Yes, he/she is my child but certainly your child also. Why is he/she not your child. He/she has the same blood running through his veins just like your children so what makes him/her different from your children. Absolutely nothing.
In the olden days, it was believed that a community raises a child therefore the success and wellness of a child depended on the community and the country as large. Primarily any child found been bad or engaging in social vices would be reprimanded or advised so he/she desists from such acts. That was then.
Do we witness adults scolding children for any form of wrong doing. Hardly will you find one. People fear to be criticized or judged for scolding children. To scold another child means to be insulted or tagged Mr/Miss know it all but isn’t child upbringing a collective responsibility.
Wont life be easier for children if only they can be advised and assisted by adults in their day to day activities. We live in a computerized world where children of age 4 upwards have iPads to themselves and knows a little around the world just through a flip of their fingers. Does it mean they are above reproach or reprimand? Are we gradually losing our cherished values that we once held in high esteem due to the nuclear family systems preventing external members from intervening in the upbringing of a child?
How great it will be if an individual or adult sees every child as his/her own and help that child grow into a better adult by advising and coaching them where necessary. This will help raise better citizens and adults for the nation with the needed talent, abilities and mentality that can gradually help the country progress.
The United Nations Convention on the rights of a child defines a child as a human being below the age of 18 years under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier. Ghana demographics profile 2018 indicates that out of 27,499.24 people in the country, the ages between 0-14 years makes up 38.01% comprising 5,253 males and 5,198 females.
Therefore, our country has more children growing up to manage the affairs of the country in years to come. This is the more reason why each and every one of us must identify a child as his/her own and create opportunities directly or indirectly for them.
Unfortunately, one is marveled at the rate at which some unprincipled, crooked and corrupt adults are been wicked to Ghanaian children. Ghanaians wake up to disturbing news about a step father, step mothers, uncles, aunts, nieces, parents, guardians and other adults in the communities subjecting children to all forms of abuse such as rape, bodily and emotional harm and other forms of brutality.
That one on the rise in the country currently is sodomy, hmmm where from this one too, l can’t imagine how painful it will be and his twin sister pedophiles, disheartening and disgusting. These unjust and unfair treatment meted out to children is becoming too rampant, where did child protection and rights run to, what happened to them, are they no longer in use.
What exactly did the kids do to deserve these kinds of treatment from adults who are supposed to protect, care and provide for them. It is sickening to find adults recruiting children into prostitution, armed robbery and trafficking.
If you can identify and relate to one’s child as your own, will you deliberately deceive him or her to travel into servitude at Kuwait while you enjoy from his/her sweat. One incident l encountered during my journalism days that made me shiver was a case involving a 40-year-old lady who came seeking for financial help.
The mother of three suffered from Human Immune Virus (HIV) and was seriously ill, she had lost so much weight looking skinny. However, this young lady was infected by the beloved husband who was on the anti-retroviral drug but never told the wife after contracting the disease. He knowingly infected the wife while taking his anti-retroviral drugs.
Furthermore, he continued his sexual exploits and intentionally infected his step daughter of 16 years. He defiled the young girl without protecting himself knowing very well he had the HIV virus.
Hmm, the day l set eyes on this man, he looked so unassuming with this harmless face like that of someone who can’t hurt a fly. I kept thinking about the 16-year-old girl infected by HIV by his step dad with a dying mother, so pathetic, while the man walks around freely infecting more ladies through his lies and deception.
The point is why should this young girl suffer from the same hands that was supposed to protect her. Why will this man be excessively wicked to the young girl. What was her fault, why should she go through this pain because of one wicked adult? Is a child no more a community property, Is a child no more the responsibility of the society? Why then do people in the society turn around and hurt these young ones who are naïve and fragile.
My fellow Ghanaians, kindly let us protect children, the young ones in the society because they are our future generation. The Child rights and protection unit in the country must be up and doing to save kids from unscrupulous people. People found culpable messing up with children should be dealt ruthlessly to serve as a deterrent to others. PROTECT A CHILD, SAVE A CHILD.
Adubia writes
