Photo: Lova Renee is known for her awareness messages during the COVID-19 pandemic in Madagascar, including giving tips on how to maintain positive mental health despite lockdowns. ©UNICEF/UN0475056/Ralaivita
By the International Movement ATD Fourth World
As a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, government policies around the world may have inadvertently affected the mental wellbeing of children. From national and regional lockdowns confining 332 million children to their homes[1] to families being split apart with limited digital contact[2], an immense emotional burden has been placed on children. When children and their families have insecure housing, they can find themselves unable to follow government safety guidelines. For children confined to their home during the pandemic, the quality of education has decreased, or education has been left out altogether as a result of income-earning responsibilities, due to greater rates of unemployment of parents and an entrenched gendered division of labour within the household. These changes have placed great stress on children who had to adapt to fewer contacts with friends and a reduction in the social safety nets that schools and communities often provide, be it through the provision of school meals or support services that improve their well-being. This closure of schools and confinement to the home has resulted in vast emotional and psychological pressures for children.
For children taken into the care system who were not permitted to see their family in person, as was the case in Switzerland[3] and the United Kingdom[4], unreliable digital contact and reduced communication has resulted in greater fear and uncertainty for both parents and children. Moreover, the reliance on digital technology for determining the future of children in family court hearings breaches court protocols with hearings that do not meet established standards and provide minimal support to families[5]. These flawed systems ignore the emotional impact of separation on families.
The emotional burden of the pandemic is exacerbated by deep poverty and often by issues related to legal status, which determine the ability to access healthcare, food banks or digital technology and to follow government guidelines to keep safe.[6] The accumulation of these uncertainties places immense stress on households, and particularly children experiencing poverty.
In attempting to understand the issues around the mental wellbeing of children throughout the global pandemic, the impacts of multidimensional poverty must be at the forefront of our consciousness. Before COVID-19 disrupted lives, data from 70 countries by UNICEF and Save the Children show that 45 percent of children lacked access to essential services (education, housing, nutrition, sanitation and water)[7]. These conditions have only worsened under the pandemic, as testimonies by families living in poverty have shown. In order to adequately address issues of wellbeing, it is important to give center stage to the voices and experiences of children in order to understand through their own words how their lives have been impacted by the pandemic.
Insights from Testimonies:
In order to better understand how children experience poverty, our local teams have set up discussion groups and activities for children to express themselves, and have seen the drawings and read the messages sent to our children’s branch (Tapori International). These testimonies highlight the struggle of living through the pandemic with uncertainty about being able to survive. 14 year old Randrianirintsoa stated that the pandemic in Madagascar was “affecting our family life because we don’t have money to buy food […] I felt the suffering because it is hard for my parents to find money”. This shows how children internalise the pain of living in poverty without having the means to escape it. A way to partially mediate this suffering is for children to get a paid job in order to financially support their family, despite the implication of introducing new pressures and responsibilities into their lives. As 15 year old Eliane expressed, “I weave carpets to help my parents” for “when I don’t sell, we don’t eat at home anymore”. As their family suffers from her father’s unemployment, Elaine succinctly states that “the poor are suffering because it is difficult to make money”, illustrating how children feel pressured into working at a young age to escape poverty and hunger. Having to work to support their families causes children to have to grow up faster and does not afford them the opportunity to fully experience childhood.
Along with expressing concern for poverty and hunger, issues of social isolation and a lack of contact with friends were also present, as explained by 12 year old Roudy from Mauritius: “I wanted to go talk to my friends. It was too hard to stay locked up. I was afraid our life would not be the same. I was afraid of dying.” This powerful statement shows how anxieties overlap and produce different types of emotional burdens.
For 12 year old Justin in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, there is the additional weight of emotionally supporting his grandmother as “she is alone and cannot lift a can of water, properly prepare her food and wash her clothes properly […] I don’t want to lose my grandmother, she also has to feel safe and be protected. I want to stay next to her until the end of lockdown. I have to break this loneliness for her”. From these testimonies, we gather that children who live in poverty are especially burdened with responsibilities to emotionally and financially support their family, whilst facing the uncertainty of losing loved ones to COVID-19.
