There must be hope for children

By Helena Selby
There is no one without a destiny. God gave everyone a destiny and we all cannot wish for the same dream, profession, or chances at an instance. We need to be different from each other, for easier identification and flexibility in expression of feelings. The different fate we all have enables us to identify easily who the leader is and who the follower is. If I may ask, do all people discover their destiny before dying? Do they even get the chance to know people their destinies are connected to? It is sometimes very pathetic to see people with the passion of living a successful life, to have their fate turn into a nightmare.
Due to the high standard of living these days, children not under any form of control turn to beg for alms on the streets, trying to fend for themselves and, in a way, striving to discover where their destinies lie. They could either have parents waiting for them at home, after their begging expeditions, or abandoned by their parents or either parent might be dead making them orphans.
In a country, where there are a lot of orphans, there is a possibility that the future leaders – the youth - will not be competent enough to rule the nation. There will not be enough well-cultured people to take care of the younger generation, to build a better future.
Orphans
No parent is ever willing to die, knowing perfectly that he or she has children to take care of. Parents always wish that their children get an assured success of the future before they leave them to fend themselves. After that they can die peacefully, with their aim of parenthood being accomplished. How painful death is, that it can take away one’s happiness, dreams and opportunities in life.
To become an orphan could be a result of paternal death, maternal death or both. Most times, in the case of maternal death, maternal mortality is one of the main causes. Maternal mortality usually occurs when a pregnant woman successfully gives birth to her child, and loses her own life in the process.
In the underdeveloped world, maternal mortality is generally due to poor nutrition. It is important for pregnant women to eat more nutritious meals, and also exercise, in order to make themselves as well as the baby, to be healthy for safe delivery. When this happens, the vice versa - the chances of the mother losing her life during delivery - are very slim. When it does not end this way, the children do not get the chance to know how motherly love feels like. There is a saying in the Ghanaian language, which translates, “If your mother dies you have no more relatives.” It means that mothers more often serve as the only source of care for the child, until he or she is old.
In the case of paternal mortality, it usually occurs from the results of war. With countries embroiled in war, the gender which always lose their lives, are normally men. For instance, in Kenya where war has erupted as a result of presidential election, men are expected to protect women, and so end up putting their lives on the line. In Ghana, though it is considered as a country of peace, and a place to have a sort of solitude, people in the northern part often engage themselves in tribal wars. Recently, war cropped up as a result of a chieftaincy dispute, leading to the death of some of the men with most of them injured.
The dreadful disease, HIV/AIDS often times renders children orphans. Parents affected with this disease die at an age when their children really need their support, leaving the children without a guardian. In Ghana, according to research, 200 people are infected everyday and about 170,000 are now orphans, due to the death of their parents through HIV/AIDS. This means that, as the day goes by and more people are infected, the more parents die and the more orphans are generated. How sad is it to lose both parents, at a very tender age, it will feel as if one’s life is about to end.
Though some parents, due to natural causes which they cannot control, leave their children behind; others intentionally abandon their children. Sometimes, women are so heartless that they do not care acting inhumanly. They tend to abandon the children they give birth to after an attempted abortion.
It is mostly believed that among all living things, human beings are those who really give priority to their offspring, and take care of them until they are matured. This however has changed, maybe due to modernization. Orphaned children are mostly those whose parents are dead, but in this circumstance, abandoned children can also be classified as orphans, since their parents, who abandoned them, are psychologically regarded as dead to the children.
Consequences of orphaned children
Normally, for children to gain a firm surety of their future there are parents who give them guidelines as to what is right and what is wrong. Parents are a source of great influence to a child’s success. The parent’s tongue, mostly the mother’s language, is the one that children first learn, in order to plan their way through life. This means that any bad mannerisms, exhibited by the mother during the child’s early stage, are likely to be imitated by the child. In this case, it is important for the parents to be of good nature and attitude.
However, it is not possible for the orphaned child to go through this stage, since there are no parents to guide it. Children, who find themselves in this state, are sometimes lucky when they get the chance to stay with a relative - like the grandparent. Despite the fact that the child is fortunate, it sometimes happens that the grandparents are worn out and do not have the strength to work and cater for themselves and the child. This results in the child and the grandparents living in extreme poverty. Sometimes due to the weakness of the grandparents, due of old age, the children are not monitored closely, and end up leaning the vices in society.
Orphaned children, when not observed to be of good behavior, become a sort of nuisance to the society. Children in this state, after growing up and finding out they cannot do anything beneficial with their lives, end up engaging themselves in social vices like armed robbery, pick pocketing, prostitution and other vices. It is important to cater and culture orphaned children, since they have nobody to help them rectify their faults and bad attitudes.
Catering for children whose parents are dead, from a very tender age is very difficult. It is also not financially easy to take care of orphans, who are related (twins), resulting in their having to be separated. Most times due to the reason that they are taken away by different people, who barely know each other and there is no communication, with the children growing up not knowing who their siblings really are.
These siblings who do not know each other might grow up marrying themselves, resulting in incest (sexual intercourse between blood relations), which is believed to bring a curse on that generation.
Not long ago in Asia, certain twins, who were separated form each other for about 25 years, in the long run ended up falling in love with each other. It was only discovered they were twins, by their foster parents, during their wedding day, so were prevented from getting married.
It must also be noted that the existence of orphans in a country, can bring about child abuse. Owing to the fact that people, whom the children try to seek help, from will want to exploit them first, before rendering any form of assistance.
In Ghana, most children, who are not privileged to have caring mothers, especially orphans, are made to hawk on the streets or go begging. They often engage them in activities that are above their strength and capabilities. Some work in the local restaurants, also known as chop bars, till late at night.
How can we prevent the existence of orphans?
No one in this world can avoid the incidence of death, but in one way or the other it can be prevented. In the case of maternal mortality – a preventable death - it is important for pregnant women to be on good nutrition and also exercise their bodies. Normally, in the developing and underdeveloped countries, apart from them not being on a good diet, they also find it difficult accessing antenatal care.
It will be good thing for governments to offer to their citizens an easier way of getting access to ante-natal care. One of such programmes in Ghana is the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), which affords every citizen the opportunity to access free medical care, whether rich or poor. When pregnant women go through the right course of treatments there will be few incidences of maternal death, which will help reduce the number of orphans in the country.
In some instances, domestic violence against women, especially during pregnancy, is one of the causes of maternal death. Pregnant women give birth pre-maturely with pressure and as a result end up endangering their lives. Government’s must help to ensure that the law against domestic violence, against women, is ensured and men must be educated as to how to treat women rightly, at all times.
These days the campaign on the HIV/AIDS is slowing down. Is it because people are adhering to the education given them? It is necessary to continue the campaign on HIV/AIDS, since people are still in the dark about the dangers of the scourge.
The greatest treasure children can have at their early stage is parental care and love, in order for them to get the desire to face their own lives and destinies. In this case it is important to help avoid situations that breed orphans.