The Nation Newspaper

Tag: health implications

  • Abuse of the girl child: different shades, perpetrators and health implications

    Continued from last week

    For normal reproductive  life, a woman must have normal developmental milestones, which must necessarily begin in the girl child;  for an example, the first menstrual flow requires a body weight of 40kg or more. Though early menses may not be regular , it steadies as the girl child grows into maturity and in good health as defined earlier, so that  any deviations from an established normal pattern can be better understood and explained.  Lack of regularity developing within the normal reproductive age can then be used as a diagnostic aid . Children born into happy homes, with adequate nutrition tend to  have  the first menses occurring within  a range of  time period considered normal. They also tend to have less troublesome issues with menses compared with children who are obese, undernourished or malnourished.

    When  well nourished, stress free young cycling teenagers of the same age are kept together in the same apartment or  Hostel for some time, they tend to have menses coming about  the same time . Stress arising from physical, social or emotional trauma apart from being diabetogenic also places more cholesterol in the pathways for the biosynthesis of the female hormones, particularly estrogen. More estrogen than necessary at a particular time for the girl child is capable of evoking stimuli  that will force responses out of her which she may not have the capacity to control .  Stressful conditions  also have a way of weakening the immune system and reducing the ability of  the individual to fight infections. It is therefore more likely for the girl child in persistent situations of sexual abuse to die from infections  compared with older women facing similar challenges.

    Examine the policy that is currently in place in many of the Federal Government owned secondary schools where parents are not  informed that a child  is ill and on admission at the Sick Bay until the illness gets  beyond the capacity of the Medical team  employed by the School. One wonders if the relevant authorities have paused  to consider  the fact that some certain disease conditions do not give the patient  time to become ill ;that by the time it is finally understood that a disease or illness is beyond the professional competence of the managing  medical team an affected Child will have reached the point where her conditions are no longer reversible

    How did it all begin?  Why would any one imagine that a secondary school teenager who happens to know the symptoms and signs of early pregnancy will decide  to confide in the  Nurse  at the Sick bay in preference to her mother?

    In the  present arrangement of policies, rules and regulations,  most if not all the schools and colleges where our young girls are kept are  modified , glorified and regimented correction centres . In the  passion  to get the best out of these children and position them for better life, we have  failed to take into consideration, the  need to establish a routine  health check and  balance system that should be reviewed from time to time ,and in accordance with the School Health programme .

    Cases of child abuse occurring in schools and colleges remain untold until ten twenty and thirty years later, in some cases, victims die and are buried with their secrets

    By keeping them caged, with limited access to communication with their parents except visiting days, substantial periods of the life of the  growing and developing girl child are spent with people about whom the children know but very little.

    As the world  burns and conflicts spread like wild fire burning in the Harmattan period, the girl child is at the greatest risk with little or no room to negotiate herself out of conditions that are clearly unsafe and unfavourable for  health . Many will agree that when families are small, quality of life is better for the girl child for the simple reason that Mom and Dad will want to hold and to cherish .However ,even in polygamous families, every child wants to be loved and cherished ,to belong and appreciated, and out of sight is never out of mind.  Studies have shown that  whether  a family is polygamous or not, the girl child demonstrates unalloyed taciturnity, love and understanding. She sees her father in her  male teacher and her mother in her female teacher . This is the normal expectation. There are exceptions of course , but these are rare .  It is therefore natural that outside the family system, patterns of behaviour of the girl child can be used as an instrument to measure the degree of family cohesion available for the child to enjoy and vice versa . And so depending on the source of abuse,  an abused child is likely to grow up and become an abuser either in the family she will build or  the family she is born into.

    Under the conditions forced upon families by wars and conflicts, the girl child  within the families of internally displaced persons finds herself vulnerable to physical and sexual abuse even from members of the extended family.   Outside that, conditions that cause the girl child to lose one or both parents catapults the girl child into sudden poverty, with little or no capacity to escape physical abuse (including sex abuse) and negotiate for safe or safer sex

    A young woman took a nine year old  girl to the  Children emergency room of  a busy government hospital  crying effortlessly . She appeared exhausted  and barely able to stand  without support . Whereas the  young lady; later identified as  her Step Mom claimed she  fell down from  a tree  and fainted  , there  were scars  distributed asymmetrically on the  left  side of the body of this  girl .  The back regions of her arms and fore arms  showed  well marked healing stripes .  As soon as she was left alone  with the Nurses, she asked to be given something to eat .

    The situation just described is probably an example  of the physical form of child abuse .

    Long periods of separation from siblings ,mom and Dad  have their own independent effects on the girl child. Any forms of abuse by way of verbal, physical ,emotional and psychological insults serve to weaken the ability of the girl child to resist abnormal temptations, either internally or externally generated.  Compared with an adult of the same sex, the brain of the growing child is not as stereognostic. However, it is  likely to accommodate a mental diary of with a larger volume , to absorb and retain for longer time periods.

