Resiliency in the Kids we Serve

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.
- Still I Rise, Maya Angelou

In May of this year, the National Civil Police of El Salvador reported that in the first quarter of 2016 224 children were killed in the country--a 105% increase from the first quarter last year. Of the 6,657 murders that occurred in the nation of just over six million people in 2015, 651 were children.

The current level of sustained violence in post-independence El Salvador compares to when the nation was ravaged by civil war for over a decade (1979 - 1992). In fact, August last year was the country’s bloodiest month since the war. Nine hundred and eleven people were killed. That’s an average of a little more than one murder an hour for the entire month.

And reminiscent of that time where child soldiers were forced into combat and thousands of children were killed or went missing, a generation of youth from El Salvador and throughout Central America is being lost to violence. Often they must come to the U.S. if they have any hope of seeing adulthood.

But as Ishmael Beah wrote in A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, an autobiography of his experiences as a child soldiers during the Sierra Leone Civil War,  “...children have the resilience to outlive their sufferings, if given a chance.”

Every week CAIR Coalition meets with girls and boys that have directly or indirectly suffered through familial, state and/or gang violence. And every week we are humbled by the resiliency in these children. They fled the spectrum of violence in their country to come to the U.S. for safety. They are then detained and have an uncertain future in this country. The hope and perseverance they display shows what happens when children are given a chance.

The study of resiliency in children--how they not only overcome their adverse past, but do better for themselves moving forward--continues to grow. For example, Harvard University’s Center on the Developing Child uses a science-based approach in the study of children facing adversity.

However, one seemingly undeniable way to foster this resiliency is to frame and promote positive goals with the support of family or family figures, as well as of the community and stakeholders involved in a child’s life.

What CAIR Coalition does for kids in immigration detention, ranging from Know Your Rights presentation to direct legal representation and more, is only a part of their journey toward positive personal growth. Nevertheless, our mission is to do our part to help these young men and women rise like hopes spring high. 

bW

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