle-income country.  The participation of children in the labor force in Brazil is at least twice as high as in any other country in Latin America.  In the North and Northeast regions, about a quarter of children under the age of five suffer from chronic malnutrition. (The World Bank, 2013).  The head of household in Brazil is most likely illiterate.  The head is also tends to be young, does not have a labor card, and most commonly works in services. The poorer households significantly have less access to water and sanitation and services than do better off urban households.

 

Paulo Freire Project 
The Ceará Secretariat for Agrarian Development will implement the Productive Development and Capacity Building Project in the State of Ceará (Paulo Freire) over six years.

The project will cost a total of US$95 million, with US$40 million in financing from IFAD, US$40 million from the Ceará state government, and US$14.9 in contributions from the beneficiaries themselves.

“The project looks to reduce extreme poverty in the project area from 43 to 28 per cent, grow household assets by 30 per cent, and provide 60,000 households with training, technical assistance and the tools they need to grow their businesses, access markets, protect the fragile semi-arid environment and lower their risk profile,” said Cossio. “We’ve found that an investment in women and youth is an investment in a sustainable future. With this in mind, over half of the project beneficiaries will be women and young people” (Benchwick, 2012).

Dom Távora Project 
The Rural Business for Small Producers Project (Dom Távora) will be implemented over six years by the Agricultural Development Enterprise of Sergipe agency under the direction of the Secretariat of Agriculture, Agrarian and Rural Development.

It will cost approximately US$38 million, with US$16 million in financing from IFAD, US$12.6 million from the state of Sergipe and over US$9 million from project beneficiaries.

“The Dom Távora Project focuses on fostering local talents and supporting local businesses, with the goal of increasing incomes, supporting producer’s associations and creating a better life,” Cossio said (Benchwick, 2012).

 

REFERENCES

 

Brazil: A Poverty Assessement

http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTPOVERTY/EXTPA/0,,contentMDK:20206734~menuPK:443285~pagePK:148956~piPK:216618~theSitePK:430367,00.html

 

Berger, K. S. (2012). The developing person through childhood (6th ed.). New York: Worth Publishers.

Smidt, S. (2013). The Developing Child in the 21st Century: A global perspective on child development. The Developing Child in the 21st Century: Routledge

Benchwick, G. (2012, September 23). IFAD social reporting blog. : Knowledge is central to overcoming poverty in Brazil. Retrieved February 2, 2014, from http://ifad-un.blogspot.com/2012/09/knowledge-is-central-to-overcoming.html