Chaos
When I was in first grade, my father left my family. My life became very chaotic because he decided to no longer provide for our family. Our electricity was turned off and we were evicted from our home. We were forced to move in with my grandparents.
While living with my grandparents, my grandmother made sure my sister and I came home from school safely. Since my mother was forced to find a job to support herself and two children, she was no able to be home with my sister and I. My grandmother compensated for the absence of my father. My grandfather also compensated for the absence of my father by being a consistent male figure in my life.
Grandparents high in near-parental roles use coping strategies to a greater degree than did those who considered themselves low in this role. The near- parental -role grandparents reported using problem-focused strategies and dealing with the problems causing the stress head-on with a plan of action. They rely on their faith to make something good out of the situation.
Chaos may interfere with development and sustainability of proximal processes because it shortens their duration and increases interruptions, rendering exchanges of energy between the developing child and her or his surroundings less predictable. Chaos may also lower the intensity of proximal processes, given stress and fatigue in parents and other caregivers who must also contend with chaos. Chaotic living conditions might also interfere with the development of competency, the belief that one is an effective agent in coping with one's surroundings. Unpredictable, nonroutine, inconsistent, and noncontingent physical and social surroundings can interfere with a sense of mastery and lead to helplessness in the developing person.
Africa Recovery
A troubled decade for Africa's children
Over a decade after world leaders gathered at the 1990 World Summit for Children to set ambitious targets for improvements in child health and welfare, life for tens of millions of Africa's youngest and most vulnerable inhabitants remains difficult, dangerous and, all too often, tragically short. Despite the unprecedented global prosperity of the 1990s, and modest advances for children in some African countries, children in sub-Saharan Africa are more likely to be ill, less likely to be in school and far more likely to die before the age of five than children in any other region. Trapped in a downward spiral of war, disease and deepening poverty, African children and their parents were, by some measures, worse off at the end of the decade than they were at the beginning.
Not all of the news is bad. Primary school enrollment in Africa rose from 54 percent in 1990 to 60 percent in 1998. Immunization against three common killers- diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus -- stands at 72 percent of children worldwide, but actually declined in Africa during the 1990s to just 46 percent of African children inoculated. The slippage has come despite offsetting progress in 13 African countries which have achieved the target of 80 percent coverage. Measles, another ancient scourge, has declined by nearly two thirds globally over the past decade but remains among the top five killers of African children today. A 1998 UNICEF study found that barely half of African children were immunized against the disease despite the low cost and effectiveness of the vaccine.
In Mali and other countries, government and civil society have forged new alliances to challenge the spread of HIV/AIDS and other diseases, strengthen health and education systems, open up the political process and strengthen transparency and accountability in budgeting and governance. The efforts of individual countries were reinforced by the adoption of an African Common Position by governments and NGOs at the Pan-African Forum on Children in Cairo last year. The statement affirmed children's rights to health, education and peace and declared that "concerns of children and youth of Africa must be at the centre of the global agenda."
www.un.org/ecosocdev/geninfo/afrec/vol16no1/161child.htm
"It takes a village to raise a child." -African Proverb-
In Mali and other countries, government and civil society have forged new alliances to challenge the spread of HIV/AIDS and other diseases, strengthen health and education systems, open up the political process and strengthen transparency and accountability in budgeting and governance. The efforts of individual countries were reinforced by the adoption of an African Common Position by governments and NGOs at the Pan-African Forum on Children in Cairo last year. The statement affirmed children's rights to health, education and peace and declared that "concerns of children and youth of Africa must be at the centre of the global agenda."
www.un.org/ecosocdev/geninfo/afrec/vol16no1/161child.htm
