Drought reinforces the importance of support for families doing it tough
As farmers in much of the country battle an enduring drought and financial stress, the children of farming families are juggling schoolwork with the pressure to work on their families' farms, increasing the stress for some young people.
When John and Emma Bunter step off the school bus at 3:45pm, they swap their shoes for boots and head out to feed hungry cattle on their drought-impacted family farm, about 10 kilometres from Gilgandra in central west NSW.
- Children and young people are having to balance farm work and homework in order to support their families' drought-impacted farms
- Leaders in the industry are urging caution and sensitivity
- Grief experts say media organisations must responsibly report on the drought
Year 12 student Emma drives the ute while her brother John, in Year 10, helps their dad offload hay.
"It's pretty worrying seeing it hasn't rained for so long," John said.
"It's getting a lot of us down but that's farming — you take the highs and the lows."
John said helping his family on their farm was part of country life, but his dad said he was conscious of the workload on his kids.
"I know they've grown up with it but I'm amazed at how well they're coping with it," Mr Bunter said.
"You try and shelter them from the worst of it but they experience everything else."
Balancing schoolwork with farm life
(ABC Western Plains: Jennifer Browning)
A further 50km down the road, high school students Caitlin, Mitch and Ashley Carlow work on their family farm before and after school, but have found a way to balance farm work and homework.
"I enjoy it, I just part of my life," Caitlin said.
"It's just a good break from school work — I enjoy being out in the country."
Mitch said his schoolwork took priority.
"If dad needs a hand I go out and help him — I try to help as much as I can — but we make sure school comes first," he said.
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A recent UNICEF report offered a stark assessment of the impact drought had on children.
The report expressed concern about a lack of support.
Pip Job, who leads the Business and Social Resilience program with the Department of Primary Industries and works directly with drought-affected farmers in NSW, urged caution with the way people communicated with families impacted by the drought.
She said many farmers were already feeling overwhelmed and it was important to not make them feel worse about their current situation.
"We need to be really careful at the moment, farming families are under a huge amount of stress," she said.
"Their businesses and our communities are under a tremendous amount of stress so we have to be very sensitive about things like this.
"There's parts of agriculture that are confronting if you haven't grown up in it but it's our norm."
Support through school
Trundle Central School principal John Southon has worked to help students stay positive in the midst of the drought.
"Every week we try to do something a little bit different, because what's happening is every day is the same — it's windy, it's dry, they have to work," Mr Southon said.
"We just need to give kids the language to be able to say, 'I need some help' and we have been really poor with that with our kids, particularly boys in the country."
Mr Southon said he had seen firsthand the toll the drought had been having on children.
"I had a situation with a student recently that said to me, 'I'm not going to ask for a birthday present because I feel I just can't,' and for a child of that age it's a terrible emotional burden to take on," he said.
"We need to tread carefully."
Choice of language is important
Brenda Baker, from the National Association for Loss and Grief, said not everyone was in the same situation on the land.
She said media and other organisations had a duty of care when it came to reporting on the drought.
"Sometimes photos and imagery are really overly emotive images and don't portray what all circumstances are," Ms Baker said.
"When we see one image of a farm it's portrayed that that's what everyone's farm looks like and we know when you meet one farmer that's it just one farmer not every farmer."
Ms Baker said the solution was to use language that fostered hope when dealing with the harsh reality of drought.
"We have to look at the wellbeing of our farming communities and sometimes by using language that doesn't foster hope it can actually prevent people seeking help," she said.
"If we're not capacity building or showing stories where people take control in the circumstances — not just reacting to their circumstance which can actually inhibit people seeking help at times, especially if they see a situation as hopeless."
Ms Baker said it was very difficult for communities to continue to hear of the negative aspects of drought.
"I know people who don't switch on the radio. They felt overwhelmed by what was on the TV," she said.
"There was a sense of feeling like they needed to back away.
"It's important that we tell stories of people who are actually responding to this horrific situation in a way that is leading them to make decisions that are good."
Topics: drought, youth, community-organisations, child-health-and-behaviour, adolescent-health, journalism, farm-labour, livestock, counselling, stress, depression, secondary-schools, public-schools, primary-schools, rural-youth, mental-health, gilgandra-2827, trundle-2875