I met a twelve years old girl some years ago yearning for help to get what she could eat that day, she approached me and said "aunt please give me some money I want to eat, I have not eaten today" it was very deep into the afternoon, this child has not eaten anything for at least sixteen hours that day. I felt so cold and asked about her parent, she told me her parent stayed in the village. The next thing that crossed my mind was what she was doing in the city which I asked her, she said "my parent says they want me to have a very standard education so they brought me to the city to stay with my aunt." Then I asked her what she was doing on the street begging for what to eat then she told me that her aunt's eldest son had raped her and she told her aunt about it but her aunt pretended not to believe her and beat her and told her never to say a word about it to her parents. So her aunt made her starve and beat her often to make her remember that she must not tell her parent about it. Well I helped her in the way I could and gave her the courage to tell her parents about it when next they visited her in the city.
This little girl's situation touched me and and prompted me to write something on this to help thousands of children around the world and mostly in Africa. To help reduce child abuse to its possible minimal level.
What is child abuse?
A child is any person under 18 years of age therefore, Child abuse is an action, behaviors or inaction by an adult towards a child or young person that harms or endangers the child. A child could be abused sexually, physically, emotionally and even by being neglected.
Physical abuse;
Physical abuse is any intentional act causing injury or trauma to another person by way of bodily contact. In most cases, children are the victims of physical abuse, but adults can also be victims, as in cases of domestic violence or workplace aggression.
A child is physically abused when a person deliberately inflict's a physical injury on them. Child abuse comes in different forms and this is one of the common ways a child is being abused. This makes a child suffer physical pain. many children as been made to be physically challenged or even lost their lives to this very form of child abuse.
Sexual child abuse;
Child sexual abuse referred to as any activity with a child, before the age of legal consent, that is for sexual gratification of an adult or a significantly older child. It includes among, other things, sexual touching, or penetration, persuading a child to expose his or her sexual organs and allowing a child to view pornography.
Usually, a sexual assault occurs when someone touches any part of another person's body in a sexual way, even through clothes, without that person's consent, but in case of a child when a person touches him or her in a sexual way with or without the child's consent is known to be child molestation.
Emotional child abuse;
What is emotional abuse?
Emotional abuse, also referred to as psychological violence, psychological abuse, or mental abuse, is a form of abuse, characterized by a person subjecting, or exposing, another person to behavior that may result in psychological trauma, including anxiety, chronic depression, or post-traumatic stress disorder.
According to Richard D. Krugman."Emotional child abuse has been defined as the rejection, ignoring, criticizing, isolation or terrorization of a child\children all of which have the effect of eroding their self esteem." It usually expresses itself in verbal attacks involving rejection, scapegoat, belittlement among others.
Neglect;
Child neglect is defined as a type of maltreatment related to the failure to provide needed age-appropriate care. Unlike physical and sexual abuse, neglect is usually typified by an ongoing pattern of inadequate care and is readily observed by individuals in close contact with the child. It is the failure to provide or to satisfy a child's basic needs. This basic need includes adequate food, clothing, shelter, or supervision to standardize a child's emotional and psychological development.
SOLUTIONS
Child abuse is however a frightening and unpleasant reality in today's world and its effects on children could be devastating. the question now is how serious should we be about child abuse? Well, what will you be willing to give for the sake of your child's safety? how can children protect themselves?how can the people in the society help innocent victims? how can the governments be of great help in solving the issue of child abuse? lets consider these questions one by one.
First, lets consider why the first question that says "what will you be willing to do for the sake of your child's safety?" well the good news is you really don't have a very big price to pay when it comes to protecting your child. To protect your child, you just have to follow this simple steps bellow;
1) Be a very good listener to your child and take seriously their feelings; Many parents today abuse their children without even knowing they do it. Giving a child the chance to speak and you listening and trying to understand things from their point of view will call your awareness to how you irritate them. let your children know they can tell you anything. this way, you are protecting your child from external abusers and even yourself.
2) Train your child; of cause every parent train their children, but the question is "on what". let your child know what it means to be abused and never hesitate to fight back whenever they notice they are being abused also let them know that they should seek the closest help they could get when they are abused.This type of training are very important most especially in bringing up a female child. Equip your children with some basic protective tools like screaming in cases of molestations.
3) Always be ready to act whenever your child complains or report being abused. believe your child over everybody be it a teacher, a family member, friends or even your religious leader i.e pastors, imams, and traditional leader. when a case is reported, it is not the time of considering what the accused is capable of doing or the persons place in the society. believe your child.Be your child's first line of defense
The second question of consideration is " how can children protect themselves?"
break the silence.
This little girl's situation touched me and and prompted me to write something on this to help thousands of children around the world and mostly in Africa. To help reduce child abuse to its possible minimal level.
