Stress on Children

I guess I was pretty lucky growing up, because I didn't have too many stressors impact my childhood. Of the stressors I did have (my grandma dying and have seizures) I was too young to really remember them, or how they impacted my life.

So, for this assignment, I turned to by best friend, Amanda. Amanda and I have known each other since kindergarten, and are practically sisters. Amanda went through a very stressful period when she was growing up. Her dad was diagnosed with leukemia when we were still grade school. I know the stress that it put on Amanda and her family as they were going through this very difficult times. Amanda has always been very good at hiding her emotions around people, but not around me. She was constantly worrying about her dad, who was 3 hours way from home getting treatment. I had asked her later on how she was able to cope with it all, and she said it was the family support that helped the most. She said her grandparents, aunts, and uncles were all there to help during this stressful time. It all ended good though, Amanda's dad has been cancer-free for about 18 years now! I think through this stressful time, I think it made Amanda realize how sometimes we take things for granted and we really have to treasure our time with our love ones because you never know what's going to happen!

I chose to look at West Africa because of the recent Ebola outbreak there. Not only are children dealing with losing loves ones to this disease, but there is now a food shortage because people are being restricted from delivery food to the hard hit areas. Whole towns have been shut down because of the outbreak, and people are being force to stay inside, which is making it difficult for families to go out and farm, sell their goods, make money, and buy food. Not only that, but food is so scare that if they did find it, they probably weren't going to be able to afford it (Sheahen, 2014). We all know how important it is that children are getting the proper nutrients in order to develop proper, and the consequences for not getting the proper nutrients. Church organizations, groups, and volunteers have been working tremendously hard to help those areas hit hard by the disease outbreak by bringing food and raising funds to fight the disease.

References:
Sheahen, L., (24 Sept, 2014). Ebola-hit West Africa faces food shortage. Caritas Internationalis.
     Retrived from http://www.caritas.org/2014/09/ebola-hit-west-africa-faces-food-shortages/