DEVASTATING END
Toddler left with 9-year-old sister found dead
Athree-year-old boy who had been left with her sister on Sunday was found dead the following day in Komana village after going missing for the whole day that his parents had left in the care of the elder sibling.
Maun Police Station Commander, Chenamo Orateng told this publication that they received a report at 9pm on Sunday evening from the deceased’s mother, noting that her son had gone missing.
According to Orateng, the deceased’s mother says she had left the boy with his nine-year-old sister at the village 15 kilometres outside Maun.
“Upon arriving later in the evening, the daughter told her mother that she could not find her younger brother, and that she did not know where he had gone. That is how the mother ended up coming to the police station to report the child as missing,” Orateng explained.
The police then sent out a search party to find the boy but no positive results came out until the search was stopped at 11pm. It was resumed on Monday morning, with the search party following the trail of the boy’s footsteps which led to Thamalakane River where divers found his lifeless body under water.
According to the Police Chief, this is the first incident to occur in his policing area since the beginning of this year. He urged parents not to neglect their children as it never ends well.
When narrating the incident, the boy’s grandmother, Gaekgatse Tlou, 65, said she received news on Sunday evening that her grandchild had gone missing.
“Usually my daughter leaves her children with me or the neighbour when she goes to the kraal or the fields,” Tlou said, adding that the two children then went to their neighbour’s place to play, and that is when the boy must have wandered away.
The boy’s mother, Godiaraone Tlou, 35, is devastated and finds it difficult to come to terms with burying her child. She is emotionally broken and never thought it would happen to her. Funeral arrangements are currently underway.
Social worker at Childline Botswana, Onkgopotse Thobega said that this incident might be a result of child neglect as the two children were left alone under no adult supervision, leading to them escaping the eyes of the adults.
She explained that child neglect does not only entail a parent or parent’s absence from the home for a period of time, but even failure to keep eyes on children all the time, which has the result of subjecting the child to a substantial risk of harm.
“In general, it is not a good idea to leave kids younger than 10 years old home alone. Every child is different, but at that age, most kids do not have the maturity and skills to respond to an emergency if they are alone,” Thobega said.
Thobega warned that when parents decide to leave their children home alone, they should consider their child’s physical, mental, developmental, and emotional well-being, as well as his or her willingness to stay home alone. She said that parents should also consider laws and policies regarding child negligence. Chirwah Mahloko, Human Rights Advisor at Stepping Stones International that focuses on adolescent and youth development, said extensive counselling for both the parent and the surviving child is critical. She stated that the older sibling may blame herself for the incident. She added that the mother on the other hand may also blame herself for leaving the children alone.