    As will have been known by many, to be in good health is not the absence of  infirmity or disease conditions, but a state of COMPLETE  physical , social and emotional well being.  Depending on the type, nature and duration, an abused child finds herself fighting to maintain emotional balance throughout life. If she grew up in an environment where she was persistently shouted down, and never allowed to express her self , she is likely to grow up timid and afraid of every move she makes.  On the other hand if she was forced to keep secrets as a result of incidents or activities forced on her, she is likely to grow up confused, with guilt, intra psychic conflicts and thought broadcasts . It is also important to note that depending on   particular circumstances, explosive types of behaviour, suicidal ideation and actual suicide are more likely to arise or develop in a girl child that has suffered  or continues to suffer abuse.

  • Abuse of the girl child: different shades, perpetrators and health implications

    Continued from last week

    For normal reproductive  life, a woman must have normal developmental milestones, which must necessarily begin in the girl child;  for an example, the first menstrual flow requires a body weight of 40kg or more. Though early menses may not be regular , it steadies as the girl child grows into maturity and in good health as defined earlier, so that  any deviations from an established normal pattern can be better understood and explained.  Lack of regularity developing within the normal reproductive age can then be used as a diagnostic aid . Children born into happy homes, with adequate nutrition tend to  have  the first menses occurring within  a range of  time period considered normal. They also tend to have less troublesome issues with menses compared with children who are obese, undernourished or malnourished.

    When  well nourished, stress free young cycling teenagers of the same age are kept together in the same apartment or  Hostel for some time, they tend to have menses coming about  the same time . Stress arising from physical, social or emotional trauma apart from being diabetogenic also places more cholesterol in the pathways for the biosynthesis of the female hormones, particularly estrogen. More estrogen than necessary at a particular time for the girl child is capable of evoking stimuli  that will force responses out of her which she may not have the capacity to control .  Stressful conditions  also have a way of weakening the immune system and reducing the ability of  the individual to fight infections. It is therefore more likely for the girl child in persistent situations of sexual abuse to die from infections  compared with older women facing similar challenges.

    Examine the policy that is currently in place in many of the Federal Government owned secondary schools where parents are not  informed that a child  is ill and on admission at the Sick Bay until the illness gets  beyond the capacity of the Medical team  employed by the School. One wonders if the relevant authorities have paused  to consider  the fact that some certain disease conditions do not give the patient  time to become ill ;that by the time it is finally understood that a disease or illness is beyond the professional competence of the managing  medical team an affected Child will have reached the point where her conditions are no longer reversible

    How did it all begin?  Why would any one imagine that a secondary school teenager who happens to know the symptoms and signs of early pregnancy will decide  to confide in the  Nurse  at the Sick bay in preference to her mother?

    In the  present arrangement of policies, rules and regulations,  most if not all the schools and colleges where our young girls are kept are  modified , glorified and regimented correction centres . In the  passion  to get the best out of these children and position them for better life, we have  failed to take into consideration, the  need to establish a routine  health check and  balance system that should be reviewed from time to time ,and in accordance with the School Health programme .

    Cases of child abuse occurring in schools and colleges remain untold until ten twenty and thirty years later, in some cases, victims die and are buried with their secrets

    By keeping them caged, with limited access to communication with their parents except visiting days, substantial periods of the life of the  growing and developing girl child are spent with people about whom the children know but very little.

    As the world  burns and conflicts spread like wild fire burning in the Harmattan period, the girl child is at the greatest risk with little or no room to negotiate herself out of conditions that are clearly unsafe and unfavourable for  health . Many will agree that when families are small, quality of life is better for the girl child for the simple reason that Mom and Dad will want to hold and to cherish .However ,even in polygamous families, every child wants to be loved and cherished ,to belong and appreciated, and out of sight is never out of mind.  Studies have shown that  whether  a family is polygamous or not, the girl child demonstrates unalloyed taciturnity, love and understanding. She sees her father in her  male teacher and her mother in her female teacher . This is the normal expectation. There are exceptions of course , but these are rare .  It is therefore natural that outside the family system, patterns of behaviour of the girl child can be used as an instrument to measure the degree of family cohesion available for the child to enjoy and vice versa . And so depending on the source of abuse,  an abused child is likely to grow up and become an abuser either in the family she will build or  the family she is born into.

