The Issue
CHILD GRIEF
Children who have experienced the death of someone important to them may feel like their struggles are invisible to those closest to them. These children need advocates, people who support them, will encourage them, listen to them, and help them navigate this new reality. It will take time to discover how to go on without this new hole in their hearts.
Children who have had someone die—especially a close family member—can feel the loss forever. They eventually go back to school. They might pick some activities back up. They certainly look “normal.” And yet there’s still that hole inside.
Grieving children often feel set apart, different from their peers, alone, and not understood. Every school and every community has children who have experienced some type of loss. Even if they keep their loss and experience to themselves, there are many children who are grieving among us.
These children can be helped to not feel so alone.
Families that experience the death of a family member will also experience further adversity. That additional adversity may look like this:
- Relationship issues at home
- Financial strains
- Absence of an important guiding figure
- Forced move/transition
- Loss of community
- Mental Health concerns
Identifying the things that help:
- A caring community
- Positive role models
- Learning healthy coping skills
- Peer support
- Encouraging educators and adults
Grieving children will experience disrupted development that may include:
- Mental Health concerns
- Relationship and trust challenges
- Academic challenges and difficulty focusing
- Reduced resilience
- Lower self-esteem
- Early mortality
Change a life today
We wouldn’t be able to do what we do without the help of our amazing Abba’s Child community. Thanks to our facilitators, volunteers and our generous donors, we have been able to inspire hope in 525 children since the start. To help us in our mission, consider volunteering or donating below.
