Children are indeed a gift from God and as such they should be nurtured and protected to grow into responsible adults. Children are innocent souls, and rely solely on their guardians to protect them and give them guidance. A child from infant, toddler, school-going age to teenager, needs guidance from parents/guardians to be able to distinguish right from wrong. Our publication this week carries an article where a nine-year-old primary school going child was continuously being raped by her stepfather. The painful part is that the mother knew about it and did nothing to protect the child from being molested by her boyfriend.
Children are vulnerable, and need care and protection from the people they trust the most being their parents. Children have a right to health, education, a clean environment, a safe place to live and protection from all kinds of harm, but sadly some children experience the worst kind of abuse from the very same people who are supposed to protect them. In this particular ugly incident, the mother claims that she was being threatened by the boyfriend to keep quiet about the ordeal the little girl was undergoing. A mother has always been known to be the biggest protector of all, one who would go an extra mile to ensure that her child/children are safe, but sadly in this particular case the mother seemed to have surrendered to allow the monster she calls a boyfriend to molest her sweet innocent nine year old.