    Under the conditions forced upon families by wars and conflicts, the girl child  within the families of internally displaced persons finds herself vulnerable to physical and sexual abuse even from members of the extended family.   Outside that, conditions that cause the girl child to lose one or both parents catapults the girl child into sudden poverty, with little or no capacity to escape physical abuse (including sex abuse) and negotiate for safe or safer sex

    A young woman took a nine year old  girl to the  Children emergency room of  a busy government hospital  crying effortlessly . She appeared exhausted  and barely able to stand  without support . Whereas the  young lady; later identified as  her Step Mom claimed she  fell down from  a tree  and fainted  , there  were scars  distributed asymmetrically on the  left  side of the body of this  girl .  The back regions of her arms and fore arms  showed  well marked healing stripes .  As soon as she was left alone  with the Nurses, she asked to be given something to eat .

    The situation just described is probably an example  of the physical form of child abuse .

    Long periods of separation from siblings ,mom and Dad  have their own independent effects on the girl child. Any forms of abuse by way of verbal, physical ,emotional and psychological insults serve to weaken the ability of the girl child to resist abnormal temptations, either internally or externally generated.  Compared with an adult of the same sex, the brain of the growing child is not as stereognostic. However, it is  likely to accommodate a mental diary of with a larger volume , to absorb and retain for longer time periods.

    As will have been known by many, to be in good health is not the absence of  infirmity or disease conditions, but a state of COMPLETE  physical , social and emotional well being.  Depending on the type, nature and duration, an abused child finds herself fighting to maintain emotional balance throughout life. If she grew up in an environment where she was persistently shouted down, and never allowed to express her self , she is likely to grow up timid and afraid of every move she makes.  On the other hand if she was forced to keep secrets as a result of incidents or activities forced on her, she is likely to grow up confused, with guilt, intra psychic conflicts and thought broadcasts . It is also important to note that depending on   particular circumstances, explosive types of behaviour, suicidal ideation and actual suicide are more likely to arise or develop in a girl child that has suffered  or continues to suffer abuse.

  • Abuse of the girl child Different shades, perpetrators and health implications

    Abuse of the girl child Different shades, perpetrators and health implications

    Poverty and child abuse

    Baby factories are springing up all over the country. The big idea is to get pregnant first and then pray that a good customer comes around to buy. Many of the girls involved do so for reasons of poverty. When there are no buyers, the babies are either thrown away or abandoned .they will end up in motherless baby’s homes , and probably grow up without the moral instructions available in intact homes

    Also, many women send out their daughters to hawk, ending up as street girls and girls of the street

    In addition, women celebrate when  agents of traffickers come to take their daighters to Italy and other parts of the world as sex slaves………

    Single parent hood,fractured marriages ,same sex marriage and child abuse

    In  homes where there is   harmony and parents or guardian are fully involved in the growth and development of  their kids, there are formidable challenges. For reasons too numerous to state here, it is an up hill task, raising a girl child on your own. Family values are very likely to be completely absent, truncated or deliberately misinterpreted. As always there are exceptions ,but the  bottom line is that chances are higher that a girl child in any of these arrangements will suffer abuses, in particular sex abuse ,the nature or severity depending on other circumstances.I am not against any one or particular group here. I am only stating circumstances

    Child abuse in schools and institutions

    In the first part of this article, much  waswritten about the possibility of individuals  entrusted with the care , health and education of a girl child actually contributing to her destruction by  first  tormenting her by many ways and means in order to weaken her capacity to refuse sexual advances.Given anuncompromising  environment, as found in many of our boarding institutions the world over, where a college student is afraid to tell, any thing can happenand sexual abuse can go on unchecked for years  creating a cycle that will see an abused girl child becoming an adult female abuser of women. In many parts of the world,a disturbing trend in remand homes, homes for the disabled  and other places established to serve as correction centres for children with extreme degrees of stubbornness and ,those that have been described as children on the street, is that many of them have become victims of sex abuse, and by individuals employed to take care of them. In boarding schools across the globe, children are for many reasons shut out from their parents and guardian. This has encouraged different forms of abuse; the understanding that except for serious  medical emergencies, parents are allowed to communicate with their parents only during visiting days creates near perfect conditions for adults with deviant behaviour and abnormal orientation  to prey on  victims too young and too fragile to understand  inappropriate  and potentially harmful situations and negotiate themselves out and into safety.

    Religion, culture  and child abuse

    It is well known that doctrines exist that encourage polygamy, polyandry and same sex marriages. Some of these doctrines are fired by religious organizations and fiercely defended. There may be advantages but the dis advantages are numerous. Large families are prone to deprivations, incestuous relationships from poor or conflicting parental control measures, and unhealthy rivalries. In all, the girl child is seriously at a disadvantage since in the understanding of the Nigerian African, the girl child is both an asset as well as a liability. In some communities, men are pressured into marrying more wives in order to have  moremale children and so ensure they have stronger capacity for full representation in family matters.

     

    Education and child abuse

    The woman with little or no education pays little attention to logic, finds it very difficult to break with traditions that are harmful to health, even her own health, most likely to accommodate absurdities .She is likely to look the other way if reporting unhealthy family practices threaten her matrimony .

