Women Environmental Programme: The Evelyn Terundu Ugbe Series (Orphans in War-torn Societies)

Orphans in War-torn Societies

My dear friend and brother Blaise Kraffa tasked me to do an article on the plight of orphans. After deep thoughts I came up with a few thoughts on orphans especially those from countries emerging from violent armed conflict.

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Orphan children are groups in the society who have lost their parents through human and natural causes and constitute one of the most vulnerable groups in the society. In most cases these group possess tenacity and determination to excel in life despite their circumstances, they have potentials to contribute immensely to the society.However it will be detrimental if these children take solace in the streets, because they can be lured and conscripted by criminals, sex slaves, more dangerously religious radicals to terrorize the society.

I am particularly concerned about orphan children from societies emerging from armed conflict. According to Leadership newspaper in Nigeria alone there is an estimated 1.5 million children from the ages of 0 to 15 years displaced and are currently eking out a difficult living in various Internally Displaced Camps . Some of these children lost their parents to violent armed conflict, a situation which cuts across countries of the world such as Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Somalia, Syria, Libya and so many others. Many of these children who are traumatized by the effect of so much violence are still reeling in pains of having lost their breadwinners at such a tender age such children also loss the excitement of childhood and adventure associated with it .State governments, Foreign and other humanitarian aid such as clothing, food, shelter sometimes education have proven to be helpful but sustainability over time elicit major concerns. The challenge is how do we integrate them into the society? How do we ensure they have access to comprehensive and uninterrupted education? How do we safe guard their emotional and mental well-being?

All stakeholders have a role to play in safe guarding the lives of orphans. In most developing countries social security systems are absent if present usually weak, the State has the major responsibility to strengthen these systems to address specific needs of orphans especially those emerging from conflict. There is need for functional social policy as well as functional institution to ensure implementation because policy alone cannot guarantee positive change. Businesses, Individuals, multi nationals have the social and moral responsibility of providing both basic and long term needs of orphans.

On a more serious note global inequalities, corruption, embezzlement, are outcome of unquenchable thirst for political and economic power. Thus conflict has given rise to high-level terrorist groups such as Boko-Haram, Al-shabbab,Al Qaidah etc. Leaders from the Global North and South must stop paying lip services to world peace, they MUST sincerely commit to ending armed conflict to prevent the emergence of more orphans.



Evelyn Terundu Ugbe from Ushongo Local Government of Benue state she was born in Abuja on the 18th day of August in the 80's. Miss Ugbe holds a BSC. Degree in Public Administration at University of Abuja and Master's degree in Public Administration at Tsinghua University in Beijing-China. Miss Ugbe served with Kaduna State Board of Internal Revenue and is currently a volunteer at Women Environmental Program. She has lived the most part of her life in Abuja.