Speak up against child abuse

THIS is National Child Protection Week. Just saying that shows how sad it is that we have to set aside seven days each year to get us to focus on the most vulnerable and neediest sector of our society. Children should be our prime concern; after all, they are the future.

The reality though is that often they’re not a concern but a burden, if the horrible incidence of newborn babies being abandoned in the veld and elsewhere is any indicator. The prospects for those growing up though is just as dangerous – and dire.

“Out of Harm’s Way”, last year’s study by the Children’s Institute, makes for desperately sad reading: 34% of our children will have suffered sexual assault, violence or abuse by the time they reach 18.

In two of our provinces – Mpumalanga and the Western Cape – half the respondents reported a lifetime of abuse at the hands of relatives, teachers or caregivers.

It is a jaw-dropping statistic and an ominous harbinger for the kind of future we can expect, because of widespread studies which show that those who have been abused have a high rate of turning into abusers themselves.

We have no option but to break this cycle if we are to have any hope of creating a better future in every regard than the present that we experience now.

It is easy to put the blame on the lack of resources, too few social workers, overworked police officers, horrifically pressured prosecutors and overloaded court rolls.

It’s often easier to point the finger at the dissolution of marriage and the tsunami of broken homes and even child-headed households, but the truth is that it takes a village to raise a child. Just what is that village doing? Somebody somewhere will always see when violence is happening or has happened. They need to stop turning their heads and speak up.

And for those young mothers overwhelmed by unwanted pregnancies, we need to help them get to a place where they can give their babies away – not abandon them on the pavement.