Children are paying the price of global failure of empathy

At the Nakivale Refugee Welcome Centre in South West Uganda, conditions are dire. Families sleep on concrete floors in overcrowded, unsanitary spaces. One mother from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), who I met last year during a visit with War Child, had fled with her eight children after enduring horrific trauma.

- Carey Mulligan, The Independent

Her children, aged from toddler to teen, were totally silent. None were playing. That's what hits me every time. In war, children are not allowed to be children. Their right to a childhood, to safety, health, education, and play, had been stripped away. They had none of the agency that comes with adulthood so instead, they waited.

A child-friendly space at the Centre, somewhere clean and safe area where children can play, learn, and be themselves, would have transformed everything for that family It’s a simple concept with a profound impact: it gives children a voice and a degree of normality and it gives their parents critical time to rest, ask for help and start the process of rebuilding their lives.