The Invisible Victims of Climate Change: How Global Warming Devastates Orphaned Children

 

 

Much has been spoken about the greater impacts of climate change on children as a whole. However, one vulnerable group often overlooked in the conversation are orphaned children. These young, innocent lives bear the brunt of the environmental crisis, facing an uncertain future filled with compounding challenges. 

Penny Appeal has witnessed firsthand the devastating toll that climate change takes on orphaned children across the globe. From drought-stricken regions to flood-ravaged communities, these children are the invisible victims, their suffering hidden behind the statistics and policy debates.

Here are some things to consider. Crop failures due to conditions of drought, flooding, and extreme temperature changes which inevitably lead to higher prices, increases the rate of childhood malnutrition. Environmental degradation induced by climate change is also contributing to an increase in fatal childhood diseases. Children are more at risk of dehydration during extremely high temperatures, and are more prone to suffering the effects of air pollution than adults. 

These concerns, and more, also contribute to declining mental health among children. These effects are only exacerbated when children go from being cared for, to becoming caregivers. 

Orphaned children, particularly those who are thrust into caregiver roles to their siblings, are more at risk of depression, isolation, and poverty. Extended familial instability where family support is lacking, further contributes to long term depressive symptoms, often manifesting by a lack of sociability and silence.

A staggering 40 million children around the world have their education interrupted due to climate related events every year. Those children that are unable to attend school due to lack of access and affordability, are also at risk of detrimental psychological risks where, in the case of orphaned children, taking on adult responsibilities such as providing food, fetching water, seeking and maintaining shelter, becomes a desperate priority. Missing out on early learning development, and childhood activities, further plays into long term psychological harm and hinders their ability to thrive in their later years. 

As droughts intensify and crop yields plummet and prices rise, orphanages find it more and more difficult to provide adequate nutrition and access to clean water amidst the rising number of children in need of protection and care.

As you can see, the detrimental relationship between the global orphaned population and climate change becomes more apparent. Not only does climate change become an environmental issue, it simultaneously poses a human rights concern affecting children in general, but orphaned children in particular.

Penny Appeal has recognised this specific relationship between climate change and orphaned children. It is particularly why we have chosen to concentrate one of our orphan support programs in Pakistan, one of the most climate vulnerable areas of the world. Read more at https://pennyappeal.ca/blog/the-invisible-victims-of-climate-change-how-global-warming-devastates-orphaned-children/