Children lose their rights after environmental disasters – 11/24/2023 – Environment

When he saw the lit candles on his seventh birthday cake, Wilson Andrade couldn’t hold back the tears when he realized that, for the first time, his mother, father and grandparents weren’t there to sing happy birthday. Three months earlier, the boy had lost almost his entire family in a landslide that hit the house where he lived in Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro.

Even in his first years of life, he became one of thousands of Brazilian children whose development was put at risk after being victims of climate disasters. International bodies, such as the UN, have warned that the country will face a childhood rights crisis in the coming years, as extreme events are expected to become more frequent.

In just a few seconds, on that February 15, 2022, a flood of water and mud took away Wilson’s toys, his clothes, his house, his grandparents and his parents. What’s more, he left a trail of consequences that he will have to deal with for the rest of his life.

Despite the trauma, the boy, now eight years old, did not receive any support from the public authorities to minimize the losses he suffered in the phase considered the most important for the development of human beings, early childhood (from zero to six years old).

Scientific evidence indicates that during this period the brain forms more quickly, being more sensitive to care and environmental stimuli. Thus, children who have not been assured of a safe and welcoming environment at this stage may have their physical, cognitive and socio-emotional development compromised.

“Risk situations, such as a climate disaster or the loss of parents, threaten child development. Episodes like this subject the child to toxic stress, which alters the child’s physiology, psychology and all social relationships. In other words, , all areas of her development are under threat”, says Maria Beatriz Linhares, professor in the department of neurosciences at USP’s Ribeirão Preto School of Medicine.

The specialist, who is also a researcher at NCPI (Núcleo Ciência pela Infância), explains that the stress experienced in a climate disaster cannot be erased from the child’s memory, but its effects can be mitigated, with a series of protective measures.

“These children no longer had their right to protection and decent housing guaranteed. After the disaster has already occurred and they have been placed at risk, the public authorities have, at the very least, the obligation to guarantee protective factors to minimize the consequences.”

Almost two years after the rains that killed 241 people in the city, Wilson was not included in the list of families receiving rental assistance or financial compensation for the loss of their home. He also does not receive psychological care.

“I’m still trying to understand how a child loses everything overnight and has no right to anything. Why do adults receive financial help, but a child receives nothing? Neither financial nor psychological. All he has is our help, we who are also trying to overcome the trauma”, says Amanda de Oliveira, 35, who adopted Wilson and his older brother, Sidnei, now 18 years old.

A neighbor of the family, Amanda was also left homeless in the disaster. Still, she adopted the brothers she had known since they were little. The decision was made after one of the boys’ uncle said that she would only keep one of them. “They had already lost everything, I couldn’t accept that they were still separated. I didn’t even have a house at the time, I was living with my mother-in-law, but I adopted the boys so they could be together.”

It’s to his brother’s bed that Wilson runs when it starts to rain at night and he can’t sleep. The fear is not without reason, as the new house is just a few meters from the point that collapsed on their old home.

“When it starts to rain, no one sleeps here at home. Everyone gets anxious and tense, I keep thinking how this can affect the head of a child as young as Wilson. Some of the effects can already be seen, there are days when he is very angry and aggressive. In others, he stays quiet, doesn’t talk to anyone”, says Amanda.

The effects are also felt outside the home. Wilson had crying spells at school, became distant from her classmates and has had difficulty learning to read and write. “Several children in his class were also victims of this tragedy, but none lost as much as he did. And the school is unable to pay more attention, which would be important for him at this time.”

For experts, the growing number of children affected by climate disasters and the different effects on each of them will further worsen the country’s social inequalities in the coming years. Unicef ​​estimates that 40 million Brazilian boys and girls are already exposed to more than one climate or environmental risk — and those most affected are the poorest.

“We need to understand that the climate crisis is a crisis of the rights of children and adolescents, in the sense that all their fundamental rights are threatened in the face of climate change”, says Danilo Moura, climate and environment officer at Unicef.

In another part of the city, in Morro da Oficina, the epicenter of the disaster in Petrópolis, the boy João Arthur de Lemos, 6, also faces difficulties at school, both in living and learning. He was inside the house with his mother and older brother when the property was hit by a wave of mud.

“He doesn’t sleep if it’s raining, he doesn’t even put on pajamas or take off his sneakers. He seems like he’s ready to run out at any moment. What I wanted most was for my son to feel safe, but he seems to live inside that place all the time. day, dealing with the effects of the trauma”, says Sabrina Gonçalves, 34, the boy’s mother.

João only had a few sessions with a psychologist, but was unable to continue treatment in the public network. The difficulty in following up led the teachers to raise the hypothesis that he has some disorder, but the family is unable to confirm the diagnosis as they do not have access to specialized psychological care.

For Maria Beatriz, the constant state of alert experienced by Wilson and João Arthur could mean post-traumatic stress. She explains that, the sooner a traumatic event is experienced, the greater the consequences can be — even more so without psychological support.

“These children are in a state of constant alert, thinking that something bad is going to happen to them at any moment”, says the expert. “When we are in a state of hypervigilance, the heart beats faster, breathing is shorter, which leads to exhaustion, difficulty concentrating and socializing.”

Petrópolis City Hall says it guaranteed, in the first days after the disaster, specialized psychological care in shelters and that monitoring continues to be carried out for those who were identified with signs of post-traumatic stress. The administration did not respond, however, about the situation of the two boys.

He also stated that this year he launched the Recomeço Seguro program, which provides for the payment of financial compensation to 212 families living in houses in areas considered high risk. The families of João Arthur and Wilson are not among those included.

According to the city hall’s assessment, João Arthur’s family only meets the criteria to receive social rent, worth R$800 per month.

The brothers Wilson and Sidnei are not entitled to either aid. According to the city hall, they will not receive any financial support, because their mother, who died in the disaster, was awarded a housing unit from the municipality in 2020.