Description

When we talk about abuse of child rights, bonded labour where children are forced to work under harmful working conditions for long periods in order for them to live or pay off their parents’ debt easily comes to mind.
Early marriages, where girls at the tender age of 12 are forced into marriages and perform marital roles harmful to their best interests, is another example of child abuse.
Young girls being forced into Bondo society to go through female genital mutilation because they can’t object or they would be beaten or driven out of the homes is another child abuse.
I am of the opinion that about 60 percent of our children, below the age of 12 years have their rights violated in one way or another through various abuses including trafficking, domestic servitude, commercial sexual exploitation, quarrying, mining and agriculture.
Most of these abuses were seen by my colleagues who went to do some researches in the Northern Province. Children working in a quarry for Le2, 000 a day and when they are tired they will be beaten with shovels by their master. I can authoritatively say these manifestations of child abuse are seriously dealt with elsewhere as they are a daily affliction of some of our Sierra Leonean children.
In spite of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child’s law in the country, it is clear from the current state of child protection and development that Sierra Leone is still a long way from making proper and adequate provisions for the development of her precious children.
It is on record and we can see it everywhere in the country that a number of our children are malnourished and many of them are out of school. In the provinces, and the surrounding villages around the city, one can see thousands of them are in child labour.
Most of such children fall prey to the dreadful HIV/AIDS, while children in the war-torn areas suffer and live under hazardous conditions. Similarly, teachers in these war torn areas have abandoned their posts to save their lives, thereby compelling the children to till the land or work in the quarry.
Our children deserve a better deal. Like any other class of humans, they have a right to participate in matters that affect them; and our failure to involve them is a denial of this intrinsic right. When the drive to participate is neither respected nor nurtured, and when the children are excluded or ignored by adults, their potential to contribute to their communities is compromised. Such children are likely to act as they have been treated and become social deviants.
The previous governments and the current one have set up programmes under the Social Welfare ministry to address the needs and issues affecting children and women. Non Governmental Organization as well as UNICEF have been doing extremely well to alleviate the sufferings of the children and give them a positive life.
But the question is how far have the radio and newspaper sensitization reached and/or influencing the lives of the children? I believe that if we are to succeed in getting the message across and letting it stick in the minds of children and parents, we should embark on outdoor film shows. Even if the children and their parents are tired, so long as they know there is a film show in their community every Monday as the case might be, they would be present at the location to have fun,
The message will definitely have an impact in their lives because of the moving pictures. And they would be able to explain to one another about the movie.
Another positive way of sending the message out also is by using drama groups to reach out to the grassroots who would want to have some pleasure just like the film shows.
Meanwhile, it has been observed that a good number of Sierra Leoneans are ignorant about the fact that children have rights which should not be abused. If society is properly sensitized to realize that there are rights that have been enacted globally and locally and that the violation of such rights would attract punishment by law, abuse of children would be minimized if not totally stopped.
Though the ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Children is a very big achievement, there is the need to ensure that the Constitutional provisions become operational for the children to benefit from them. It is regrettable to note that though there are laws against violation; children are abused on a daily basis.
Even though there had been concerted efforts at creating awareness about the Convention, many people seem to be oblivious of its content. We need specifics so that if the child is being abused by somebody, we must know what provision is there, and how it protects children. People must know these specifics so that they are held accountable for the abuses.
As the children are becoming aware of their rights and responsibilities, society should accord them the needed support to enable them grow into responsible adulthood. Every effort should be made to ensure that children are protected, given every opportunity to develop, and their God-given potentials tapped.
As a nation, we should not forget that the children, who are denied education today; who are being abused today, would become serious threat to society tomorrow. The development of any nation depends on how society protects and nurtures its children.
By their very position in society, children do not possess the means to champion their interests. Their direct voice is often not loud enough for adult ears or not attended when heard. It is therefore gracious for organizations such as the media and the various non-governmental organizations (NGO’s) to seek the survival, protection and development of our children.
As the first country in the sub region to start the Voice of Children’s programme in 2001, our government has the onerous responsibility to demonstrate this leadership in concrete ways to serve as example for others to follow.
Children of school going age are on the streets hawking and begging. These are kids sent out to do these jobs by their mother. The next stage for them is robbery and prostitution. Even when the parents are being chastised for abusing heir children, they will be anger and will abuse people for correcting them.
Most of these children especially girls, have fallen victims to various forms of abuses, with sexual abuse being prominent. They get pregnant and give birth to a second generation of street children who have no knowledge of any cultural values and thereby pose a threat to society. A good number of these children have been involved in some forms of crimes. There are even prostitutes among them.
There is therefore the need for government and other organizations to come up with more effective programmes in the country to eradicate the children from such dangers and turn them into responsible people in the future. I would like to close by saying that we need to look at the parenting of these children as they too have their own rights to protect. In my next issue I will look at the parents’ side and how we can harmonize both parties in getting the very best in a home where parents and children will live happily with their rights being intact.
By Austin Thomas