It’s summer and children are looking forward to finishing school. They are waiting to go on holiday somewhere with their family and friends. On vacation they will have fun, play, laugh, eat ice cream and swim in seas, lakes and rivers. This is what the summer months should be like for all the world’s children. But unfortunately in this world we live in, which is filled with violence, oppression and discrimination, summers are not like that for all children. From October 2023, in Palestine, children have lost a whole year of school. They have lost their mothers, fathers, and whole families, they are being starved and killed every day. In Syria, children have grown up in the midst of war. In so many other parts of the world, children have suffered so much violence, so much exploitation, and are forced to be displaced and become refugees. They are displaced so that they can perhaps have a better, brighter and more glorious future. To play for real, to make friends and go to school. They go through a nightmare, taking on an arduous journey, and face many obstacles in an attempt to find a better future. They want to escape the man-made horrors of war, climate disasters and economic oppression, and go to a better place where they can live in dignified conditions. But unfortunately, they can’t. They can’t, because of the strict border policies that prevent these children from living. These children’s fates are defined by the arbitrary lines drawn in the sand and used to create fear and dehumanize one another.
Let us all pray together that the oppressions of war and the violence of borders around the world will stop. Let us pray that children everywhere can really play.
