As my students and my own children prepare for the start of their school holidays today and count down the days until Christmas, many of them are busily creating happy childhood memories which will stay with them for decades to come. Friends, sleepovers, family trips, and new toys and gadgets will most likely fill their minds and their summer days. These are things that most of us consider part of an Australian childhood, and many of us go out of our way to ensure our children are able to enjoy their summer ‘downtime’.

I would encourage you all to consider another reality in Australia, of which there are too many to count. The families who are broken and the fallout that the may children experience. The children trying to fit in with a family they may be temporarily living with as they aren’t able to live with their own for countless reasons. The children who through some miracle are surviving in the ‘family’ that they have, against all odds. These children are also part of our Australian community.

But, I implore you to think even further and not forget what we are allowing to happen elsewhere. While we are stressed about Christmas shopping and extra work-demands, there are millions who are fighting to just survive. We have watched Aleppo be destroyed for half a decade, and millions perish either fleeing for their lives or while simply trying to exist. I would suggest that they have become the most visibly invisible population in modern history. We have watched the reports, the live footage, but rarely did we demand anything needed to change as we did in the Paris and Belgium attacks. Meanwhile, we have consciously forgotten Aleppo and the people trapped there and allowed this to happen. (Warning! This video is very distressing).

So, in amongst creating memories with our own loved ones (which I strongly recommend you do!), it really is time to stop the madness and realise that this is a problem that requires the help of the international community, just as we rallied for each other in #PrayForParis and #OpenHouse in Brussels.