Children Losing Their Childhoods

Towards the end of the video, the film cut to the three kids right in a row and they gave little overviews of their lives. The girl, Hana, said she wanted the war to end so she “could go back to being a little girl again.” That was the biggest wow moment because it really hits you how these kids lose their childhoods. Obviously there are physical losses of family or homes, but psychologically, they have to worry about things that a child should never have to consider. They have to fear for their lives at such a young age, which sounds insane that a child as young as 9, in the case of Chuol, has to experience their father being burned alive. He also says he thinks being eaten by a crocodile would be better than dying in the fighting, which is incredibly sad because no child anywhere should have to be quite literally considering different ways to die.

The only child who was able to go home was the child from Ukraine, who lost his grandfather, but also had to witness coming home to his completely demolished village. The emotional weight of the destruction of everything that he knew and was familiar must have been crushing for such a young boy. The loss of physical things seems so trivial in comparison to the loss of lives, but for kids like the ones in this video, the loss of a place or item that previously provided comfort and a feeling of safety could be devastating to young kids.

Focusing on the experience of these kids really puts into perspective how, on top of every other terrible thing happening in their homes that caused them to leave, they can never experience a childhood in the way that so many of us elsewhere in the world get to. It really hits you how privileged we are to simply feel safe waking up in the morning and not fearing for our lives the way some children in other places in the world have to.