He is already someone

As told by Rtr. Hansika Medagedara,

“WE WORRY ABOUT WHAT A CHILD WILL BECOME TOMORROW, YET WE FORGET THAT HE IS SOMEONE TODAY.”

There are somethings that we can never buy in our life, one such thing is our childhood, along with all the joy, pain, smiles and tears.

A “child” by biological definition, is a human between the stages of birth and puberty, however when defined in order with socio and cultural aspects, a “child” is someone who has not yet fully adapted to independent living, vulnerable to physical or psychological harm, living in a stage where he starts to crawl out and see and explore a sea full of experiences for his own.

Today’s child is the father of tomorrow and it is the responsibility of the adults to protect them and ensure that they get the best footings in their lives. Unfortunately, this is not always the case as children across the globe, face tremendous sufferings beyond their capacity every passing second.

From child abuse to child labor, poverty and ignorance has played its role through the ages, robbing childhood away from innocent children. But with the advancement of technology, and deterioration of human values, children of the new era face much complicated traumas, such as military use, trafficking and slavery, child abuse, negligence, lack of access to education, being restricted to refugee camps due to displacement, poverty, and violence through indoctrination.

The modern child is more exposed to the society, through social media and advanced communication technology. The Internet can be a hazard zone for children. From cyber predators to social media posts that can come back to haunt them later in life, today’s child faces much complicated threats. Hence protecting children on the Internet is a contemporary need as cyber bullying, cyber predators, insufficient knowledge on privacy, phishing, scams have ruined lives of thousands of children with instances that have resulted in suicidal attempts or death.

Parents and adults have a new role with their children in the digital age. Communication, education and being a role model itself is are the ways to protect children from cyber threats.

Many child protection programs have been organized to protect children from abuse, neglect, exploitation or violence by creating child friendly spaces during emergencies such as evacuation or displacement, reunifying separated and unaccompanied children with their families after such procedures in emergencies, developing public awareness campaigns against child trafficking, piloting training programs for social workers to provide supportive care to families and children and advocating for more effective child protection and welfare policies both globally and internationally.

Competitions, entertainment programs, games are organized in national and institutional levels to annually commemorate World Children’s day, however a solitude smile among thousands of fallen tears is insufficient to rewrite the tear sodden pages of a suffering childhood. Child protection and welfare should be consistent, continuous and well adapted to contemporary needs. Every child’s life is worth saving. The crook teethed, dimpled smiles and pearls of laughter of each saved child itself shall be a worthwhile tribute to you.

There is no greater insight into the future than recognizing, that it is when we save our children that we save ourselves. May the magic, the wonder, the mystery, and innocence of a child’s heart bear the seeds of creativity that shall heal our world!