Mental Health
Negative impacts on children’s mental health were found to derive from the distress of worrying about their health and the health of their loved ones, not being able to see friends, and concerns and uncertainty about the future.
Safety
Children reported spending more time online, increasing their risk of abuse and exploitation, with many children reporting cyberbullying, being contacted by strangers and being asked to post intimate photos.
A World Vision Cambodia survey of households also indicated that 21% of parents reported that violence had been increasing in their households. Of these, 60% said physical violence had increased and 81.3% said emotional violence had increased. Similarly, when considering means of discipline, 23% of children reported that their parents had increased their use of physical violence, whilst 27% reported that their parents had increased their use of emotional violence.
Education
The disruption to education has had some of the greatest impacts on children around the world. In Cambodia, schools were closed in March 2020, affecting an estimated 3.2 million students.
Children surveyed as part of a national Joint Education Needs Assessment, led by the Government, UNICEF and Save the Children, reported that school closures negatively impacted access to food and nutrition, reduced protection from abuse and violence, and increased the risk of school drop-out.
A Joining Forces report cited students’ concerns about the poor quality of their distance education and, with that, their concerns about having good employment possibilities when they are older. In addition, the pandemic’s negative effect on household incomes meant children were increasingly worried that they or their siblings would have to leave school and engage in paid work in order to help their families meet their basic needs, such as food, clothes and medicine.
In summary, the COVID-19 pandemic has had many, varied impacts on children’s protection and wellbeing. Child protection organisations, such as World Vision Cambodia, have had to expand and adapt their programming to meet the enhanced and particular needs of children at this time.
Source: World Vision