SAVING OUR CHILDREN

First of all, it will interest us to know that here in my country, there are very few or no functioning child services here. The kind of child services offered here are not necessarily to take you away from your parents but as a child, they let you know that you have your right and you can go to the government for help but that’s not something a lot of persons take advantage of and that’s because you might not even make it there if the case is really serious. It’s hard for a child who has parents to run to people outside for help and a lot of persons would prefer to mind their business.

But as at today, I have never really heard of anyone that has benefited from a child service. Most times they just accept their fate and do nothing. I have seen in Hollywood movies where child services steps in when a child is being neglected in their home or being abused but here in Nigeria, it is seen as the act of a parent correcting their child. The best I have seen the government and non governmental organizations do is make some provisions for children who do not have anyone to call family or those who are disadvantaged and we have heard of really ugly cases of what happen to some of these children afterwards but that doesn’t mean there aren’t good cases too.

So for today’s hive learners topic, we are asked to talk about CHILD SERVICES and its effects in our countries. Even if I don’t have a formal experience of what a child service is, I have seen and heard of how they function and it doesn’t really sit well with me but I’m very sure it has helped a lot of children and maybe parents too. I see child services as a prove that parents are not doing what they are supposed to do. It shows their imperfections and their inabilities which doesn’t really speaks well. Child services gives room to parents to slack in their roles towards their children and it also gives the children room to do whatever they like because they have a plan B.

In the face of child services, it’s hard for parents to genuinely discipline their children when they do things bad as every form of discipline will be seen as abuse. The Bible made us understand that in the heart of a child, that’s where foolishness abounds. But knowing that when we yell at them or even use the rod on them when necessary they might stand the chance of losing their children, most parents just refrain from correcting their children. I’m not so sure how they run this agencies in the real world but I do wonder how their routine is like with the children that help them grow up to becoming better adults.

For me, I think it will give them a wrong idea that their parents don’t love them especially if they were very tender when they were taken away from their parents because some of these child services can be manipulated. But besides all of these, there are indeed cases of children being abused by their own parents and even strangers but little or nothing is done to help protect them, especially here in my country. I once had a classmate back in junior high school who was sexually abused by her own father. The most interesting part of this whole thing was that her own mother was aware of it but still couldn’t do anything to save her child because she wants to stay alive.

They lived in a very secluded area that no body really cares about what the next person is doing so it was a perfect crime scene for the man. There was one time she ran away from the house and they father had to look for her and when he found her, she was at one of our classmates’ place. The man dragged her out and took her back to his house after warning the mother of the house seriously that no one can tell him what he chooses to do with his child. I was really heart broken and wished someone could just stand up for that girl but no one could. She accepted her fate and that was it.

Child services are good but I feel there should be some boundaries and their focus should be on abuses and not because a child was corrected for doing something wrong. They should make more effort to help everyone by going to look for them and not wait for them to come to them. Because most times, these abused people won’t even have the mind of asking for help due to fear, trauma and lack of access to help.

Thanks for reading through. ❤️