Caritas is supporting four medical centers in Gaza, which often serve as the only safe shelter for children whose parents are either dead or missing.
"These children must find shelter, food, water, and firewood on their own—an impossible task in freezing, flooded conditions,” said Magda Janiszewska, Caritas Polska’s foreign projects expert.
Gaza is currently experiencing harsh weather and flooding. “Makeshift tents are rotting and becoming breeding grounds for disease,” Janiszewska said. “People are malnourished and immunocompromised. Survival is a major challenge amid limited and often blocked humanitarian aid.”
From October to December 2025, children and adolescents made up 38% of all patients at Caritas’ medical points in Gaza. Many orphans are now cared for by medical and humanitarian staff. A new term has emerged: Wounded Child, No Surviving Family (WCNSF).
“In the case of the youngest children, the situation is even more heartbreaking,” said Caritas humanitarian aid specialist Nina Mocior. “Some stop speaking due to trauma and shock. Some are too young to talk. Others don’t even know their names. They become children without identity, without history, and without adults to speak for them.”
Mocior noted that survivors often experience withdrawal and silence. “Children without adults struggle to understand what’s happening and may blame themselves, forming irrational beliefs like, ‘If I hadn’t gone out to play, my mother wouldn’t have died.’”
Without correction or psychological support, she said, such guilt can become internalized and shape adult identity. “Children from war zones often grow into adults burdened by survivor’s guilt.”
Mocior also warned that chronic stress not only alters brain structure but leaves lasting marks on the genome.
“Epigenetic research shows war-related trauma can leave ‘scars’ on DNA, detectable even in children and grandchildren. The trauma from Gaza will not end with the war—it will become a legacy passed on to future generations.”
(jh)
Source: PAP