Although each testimony is unique to the circumstances of the individual child, these issues are widespread, with 150 million additional children living in poverty due to the pandemic, joining the ranks of the 1.2 billion children experiencing multidimensional poverty[8]. This shows how important it is to address the wellbeing of children, given the great risk the pandemic poses to their lives, be it through the physical threat to life or the emotional weight of experiencing poverty.
Policy Recommendations:
As multidimensional poverty affects mental and emotional wellbeing in complex ways, it is vital that psychological outcomes are acknowledged when considering policies addressing poverty. As the above testimonies show, issues of mental health cannot be addressed without recognising how poverty, hunger and lack of access to services such as education, contribute to emotional pressures. While some reports from UNICEF address the effects of COVID-19 on the mental wellbeing of children[9], more should be done to explore this issue at both regional and grassroot levels. This can be through documenting the experiences of children and collaborating with specialists to better grasp the full extent of the emotional and mental impact of COVID-19 on children around the world.
The programmes conducted by ATD Fourth World range from community outreach to support for children through social and cultural activities, solidarity and advice[10]. Other ways to support the wellbeing of children include providing social protection for vulnerable children, helping with schooling in a localised way[11], and engaging with youth groups and civil society organisations. Social support to address issues of wellbeing for children can emerge at the grassroots level from local communities. Addressing issues of poverty through supporting the mental and emotional wellbeing of children at different levels of implementation can help ensure that no child is left behind.
[1] UN News. 2021. Mental health alert for 332 million children linked to COVID-19 lockdown policies: UNICEF. Online at: https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/03/1086372 [Accessed on 18/06/2021]
[2] ATD Fourth World. 2021. Stop This Vicious Circle. Online at: https://www.atd-fourthworld.org/foster-care-in-switzerland/ [Accessed on 28/06/2021]
[3] Ibid.
[4] Support not Separation. 2020. Coronavirus emergency: a threat to mothers and children already targeted by poverty, child removal, and domestic violence. Online at: https://supportnotseparation.blog/2020/03/31/coronavirus-emergency-a-threat-to-mothers-and-children-already-targeted-by-poverty-child-removal-and-domestic-violence/ [Accessed on 28/06/2021]
[5] ATD Fourth World. 2020. The Injustice of Remote Family Court Hearings. Online at: https://atd-uk.org/2020/10/27/the-injustice-of-remote-family-court-hearings/ [Accessed on 28/06/2021]
[6] ATD Fourth World. 2020. How the Pandemic is Impacting People in Poverty. Online at: https://www.atd-fourthworld.org/how-the-pandemic-is-impacting-people-in-poverty/ [Accessed on 28/06/2021]
[7] UNICEF. 2020. Impact of COVID-10 on multidimensional child poverty. Online at: https://data.unicef.org/resources/impact-of-covid-19-on-multidimensional-child-poverty/ [Accessed on 21/06/2021]
[8] UNICEF. 2020. 150 million additional children plunged into poverty due to COVID-19, UNICEF, Save the Children say. Online at: https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/150-million-additional-children-plunged-poverty-due-covid-19-unicef-save-children [Accessed on 21/06/2021]
[9] UNICEF. 2020. Responding to the mental health and psychological impact of Covid-19 on children and families. Online at: https://www.unicef.org/media/83951/file/MHPSS-UNICEF-Learning-brief.pdf. [Accessed on 18/06/2021]
[10] ATD Fourth World. Community Outreach / Peer Support. Online at: https://atd-uk.org/projects-campaigns/community-outreach-peer-support/. [Accessed on 18/06/2021]
[11] ATD Fourth World. 2020. Regional Gatherings on the Impact of Covid-19 on African Children. Online at: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/56588879e4b0060cdb607883/t/5f11ef81df199179a75b5926/1595010981626/ATD+FW+Regional+Gatherings+on+Covid+2020.pdf[Accessed on: 28/06/2021]