The pursuit of an ideal

This Sunday is International Day of Peace, a day devoted to strengthening the ideals of peace, both within and among all nations and peoples. Senior Conflict Adviser Sarah Pickwick reflects that we still have some way to go before ideals become a reality for children around the world.

By Sarah Pickwick, Senior Conflict Advisor

When I was growing up as a child in the UK I don't think I gave the idea of peace a second thought - I lived with the reality of it and therefore just took it for granted. I was far more preoccupied with my dolls, my newly acquired plastic kitchen set and my friends at school. But for many children around the world today, peace is only an ideal, it's not a reality. If you are a child growing up in Somalia, Gaza, Iraq, Congo, or South Sudan, conflict is probably all you have known your entire life.

Lasting effects

Children are not responsible for the conflict situations in which they find themselves today but sadly they are often disproportionally affected. Effects may be direct such as being injured, losing loved ones, fleeing violence or being recruited into an armed group, but they can also be more indirect in terms of disruption to schooling or health services. And the list goes on.

Earlier this year I went to eastern Congo where conflict has been ongoing since 2003. A group of children explained to me how they had fled because of the fighting caused by one of the rebel groups in the area. They were now living in squalid conditions with 5,000 other people in a camp, with no clean water, no access to school and rarely even one decent meal a day.

I also met three boys who had been recruited into an armed group but had managed to get free. Robbed of their childhood and separated from their families, although free they had nowhere permanent to live and were clearly traumatised.

In Somalia, from where I've literally just returned, some of the children I met told me how their schools and health clinics were destroyed as a result of the conflict and are still not rebuilt, and how they were afraid because there weren't enough police around to make them feel safe.

When you turn on the news the world appears anything but peaceful. Gaza has been through three significant conflicts in the last seven years alone. South Sudan was in a state of civil war for 22 years, had a brief period of peace and then lapsed back into conflict in December of last year. Somalia has been in a constant state of conflict and instability since 1991. And these are just a few of the thirty plus armed conflicts going on in the world today. Peace is a wonderful ideal to celebrate but the challenge on International Peace Day is how do we make it real for the children affected by conflict?

Choosing to act

The truth is it's all a matter of not being overwhelmed but taking the first or next step.

For us at World Vision we try and help to bring about peace in a number ways. It is sometimes through immediate relief programmes, where we're trying to help children and their families regain a sense of hope and protection after a conflict has taken so much from them. This could be by providing them with food or blankets, or perhaps a safe place for children to come and play after they've seen and experienced so much. It could also help their communities gain new skills so they can cope better when violence comes and goes.

We also do peace building work with children, giving them a voice in decisions and peace processes so they can say what they need. We're continually raising and advocating for the needs of children affected by conflict, who should not be forgotten by decision makers. The key aspect in all of our work is that children and their needs remain centre stage.

But, make no mistake; the pursuit of peace comes at a cost. It requires long term commitment to children in conflict as we journey with them. Peace is incredibly hard to obtain (and even harder to keep). At times it can be utterly frustrating, rarely quick in showing results and often seems like one step forward and two steps back. But the amount of conflict in the world today means now is the time more than ever that we need to scale up. We do believe peace is possible in some of these places and that it’s completely worth it.

The International Day of Peace presents us with the opportunity to pause and re-commit to the long term work of pursuing peace. Our goal at World Vision is that the ideal becomes a reality for all children one day, no matter where they live.