Stressors of Life

A friend of mine experienced racism as a young child from one of her own family members. Her mother is white and her biological father was Native American. When she was 2 years old her mother and father separated. When she was 4 her mother remarried and her stepfather (who was also white) adopted her as his child. Her stepfather's mother (her grandmother) never truly accepted my friend because she felt that her skin was too dark and that she could not pass for being "all white". For Christmas the other grandchildren would get nice toys and sometimes money, while she would receive old hand me down sweaters. Several times he mother questioned the grandmother about her treatment towards my friend but the grandmother just disregarded the questions as if they were nothing. As my friend got older to began to distance herself from her grandmother as much as she could even though her mother was trying to get them to make a bond of some kind. For years she hid her pain from the rest of the family because she did not want them to know that the treatment bothered her. Everyone else in her family truly loved her but it did not make up for the pan that was caused by her grandmother. Now finally as an adult she constantly wishes her skin was lighter like her other two siblings and it is difficult for her to explain to people why she and her sister look so different. The trauma that she experienced as a child still haunts her today.

Hunger in Sub-Saharan Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa has the 2nd worst hunger cases, approximately 239 million people are going hungry. A third of all child hood death in Sub-Saharan Africa is caused by hunger (thp.org). Children who go through hunger do not develop as normal children would. The brain development is much slower due to the lack of myelin in the brain because the brain does not have enough nourishment to function. Children who are malnourished have no body reserves to protect them against common diseases (Berger, 2009). If malnutrition goes too far a child can through marasmus, which is when the body starts to slowly waste away and the child stops growing. The Hunger Project is making an effort in areas such as Africa to provide them with food and clean water.

Berger, K. S. (2009). The developing person through childhood (5th ed.). New York, NY: Worth Publishers.

www.thp.org The Hunger Project