Every year, countless children experience the loss of a parent, sibling, or loved one. Most adults assume that children are resilient, that they will bounce back, move on, and forget. But research tells a very different story.

A landmark seven-year study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry found that children who lose a parent are more than twice as likely to experience impaired functioning at school and at home, even seven years later. The same research found that children under 12 who lose a parent face a significantly higher risk of depression than those who experience loss in adolescence.

Further research from the National Centre for Biotechnology Information shows that childhood loss of a parent can increase a child’s risk of developing depression as an adult by a factor of two to three. Bereaved children also show higher rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) than their non-bereaved peers, not just in the months after a loss, but at every stage of life that follows.

When grief is left unaddressed, when a child has no language, no ritual, and no safe space to process their loss, the pain doesn’t disappear. It goes underground. It resurfaces in anxiety, in depression, in fractured relationships and diminished futures.

The question is not whether childhood grief matters. The science is clear: it does, profoundly and lastingly. The question is: what do we do about it? 

Every Morning, a Child Helps the Sun to Rise  

In a world that often rushes past grief, urging children to be brave, to get back to school, to “be strong”, Belgian artist Barbara Raes created something extraordinary: a ritual that holds space for a child’s pain and transforms it into something luminous.

It is called The Golden Child.

Every day, a special child is chosen to help the sun to rise. This child, between the ages of 5 and 11, who has recently experienced a significant loss, spends the night alongside a beautiful river with a trusted family member and the project leader. At dawn, the Sun Queen arrives. She tells the child she needs the light in their eyes to help the sun rise. Together they set off on a magical boat journey, singing a mantra to welcome the sun, as sorrow gently fades into the sea.

The Golden Child has been performed 44 times since 2018. Each performance is a profound, individually crafted experience. Each child leaves carrying something they did not have before: the knowledge that their grief was witnessed, honoured, and transformed.

Six Children in Plettenberg Bay

Through a meaningful partnership between Barbara, NTGent, Het Paleis, Born in Africa and Lunchbox Theatre, six children from Plettenberg Bay recently experienced this transformative healing ritual.

At Lunchbox Theatre, we believe in the power of performance and story to heal what cannot be healed by words alone. The Golden Child is exactly this: it meets children not with therapy jargon or clinical frameworks, but with magic, beauty, and the ancient language of ritual. It says:

“Your grief is real. You are not alone. And there is still light, and you are part of it.”

This work is urgently needed. In South Africa, mental health support for bereaved children remains critically underprovided, particularly in under-resourced communities where access to psychological services is limited or nonexistent. Creative, community-based interventions like The Golden Child offer a bridge, one that is culturally resonant, accessible, and profoundly human.

Help Us Reach More Children

The science is clear. Childhood grief, left unaddressed, casts long shadows into adulthood. But it doesn’t have to.

When a community comes together to hold a grieving child, to witness their loss, to light a candle in the dark, to invite them onto a boat at dawn and remind them that the world still needs their light, something shifts. Something heals.

Lunchbox Theatre is committed to bringing The Golden Child to more children across South Africa. In partnership with Born in Africa, we are working to ensure that no child has to carry their grief alone.

If you would like to support this work through a donation, a partnership, or by bringing The Golden Child to your community, we would love to hear from you. Every contribution helps a child rise.