What is child abuse?
A child is any person under 18 years of age therefore, Child abuse is an action, behaviors or inaction by an adult towards a child or young person that harms or endangers the child. A child could be abused sexually, physically, emotionally and even by being neglected.
Physical abuse;
Physical abuse is any intentional act causing injury or trauma to another person by way of bodily contact. In most cases, children are the victims of physical abuse, but adults can also be victims, as in cases of domestic violence or workplace aggression.
A child is physically abused when a person deliberately inflict's a physical injury on them. Child abuse comes in different forms and this is one of the common ways a child is being abused. This makes a child suffer physical pain. many children as been made to be physically challenged or even lost their lives to this very form of child abuse.
Sexual child abuse;
Child sexual abuse referred to as any activity with a child, before the age of legal consent, that is for sexual gratification of an adult or a significantly older child. It includes among, other things, sexual touching, or penetration, persuading a child to expose his or her sexual organs and allowing a child to view pornography.
Usually, a sexual assault occurs when someone touches any part of another person's body in a sexual way, even through clothes, without that person's consent, but in case of a child when a person touches him or her in a sexual way with or without the child's consent is known to be child molestation.
Emotional child abuse;
What is emotional abuse?
Emotional abuse, also referred to as psychological violence, psychological abuse, or mental abuse, is a form of abuse, characterized by a person subjecting, or exposing, another person to behavior that may result in psychological trauma, including anxiety, chronic depression, or post-traumatic stress disorder.
According to Richard D. Krugman."Emotional child abuse has been defined as the rejection, ignoring, criticizing, isolation or terrorization of a child\children all of which have the effect of eroding their self esteem." It usually expresses itself in verbal attacks involving rejection, scapegoat, belittlement among others.
Neglect;
Child neglect is defined as a type of maltreatment related to the failure to provide needed age-appropriate care. Unlike physical and sexual abuse, neglect is usually typified by an ongoing pattern of inadequate care and is readily observed by individuals in close contact with the child. It is the failure to provide or to satisfy a child's basic needs. This basic need includes adequate food, clothing, shelter, or supervision to standardize a child's emotional and psychological development.
SOLUTIONS
Child abuse is however a frightening and unpleasant reality in today's world and its effects on children could be devastating. the question now is how serious should we be about child abuse? Well, what will you be willing to give for the sake of your child's safety? how can children protect themselves?how can the people in the society help innocent victims? how can the governments be of great help in solving the issue of child abuse? lets consider these questions one by one.
First, lets consider why the first question that says "what will you be willing to do for the sake of your child's safety?" well the good news is you really don't have a very big price to pay when it comes to protecting your child. To protect your child, you just have to follow this simple steps bellow;
1) Be a very good listener to your child and take seriously their feelings; Many parents today abuse their children without even knowing they do it. Giving a child the chance to speak and you listening and trying to understand things from their point of view will call your awareness to how you irritate them. let your children know they can tell you anything. this way, you are protecting your child from external abusers and even yourself.
2) Train your child; of cause every parent train their children, but the question is "on what". let your child know what it means to be abused and never hesitate to fight back whenever they notice they are being abused also let them know that they should seek the closest help they could get when they are abused.This type of training are very important most especially in bringing up a female child. Equip your children with some basic protective tools like screaming in cases of molestations.
3) Always be ready to act whenever your child complains or report being abused. believe your child over everybody be it a teacher, a family member, friends or even your religious leader i.e pastors, imams, and traditional leader. when a case is reported, it is not the time of considering what the accused is capable of doing or the persons place in the society. believe your child.Be your child's first line of defense
The second question of consideration is " how can children protect themselves?"
break the silence.
To every child that suffers from child abuse and to those that are prone to becoming a victim, don't you ever keep quiet. Silence makes you remain a victim for long let it be known to all those that can help you know about it never keep saying it it is not a sin to be a victim, help can come from anywhere.
The third question for consideration is "how can people in the society help innocent victims" the best way to do that, is to feed the victims with strength and go against every sort of abuses however small the society should give no space for any abuse and take cases very seriously against the abusers in fact, they should take matters to the law and make sure abusers are adequately punished and exposed to frightening other abusers.
Our final question for consideration is "how can the government be of great help in solving the issue of child abuse" this doesn't require much. all the government needs to do is to make the punishment for child abuse offenses be very serious. The government should also be ready to take responsibility of victims of child abuse that may have nobody else to run to when they eventually have the courage to break the silence.
child abuse is an evil act that should be eradicated in today's society lets not give it a place among us. fish them out.
Adeniyi M. O.[MRS].
Credit goes to: MRS ADENIYI M. O.
