One year after the first lockdown in Germany, the huge effect that the Coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) has had on children and young people is becoming apparent, according to the UN children’s organisation UNICEF.
The many restrictions on public and private life not only jeopardise the educational achievements of young people but also have far-reaching consequences for their overall well-being and development, a UNICEF report stated.
The pandemic “weighs on the souls of children,’’ UNICEF Germany patron, Elke Buedenbender, the wife of President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, said on Tuesday at the presentation of the report.
Germany had been ranked as mediocre in terms of children’s well-being even before the pandemic, said UNICEF board chairperson Georg Graf Waldersee.
Deficiencies that had already existed before the pandemic were now being ruthlessly exposed, he said.
These include, for example, shortfalls in digital equipment for schools.
Waldersee pointed out that the pandemic had now lasted more than a year a very long time in a child’s life.
“In one year, the course can be set for the rest of a child’s life.
“ For more than a year now, much of what makes children and young people feel good and what they need for their development has been missing.
“Children need public spaces such as kindergartens, schools, leisure facilities, and, above all, interaction with their peers,’’ he said.
The pandemic had also exacerbated the problems faced by children whose parents were migrants, and children with one sole parent at home, according to the report.
