BBC Learnings · Section 20

Children in war zones

The most recent figure from 2024 says that 520 million children are living in conflict zones.

Level: B1 · 104 sentences

Transcript

  1. The most recent figure from 2024 says
  2. that 520 million children are living in conflict zones.
  3. That's about one in every five children worldwide.
  4. In this episode, we'll hear from Fergal Keane
  5. on the BBC World Service programme, The Global Story.
  6. Fergal is a BBC reporter, best
  7. known for reporting from war zones around the world.
  8. And as a result, he developed PTSD,
  9. which is a type of stress disorder.
  10. We'll be finding out what PTSD
  11. stands for at the end of the programme.
  12. Now, in the clips we'll hear Asma Khalid
  13. ask Fergal Keane about his own experience with childhood trauma.
  14. Fergal grew up in a home with an alcoholic father.
  15. Asma wanted to know how Fergal's own childhood trauma
  16. affected his reporting on the experiences of children in war zones.
  17. I was hypervigilant
  18. from the very earliest age, obviously watching out,
  19. you know, am I under threat?
  20. Is there a danger to me here?
  21. Fergal mentions that he was hypervigilant
  22. because he was in dangerous situations as a child.
  23. The adjective vigilant means to always be careful to notice things,
  24. particularly when there's a possibility of danger.
  25. Yes, and the prefix hyper- expresses that there
  26. is a lot of or even too much of something.
  27. Though neutral, it is often used in negative or critical contexts.
  28. So hypervigilant means very, very careful, sometimes too careful and thoughtful.
  29. Hypervigilance, the noun, is a state of extreme alertness
  30. and sensitivity to surroundings, possibly because of extreme anxiety.
  31. Now let's hear from Fergal as he talks
  32. about research on the experiences of children in war zones.
  33. They disagree about a few things,
  34. but on this they're absolutely of one mind.
  35. Fergal mentions that they, the researchers, disagree about their findings.
  36. But they're absolutely of one mind
  37. when considering the recovery from war trauma.
  38. If you are of one mind,
  39. you are of a group of people
  40. that share the same opinion, desire or viewpoint on a matter.
  41. Researchers may disagree on whether the experiences
  42. of children in war zones is improving,
  43. but on the point of recovery they are of one mind.
  44. In that you can't recover from war trauma
  45. if you continue living with it.
  46. Fergal goes on to talk about some of the ways
  47. in which these children might be helped.
  48. So there's a new field of theory,
  49. well, I mean relatively new field of theory,
  50. which encourages children to slowly and carefully try to confront,
  51. obviously not death and massacre again,
  52. but things like learning to sleep alone,
  53. not having to sleep with a parent,
  54. because that's what they did during the war,
  55. because they were so consistently terrified.
  56. Now, it sounds like a simple thing,
  57. but as anybody who's tried to put
  58. a child to sleep, who's had a nightmare,
  59. a child who hasn't been traumatised will know it's very difficult.
  60. Fergal says that children should be encouraged to slowly
  61. and carefully try to confront their experiences.
  62. To confront something is to meet with it or deal with it.
  63. For the children to confront their terrifying experiences,
  64. they must start with more simple things, like learning to sleep alone.
  65. Sleeping alone seems simple enough,
  66. but Fergal compares the experiences of children in war
  67. zones to that of children who might have nightmares.
  68. Yes, and a nightmare is a very scary or upsetting dream.
  69. It can also be used metaphorically to describe unpleasant events or experiences.
  70. Now let's hear Fergal talking about what he's learnt
  71. from reporting on children in war zones.
  72. The big lesson is that given a chance,
  73. the human spirit, and especially children, are phenomenally resilient.
  74. Fergal describes the children as being phenomenally resilient.
  75. The noun phenomenon, or phenomena in its plural form,
  76. refers to an observable fact or event
  77. that can be experienced through the senses.
  78. The adverb phenomenally describes something being done
  79. or felt in an extreme or surprising way.
  80. To be resilient is to be able to recover
  81. from and come back from something difficult or bad that's happened.
  82. So Fergal says that children can be surprisingly positive
  83. despite the negative things happening around them.
  84. They are phenomenally resilient.
  85. A result of these negative things could be PTSD.
  86. Earlier we mentioned PTSD.
  87. And it stands for post-traumatic stress disorder.
  88. Yes, and the P in PTSD stands for post,
  89. as we've just heard, and the prefix post expresses something that happens
  90. after or as a result of the event it's attached to.
  91. Now let's recap the vocabulary.
  92. We first had hypervigilant, that is to be very careful
  93. or maybe almost too careful to notice things,
  94. particularly when there is a possibility of danger.
  95. To be of one mind is to be part
  96. of a group of people that share the same opinion,
  97. desire or viewpoint on a matter.
  98. We had confront something, that is to meet
  99. with it or deal with it.
  100. A nightmare is a scary or upsetting dream.
  101. To do something phenomenally is to do it
  102. in an extreme or surprising way.
  103. And to be resilient is to be able to recover
  104. and come back from something difficult or bad that's happened.