Letter: Our children are not well

How are the children? That’s a typical greeting in the Maasai tribe. The typical response is “the children are well.”

Here on the other side of the world, our children are not well.

Our children do not have equitable access to healthcare. Our children are hungry. Our children are without consistency, safety and care. Perhaps these are the children you know, love and care for.

I hope your children are well and you cannot connect to my words. But let me share a secret with you: there’s no such thing as someone else’s child. They are all our children. Children are not separate from our community; they are community members.

As community members without the power to impact their condition, it is our adult responsibility to care for them. The state of our least powerful members is the primary indicator of our community’s wellness. We are not well.

Well children are fed, clothed, educated and emotionally regulated. Well children have consistency. Well children have safety. Well children feel valued, loved and like they belong.

Services for children are services for the community. Childcare is infrastructure as much as roads, hospitals and fire stations. Pediatric healthcare is just as necessary as emergency healthcare. No child deserves to go to bed hungry or wake up without the promise of education.

Our community was given these children, and we must treat them like the absolute gift they are. So, how are the children? What have you done to make them well?

Gretchen Sprinkle

Cortland