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BREAK THE SILENCE NOT THE CHILD



It’s an era of breaking things, sportsmen breakingrecords, scientists breaking new grounds, celebrities breaking relationships and yours truly is on a mission“to break”too. I have equipped myself with some dangerous weapons, I have Torr’s hammer on my right hand, Sango’s hammer on my left hand and Triple H sledge hammer and other WMD in my backpack.I’m gonna break the silence on child abuse. Before I break this silence into pieces lemme introduce up stage the big boss,what is child abuse?

According to WHO, child abuse is defined as all forms of physical and/or emotional ill-treatment, sexual abuse, neglect or treatment or commercial or other exploitation, resulting in actual or potential harm to the child’s health, survival, development or dignity in the context of a relationship of responsibility, trust or power.

Now let’s start breaking the silence by breaking the definition into comprehendible pieces.(winks)


Break the silence: Spare the rod, care with love

Ok! This may be hard for some people to shallow,especially when a portion of the holy book says the opposite. Well, I ain’t a preacher here (snobs with an attitude, excuse me!) but I bring to you the gospel of facts (grins from cheek to cheek) . It has been proven with facts that physical child abuses are perpetuated by adults who have authoritarian control, anxiety-provoking behaviour, and lack of parental warmth and not by parents who love their children as claimed by some. There is a thin line between child punishment and physical child abuse, one which is often crossed. Physical abuse is the intentional use of physical force (such as hitting, beating, kicking, shaking, biting, strangling, scalding, burning, poisoning and suffocating) against the child that results in harm or has a high likelihood of resulting in harm for the child’s health, survival, development or dignity. So when next you raise your hand to hit that little creature ask yourself this question will this break this child or will it break the silence?


Break the silence: Enemy within

A Yoruba adage says the pestilence that would kill a tree is found on the tree. Statistics show that the majority of perpetuators of sexual abuse on children are people known to and by them. A whopping 60%of perpetuators of sexual abuse are acquaintances such as family friends, babysitters and neighbours.30%of these perverts are relatives of the child such as fathers,brothers, mothers, sisters, uncles, aunties and cousins. Surprisingly strangers are offenders in about10%of child sexual abuse cases. Here are some disturbing questions. Can we then conclude that our children are safer with strangers? When our trust to entrust turns to a must to lust, who is gonna break the silence?


Break the silence: The silent killer

Hypertension has been tipped for the award of the world’s silent killer for adults but in the children’s category, psychological child abuse is topping the chart. Though it doesn’t kill immediately like known diseases it surely does with time. There are parts of the world where abusive words from parents are kinda culturally acceptable. In this side of the globe, abusive words like Ode, Olodo, Apa, Alainironuare daily anthem recited in many homes. Before you wash your hands off like Pontius Pilate and say no I don’t say such, note, psychological child abuse can be defined as a repeated pattern of caregiver behaviour or extreme incident(s) that convey to children that they are worthless, flawed, unloved, unwanted, endangered, or only of value in meeting another’s need. Lobatan! Did I hear you say guilty as charged?


Break the silence: Runaway Parents

Runaway bride is the title of a Hollywood movie released in 1999. The movie has a poster of Julian Robert in a wedding gown and a pair of trainer’s canvas. In the movie she was always running away from her own wedding ceremony, how ridiculous that sounds! Bringing this home to our discussion on breaking, many children have become broken today due to their runaway parents. When I say runaway parents, it has more to do than the physical absence of parents or abandonment of children. It also extends to the parents’ failure to provide food, clothing, shelter, medical care, education, or supervision to the degree that the child’s health, safety and well-being are threatened with harm. So let all runaways run this way, pick up a hammer and let’s together break the silence. Break the silence not the child.

References
WikipediaPhoto credits: Google images
Amberacious©2016
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