Issues of children’s voices

In this week we consider the need for a better understanding of how children experience chronic illness in institutional settings. We have invited three guests who listen to the stories of children who tell us what they experience.

In the global context, the uneven distribution of children’s mortality and chronic illness is often an indicator of structural inequality, and social scientists frame children’s illness within models that account for human rights. On an individual level, how children cope with medical regimes, the prospect of dying, and the discomfort and pain of illness itself will be explored through the lens of creativity, narrative, and healing.

We consider what could transform the way sick children are cared for if their voices and experiences were considered more seriously. What do we learn by listening to the voices of children living with sickness? Are youth and sickness causes for powerlessness, or can they be made into opportunities for transformation?