See the inspiring stories Come meet us Time to legalize weed?
OPINION
UNICEF

A devastating year for children: Column

The world must do more for the 230 million children living in areas of violence.

Caryl M. Stern
Caryl Stern of UNICEF.

This year saw many records broken. Soccer player Lionel Messi became the all-time goal scorer. Google Senior VP Alan Eustace parachuted over 25 miles in 15 minutes. And Tim and Emily Gay's family can now brag they hung the most holiday lights — 601,736 to be exact.

But there is another record being broken in 2014 – not one to be celebrated. This year recorded the highest number of children caught in conflict zones who were directly and deliberately attacked. The targeting of children in conflict is not new, but it's rising at an alarming rate. In 2014, more children were killed, kidnapped, tortured, raped, forcibly recruited by armed groups and even sold as slaves than at any time in recent history.

The numbers are grim. In Pakistan, over 130 students — most of them 12 to 16 years old—were slaughtered in a Taliban attack on a school in Peshawar earlier this month. In the Central African Republic, where 2.3 million children are entangled in a long-running sectarian conflict, as many as 10,000 children are believed to have been recruited as child soldiers, and more than 430 children were killed and maimed this year — three times as many as in 2013. When violence erupted in Israel and Gaza last summer, more than 530 children were killed, at least 3,370 children injured, and 54,000 children were left homeless, while countless others hid in fear from rockets, artillery and air strikes.

In Syria, where civil war, now approaching its fifth year, has created 1.7 million child refugees, there were at least 35 attacks on schools, killing and injuring hundreds of children. In Iraq, at least 700 children are believed to have been maimed, killed or even executed this year. In South Sudan, an estimated 12,000 children have been recruited and forced to fight in an ongoing civil war that has caused more than a million children to flee their homes. In Ukraine, 128,000 children have been displaced by violence.

All told, there are 15 million children currently caught up in violent conflicts—and that's just in those six places. Violence against children continues to plague too many other places as well. Protracted crises in Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Somalia, Yemen and elsewhere continue to claim thousands of young lives.

For children and their families who are trapped in a war zone, life can be unbearable. Food is scarce, clean water hard to come by. Homes and jobs and schools are lost or destroyed, along with any sense of security and hope. Lives are interrupted, childhoods disrupted, futures jeopardized. Children who are caught in conflict face additional threats to their health, safety and well-being, from malnutrition to life-threatening disease. Food shortages outside Syria and in South Sudan, for example, have put 500,000 children at risk of starvation.

We should not and must not accept this. UNICEF and other organizations are working nonstop to bring emergency support and services to children in need. In recent months, the organization treated tens of thousands of children in South Sudan for severe malnutrition, delivered critical vaccines to the Middle East to help stem a polio outbreak, and provided critical support and training to Ebola-hit countries. In the Central African Republic, work is underway to secure the release of child soldiers, and a campaign has been launched to put 660,000 children back in school.

But we need to do more — much, much more. Globally, there are 230 million children living in countries or areas that have been affected in some way by armed conflict. With so many different crises putting children at risk around world — many of them internal, and prolonged, and often only rarely grabbing news headlines — sometimes we stop paying attention. The barrage of ghastly statistics can have a numbing effect.

But we must pay attention. We all need to stay informed, and stay involved. The international community must rally to end these atrocities, and humanitarian agencies like UNICEF need everyone's support, so that we can continue to do whatever it takes to save and protect those who are too vulnerable to protect themselves. As 2014 draws to a close, as we gather our loved ones around us to celebrate the holiday season, let's set a new record. Let's all stand together and put the world's children first.

Caryl M. Stern is the president of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF.

In addition to its own editorials, USA TODAY publishes diverse opinions from outside writers, including our Board of Contributors. To read more columns like this, go to the Opinion front page or sign up for the daily Opinion e-mail newsletter.

Featured Weekly Ad