We all deserve our early years of innocence because it doesn’t take long to realize what an ugly place our world can really be. It’s absolute common sense — our children are also our future. Unfortunately, the welfare of our children is often disregarded and overshadowed by war, by politics, by media, by adults. The future of our environment, legal system and social policies mean nothing unless we consider our children and how they will be affected once they become leaders and lawmakers. 

No child should have to lose their faith in safety and humanity simply because we concentrate our time on us and our futures, not theirs.

For the past 3 weeks, I’ve spent my time in Cape Town, South Africa, working with babies and infants at an orphanage in Khayelitsha Township. I want to reiterate, my time spent here was to learn, and if help was a part of my experience in any way, it was just an added bonus. It didn’t take long to realize that the cultural differences extended beyond just race and language.

The ways South Africans nurture, empower and protect their children are vastly different than what I have seen, but nonetheless their children flourish and thrive. These children are specifically exposed to violence, lack of resources and repercussions of apartheid, yet they act no differently than the children at home in the U.S.

What I’ve learned is that the people on my trip aren’t just volunteers and aren’t just caregivers, we’re safe havens for these children. We are the guardians of their boundlessness and guarantors of their purity. The moment I realized that many children don’t have this romanticized childhood is the moment I realized that everyone must maximize what our children do have. That despite the lack of toys and space, these children thrived off of the simplest things: affection, innocence and freedom. What I’ve learned is that we romanticize childhood as a universal experience with endless toys, everlasting support and inevitable love. This isn’t the case, and we have to stop pretending that it is.

Truth is, about 6,000 children died from gun-related incidents and 34,000 suffered nonfatal gun injuries between 2008-2009. Truth is, 17,000 child deaths per year are due to lack of sufficient health care. Truth is, 1,500 children died from abuse and neglect in 2010, the majority being younger than 1 year old. The statistics are grim, but they are often overlooked. It’s about time we face what’s happening to our children in America. Whether the numbers are high or low is completely irrelevant. What’s significant is that there are numbers at all. What’s shocking is that children are dying. Period.

Guns, neglect and lack of access to health care — there is no question as to the harm they cause our children. But it’s the people who hold the guns, the irresponsibility of neglectful parents and the politicians who vote on health care decisions that harm our children. 

It’s time to take responsibility for our actions, direct or indirect, that affect our children. If we just take the time to reconsider our actions, who they affect and how they do so, then maybe we won’t have to bear the burden of putting our children in harm’s way.

We must reassure our children, whether we have the confidence or faith in our futures, that they have a paved opportunity to a future. We must reassure our children, whether we believe it ourselves, that they will be okay — that their manifestation of the world is secure enough to explore freely. 

We tell our children they’ll be okay and they’ll be all right, but do we really know? It’s not deceitful and it’s not malicious to say this: It’s simply protecting our children with reassurance, faith and confidence. Things that we often know can be lost as we grow older but want to preserve for our children because they deserve a confident future. 

Our children, they’re wallflowers. As Steven Chbosky, author of “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” would describe: “You see things. You keep quiet about them. And you understand.” This is very much what children do. Regardless if they express it, they are active observers, learners and mimes. The examples we set, the experiences we have and the ideas we portray are very much recognized and embraced by children. We can never be too careful because one day our children will stop being wallflowers, and they will become participants.

Whether it’s America or South Africa — our children are our children, and our children are our future. They will learn, they will grow and they will prosper all the same. They will need our protection and our guidance just as we once did. If we want to secure our children’s futures and their children’s futures, it’s time to stop the greed and share the innocence and freedom that once existed in our youths. 

Adam is a junior in ACES. He can be reached at [email protected].