Penn Pandemic Diary Penn Pandemic Diary, Entry #27: Children, COVID-19, and What's to Come

Atenea Rosado-Viurques is a Ph.D. Student in Education, Culture, and Society and Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania.

I pick up a call from Elena (a pseudonym), a sixth grader I tutor who arrived in the U.S. less than a year ago. She needs help. Her school uses three different platforms to teach, none of them easy to navigate. After a couple of hours of trying, she’s finally able to access all of them; but that was not her only challenge.

In the middle of conversations about homework, Elena told me about her brother, who is in a facility for young immigrants. Like millions of children, Elena and her brother had to flee her home country without their parents after threats of forced recruitment by drug cartels. Due to age restrictions, she and her brother were separated when they arrived in the United States. Understandably, she worries about her brother, who has not been released from government custody. Unfortunately, as shown in a recent UNICEF report, these facilities, where immigrant youth are accommodated, tend to be overcrowded, making COVID-19 prevention measures such as “social distancing” or handwashing almost impossible.

As I spoke with Elena, I also asked about home. Throughout the world, there has been a surge in domestic violence during the pandemic; most countries, including those in the Global North, have collected data showing a jump in violence against women, a statistic used as a proxy for violence against children. Unfortunately, with 1 billion students out of school in more than 177 countries and government child protection agencies reducing home visits, child abuse is more likely to go undetected.

That’s just one of many ways COVID-19 is putting children at risk, even if the potential health effects appear milder for those under 18. The oncoming global economic crisis is also likely to impact school dropout, child marriage and child labor rates. The International Labor Organization estimates that 195 million jobs will likely be lost, and more than 250 million people are at risk of suffering hunger, according to the World Food Program. In the face of such tremendous economic hardship, some rightly fear that families will consider child labor and child marriage as solutions and promote new policies to mitigate the risk.

Amid this spiraling pandemic, I tutor Elena with trepidation, it can be hard to put these difficult days into perspective for myself, let alone a 12-year-old. When COVID-19 comes up, I try to remind her of all that she’s endured. After all, she has crossed more than five borders by foot and memorized the geography of our continent.

I also tell her that we are in this together, and that we will get through it. She will learn how to use her school platforms no matter what –ultimately, they cannot be more difficult than escaping her hometown. The exceptional events of the past few months have tested all of us. These are times of reflection, resilience, and transformation not only for our present, but for our future, the young people who will inherit this world we are building.

The views expressed in the Penn Pandemic Diary are solely the author’s and not those of Penn or Perry World House.