“Existing data shows that one child dies every five minutes in the world from the consequences of being maltreated or abused.  But what about the children who manage to survive and carry on, the best they can, into adulthood? Despite all odds, studies have also demonstrated that these children will be at higher risk of developing physical, behavioral and emotional hardship which might translate, in the long term, into potential maltreatment inflicted upon their own offspring. The cycle of violence needs to be broken.

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In a time of strong intra and cross-border regional movements, there is a need for the business of aid to be redefined with new multicultural guidelines, new commonly-approved objectives, new empowering role definitions for those “aiding” and those “in need”, which ought to unfailingly lead to a more appropriate scale of measurable and sustainable practices.  Aid must close the gap between inequalities and be designed to fit an empowering win-win scenario for all stakeholders on each side of the receiving and giving end, so children – as well as their caretakers – no longer be defined by their hardships but by their strengths, their resilience, their innate capacity to thrive when given the opportunity to take an active role in shaping their own lives and improving their own health.

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Today there are ways to treat the damages caused by maltreatment and contextual hardships before they are genetically or behaviorally transmitted to the next generation, while respecting the culture, the traditions, the beliefs and the societal blueprints pertaining to deeply challenged and evolving community structures.  Within this context, the objective is certainly not to offer a standardized format of help but instead, to adapt and respect the differences and uniqueness of each region, community, and family structural pattern. This way, we are not only aiding children to carry on with their own cultural heritage, but we also equip them with the tools to overcome pain, liminality, ambiguity and loss, so they can carry on through their childhood, and grow to become the caring, healthy and thriving individual they were always born to be.”  

                                                                                                                      Virginie Morel