Consequences of Stressors

There are many stressors that children experience in their environment. I am aware of the current stressors that children are experiencing that are highlighted by our text books. I have a firsthand account of the affects that violence has on an individual. Violence is prevalent in many households whether it is against children or domestic.

When I was in the eighth grade, my aunt was murder by her husband in our home. We lived in a five bedroom, two bathroom single level home with 13 people. It was tight but we are a close knit family. For as long as I can remember, the women in my family have endured verbal and physical abuse. Imagine being a child witnessing this type of abuse and being absolutely helpless. My only resource and resolution was to pray. The fear was overwhelming and intolerable. I wanted to run away most times, but I felt as if I was in a world all alone. My siblings, cousins and I would lock ourselves in the room to try and “weather the storm.” And my older males cousins developed raged filled anger that boiled over every time my uncle would go into one of his drunken rages.

On this particular day, my grandmother rushed to pick us up from school. The look on her face was one that I could not describe. She had gotten a phone call from our neighbors that we need to come home immediately. We arrived and our neighbors surrounded the house and they were in a state of shock and disbelief. I can vividly remember feeling my heart pound so hard as if it was about to beat out of my chest. I could hear the sirens as if I was standing next to them on loud speakers. We rushed in the house to see blood everywhere; it was all over our living room sofa, carpet, and wall. He shot her seven times with a 9mm, where she died, and then turned the gun on himself. This is still such a painful memory. I can still see the images clearly and get teary eyed when I reminisce about the memories and pictures that we keep in on the mantel and family albums. To this very day, I cannot stand the sight of guns. They cannot be in my presence, my son can’t play with play ones, I don’t not purchase them and I do not allow them in my home. I cannot tolerate any forms of violence. I am non-confrontational and I do not argue. These actions hold too many bad thoughts and memories. I have never really dealt with the affects that maltreatment, abuse and violence has on me and I don’t think that my siblings/cousins have either. My family has yet to sit down and talk about what took place almost 20 years ago, so I have been holding this hurt and fear bottled up inside. As a family, we continued on but that room still haunts me.

Domestic violence occurs all over the world. Children living in these environmental conditions are traumatized beyond measure. There are several stressors that infect the lives of children in South Africa. Incurable diseases, poverty, and lack of resources are just a few factors that children deal with on a daily basis that have a direct impact on their future. The futures of South African children are extremely vulnerable to these conditions and reflect a crisis facing their livelihoods. The external stressors the lack of food security complicates the well being of the children and their lack of financial resources to support their families. The children of South Africa are unable to cope with such sudden floods or access to limited services which lessens their chances of survival. Coping strategies are being put into place to combat the internal and external stressors that they are encountering. According to (Drimie & Casale, 2009),  “The United Nations (UN), charged with overseeing the unprecedented food aid response in Southern Africa between 2001 and 2006, defined the prevailing situation as the “Triple Threat”: the combination of HIV and AIDS, food insecurity and a weakened capacity for governments to deliver basic social services has led to the region experiencing an acute phase of a long-term emergency (Maunder & Wiggins, 2006).”

Reference

Drimie, S., & Casale, M. (2009, September). Multiple stressors in southern africa: the link between hiv/aids, food insecurity, poverty and children's vulnerability now and in the future. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2904441/