As a catholic, Occasionally we make visitations to the less privileged homes/facility around us to pray with em & donate what we can and today I happened to follow the Saint Vincent De Paul society to visit a juvenile home made to correct wayward children, we went in different group & along d way d car I was in lost track of others. It actually took us a while to find the place cos the signboard had been taken down thereby making it hard to notice, fortunately we found the place but the reverse was the case when we got there. I was astounded by the stories I heard from the cordinator & also by the little kids, the oldest of em is 16yrs. From their stories one would realise that these children were actually or let me say intentionally dumped here maybe cases from pregnancy out of wedlock or lack of family planning thereby they're not able to care for the child, some were found wandering on the streets or inside the stadium, some don't even know why they're there so they make up stories that their parents are dead, some of em are runaways from where they're being abused as houseboys or girls all the way from calabar, some although they deserve to be there for their waywardness but who leaves a child in a juvenile home where there's no adequate facility for over two-three years! There's no way that child will ever change, he/she will only get worse. One of the kids(Name Withheld) who's 16 years said he was wrongly accused of killing his friend who's a girl just because they walk to & fro school, what really left me confused is when he said that the dead body of the girl was found hanging behind his backyard & that left me with a question, that who murders someone & hangs the body behind his house? that's senseless ryt! I mean d murderer either ditches the body or buries it ryt! & do you know the worst of it all, this juvenile home has been abandoned by the government, the very government that swore to protect and take care of its people (Government Of The People For The People & By The People) such that they always give the people taking care of the children excuses that there's no money meanwhile they've money for acquiring irrelevant things they don't need just to show off, if you're walking past that area on a normal day, you won't even realize that humans are behind those high walls, there's no learning or skill acquisition program whatsoever that is available that's why you've cases where those who happen to be released only end up back in there cos they only go out to commit same offence, can you imagine a 9 year old accused of oil bunkering! Mind you there're also isolation cells in there for exceptionally cases...I happened to see an engraving on one of the walls & I noticed that no change has been done to the environment, still same buildings since 1991 nothing hardly functions anymore. The only way they survive is off what they get from visitors mostly from churches.
It really breaks my heart that even after writing this nothing will be done but then I would have done my part by enlighten anyone who cares to read. The whole summary is that I just couldn't imagine myself staying a day in there I might just commit suicide, I was really stubborn as a child probably much more than the faces I saw today & I don't think I ever would have forgiven my parents if they ever did send me to a juvenile & that makes me love em more than ever...I'm not sayin am better than those people in there but am saying appreciate whatever you parents provide for you now cos they would give you more if they could, the moment you start looking elsewhere & breaking their hearts, you might just loose it all.