Across virtually every key measure of childhood, progress has gone backward in the 12 months since the pandemic was declared, leaving children confronting a devastating and distorted new normal, says Unicef. Photo: 123rf.com
Ten-year-old Nurfaraiin is terrified of losing her parents to the coronavirus. Every day when her father, a delivery service rider, and mother who is a cleaner, leave for work, Nurfaraiin cries. She is afraid they will come home with the virus, be taken away to the hospital and die.
“Nowadays, she cries a lot, ” says her mother, Nora, 39. “She follows me around the house and when I have to leave for work, that’s when she starts crying. She says she’s afraid I won’t come back.”