Let’s break child abuse ‘pandemic’
It hurts. Looking at the wounds on his little back hurt. The wounds looked like something out of a movie but they were real.
You could feel the pain of this poor three-year-old who had been badly beaten by his father. Twenty-six-year-old Ebenezer Osei Bonsu, had used a cable and cane to whip him for damaging his (Bonsu’s) phone and wetting his bed. Bonsu who was arrested and charged with assault and causing harm is currently on bail.
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The lives of three-year-old girl at Apatrapa, New Site, near Kumasi, and 13-year-old twins at Apam in the Central region will never be the same. The three-year old was defiled by a 52-year-old man who has been sentenced to 12 years imprisonment by a Kumasi Circuit Court.
The twins were also defiled by a 29-year-old man who took advantage of them while they were on an errand. He tied and forcibly had sex with them one after the other.
These are just a minuscule of stories of violence against children in Ghana.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines child abuse as "all forms of physical and emotional ill-treatment, sexual abuse, neglect and exploitation that results in actual or potential harm to the child's health, development or dignity."
Some behaviours that are considered child abuse or neglect include:
• Beating/striking your child with an object, a fist, or another part of your body with the intention of harm.
• Frequently shouting at or threatening them; bullying, including online bullying
• Making believable threats to kill or severely harm your child.
• Any act that forces or entices a child or young person to participate in sexual activities.
• Being unwilling to meet your child’s basic needs for food, shelter, clean water, and a safe environment.
• Placing or leaving the child in a situation in which they might experience emotional or physical danger or harm.
The number of cases of child abuse in all its forms keep increasing year after year. For instance, a total of 1,686 defilement cases were recorded nationwide in 2017 compared to 1,341 recorded in 2016.
“The 2013 United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Child Protection baseline research report indicates that when children were asked about their experiences of physical discipline, over 57 per cent of respondents (aged 14-17 years) said they were beaten at home “all the time” or “sometimes”, while 34 per cent confirmed being beaten in school by the teacher in the last month. This appeared to be the case for both girls and boys in rural and urban areas.”
Violence against
children in a pandemic
It is even more scary during this period of a pandemic, and this is not only happening in Ghana. There are reports of a surge in suspected child abuse cases in Texas.
Doctors at Cook Children’s Hospital in Fort Worth raised the alarm over concerns about a rise in alleged child abuse cases amid the coronavirus outbreak.
They said they saw at least six cases of apparent physical abuse against children, with one of those cases resulting in death.
A report in the New York Times shared similar sentiments. It said “the Covid-19 pandemic has created the conditions for a rise in child abuse that could go unchecked.”
This is because entire families are sheltering at home, often in close quarters. Anxiety about health, education and finances is high.
Children are not seeing teachers, counsellors and other adults who would normally raise concerns about their well-being.
Interventions
A number of interventions have been put in place to protect children from violence.
For instance, in November 2017, UNICEF with support from the Government of Ghana, launched the ‘Ghanaians Against Child Abuse’ (GACA) campaign. The campaign is in line with the government’s Child and Family Welfare and Justice for Children policies that are helping to strengthen the child protection system in Ghana.
The campaign is using various channels, including social media, traditional media, mobile theatre, to create awareness on child abuse issues while mobilising national support to provide a safe and protective environment for children.
Also, the Judicial Service of Ghana with support from UNICEF has put in place the first Child friendly court in Ghana. The court which is situated within the Gender Based Violence Courts is aimed at addressing the needs of children using more age appropriate procedures and tools.
Arm children with knowledge to prevent abuse
Despite the various interventions put in place to protect children against violence, child abuse in all its forms persist. The first thing is to educate children on what child abuse is and whe
re they can report.
The Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Police Service is open to all children to report cases of abuse against them.
The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection has also provided a helpline: 0800 800 800 or 0800 900 900 for children to call if they face any problem.
It is also critical that parents and communities engage children at an early age on body safety - talk about body parts, body boundaries, not to send pictures of their private parts to anyone and that it is alright to say ‘no’ to an adult when that adult puts him or her in an uncomfortable position.
It is important to arm children with information and knowledge that will prevent them from becoming victims of sexual abuse. Most of the time, the perpetrators are not strangers but people they know very well.
Parents will also have to change their mindset on how to discipline children. There are various ways to discipline children when they go wrong without harming them. The same goes for teachers because although corporal punishment has been banned, some teachers still use it.
Added to this, parents should be wary of those they leave their children in the care of. They should also watch out for signs that indicate that the child is not all right and make time to listen to them in order to pick up signals of abuse.
Child abuse has a long and lasting effect on the victim and it is important that families and societies prevent it from happening in the first place.
There are a number of factors that lead to child abuse but we can cannot allow it to continue because children are the future, and they need to grow up in a safe environment.
We need to enforce the various effective prevention strategies to create a safe and stable environment for children in the country.
# StopChildAbuse
#Caningiscriminal
