Orphans in Syria and Iraq Juggling Balls: Wars, COVID-19, and the NGO's financial crisis

The COVID-19 pandemic's impact varies between and within nations, causing new forms of inequality. Refugee and orphan children in conflicted areas are more likely to suffer due to poverty, vulnerability, and limited access to essential services including reduction in donor funding. This qualitative study is the first to assess the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the financial crisis on Iraqi and Syrian orphaned children and their mothers. The Modified Grounded Theory was used for the preliminary analysis to expand the range of themes. This study has identified five major themes: financial crisis, low educational attainment, child labour, mental health issues, violence, and social problems. The impact of COVID-19 children and adolescents' mental health is of great concern. These multiple crises may significantly impact orphan children and adolescents' cognitive, mental health, and physical development. It is critical to address mental health issues during the current crisis and to plan for possible future pandemics and their intersecting outcomes. A Holistic approach requires providers to be aware of their clients' intersecting circumstances and needs using a range of lenses, including the person in the environment, family dynamics, culture, politics, and structural challenges. Offering food, medical supplies, and housing are considered basic needs.

World wars and the age of oil: Exploring directionality in deep energy transitions

This paper explores the role of the world wars in 20th century energy transitions, focusing on the growth of oil as a major energy source which accelerated after the Second World War in North America and Europe. We utilise the recently developed Deep Transitions framework which combines Techno-Economic Paradigms and sociotechnical transitions approaches. The first deep transition entails the long running emergence of industrial modernity since the late 18th century which culminated in the post-Second World War economic 'golden age' underpinned by rapid and stable growth and prosperity in North America and Western Europe. The Deep Transitions framework draws attention to the increasing role of fossil fuels over this long period, and how fossil fuel consumption accelerated in the 20th century taking on a particular direction where energy, mobility, and food systems became increasingly reliant on oil while the share of coal as a proportion of the energy mix decreased. This paper integrates sociotechnical, historical and geopolitical literatures to examine how the development of the age of oil was shaped by wartime demand pressures and logistical challenges and the search for new solutions to these challenges in the United States of America and the United Kingdom.