    Politics and child abuse.

    Only few politicians consider dangers derivable from their actions and inactions. By extreme policies designed to maintain them in power and very comfortable  lifestyle, sometimes running with the hares and eating with hounds, they create wars and  disputes  where women and children become vulnerable-as street hawkers, brothel and non brothel sex workers ,women of comfort etc.

    Genetics and child abuse

    There are some individuals who are born with body composition and mind set tailored towards the abnormal, the absurd, and the wicked.  Knowledge about the disconnect between the acts that these classes of people are capable  of and  the normal human feeling is not  readily available.The traits can be picked up early if parents care and are watchful. They are in the province of  Doctors who are Specialists in disorders of the brain, mind and body.

    Science and child abuse

    Exposure to social media has it’s  good, bad and ugly sides; only few parents monitor their kids, many of whom may be exchanging messages of sexual nature with men old enough to be their fathers . Inappropriate relationships  for age are frequently the hall marks of child abuse.

     

    Way Forward/recommendations

    What  Government can do

    Data bank on sexual abuse will notonly  help in knowing the extent of the problem, it will also help in the design of programmes to address the issues involved

    Policies

    There should be conscientious efforts  with regards to conflict resolutions, to tackle issues of inequalities in the distribution of the common wealth. More  peace committees like the one that saw Nigeria through the 2015 elections are needed in various aspects of our social and geopolitical life as a nation  .As has been canvassed, ‘eyes to eyes  is better  than eyes for eyes’. Dialogue and patience  with groups that have genuine and reasonable grievances will prevent clashes and conflicts that place women and children in harm’s way .

    As concerns poverty, eradication  and not alleviation should be the right thing to do. It is the height of insensitivity and inhumanity for any one to complain about payment of eighteen thousand Naira as minimum wage, even as the current economic situation drives people to eat from waste dumps. Women should be empowered by way of interest free loans, with government  assisting them to form cooperatives. The campaign promise to pay five thousand Naira to unemployed should begin immediately with adequate statistical support. The arithmetic  and methodology can be worked out by setting up task force units drawn directly from the federal and state ministries of economic development where you have statisticians and enumerators among others that can do the job. This will save costs and avoid the mistakes being realized in the implementation of the single treasury account(TSA). Government should also  clear the mess created by corrupt officials in the administration of pension funds and then go ahead to look into social well fare services for the elderly .

    Child healthand  Child rights

    Many of the children that have suffered physical abuse including sexual molestation did not know any thingabout  rights until many years after . There should be health education using social media , and other cheap and simple means .Children need to know they have their own rights, that they don’t have to be afraid to report any inappropriate advances, unusual and unofficial  punishment etc. Authorities can use local and other means of communication so  children become aware that there are channels through which  an abused child can report past and current abuse cases.

    Governments at federal and state levels should  give due considerations  legislative backing to the child rights act and also provide support in the area of finance and logistics to individuals and organizations involved in anti  childtrafficking activities

    Family planning: for over two decades efforts to assist Nigerians accept behaviour change towards healthy family planning services have not been largely successful;    Ignorance due to the very high rate of illiteracy ,religious injunctions and  cultural practices that place the girl child second as necessary but not essential, have  been responsible. Sadly, the poor seem to think it is fun, producing boys and girls they have no means to feed and send to school.

  • Abuse of the girl child Different shades, perpetrators and health implications

    Abuse of the girl child Different shades, perpetrators and health implications

    Poverty and child abuse

    Baby factories are springing up all over the country. The big idea is to get pregnant first and then pray that a good customer comes around to buy. Many of the girls involved do so for reasons of poverty. When there are no buyers, the babies are either thrown away or abandoned .they will end up in motherless baby’s homes , and probably grow up without the moral instructions available in intact homes

    Also, many women send out their daughters to hawk, ending up as street girls and girls of the street

    In addition, women celebrate when  agents of traffickers come to take their daighters to Italy and other parts of the world as sex slaves………

    Single parent hood,fractured marriages ,same sex marriage and child abuse

    In  homes where there is   harmony and parents or guardian are fully involved in the growth and development of  their kids, there are formidable challenges. For reasons too numerous to state here, it is an up hill task, raising a girl child on your own. Family values are very likely to be completely absent, truncated or deliberately misinterpreted. As always there are exceptions ,but the  bottom line is that chances are higher that a girl child in any of these arrangements will suffer abuses, in particular sex abuse ,the nature or severity depending on other circumstances.I am not against any one or particular group here. I am only stating circumstances

    Child abuse in schools and institutions

    In the first part of this article, much  waswritten about the possibility of individuals  entrusted with the care , health and education of a girl child actually contributing to her destruction by  first  tormenting her by many ways and means in order to weaken her capacity to refuse sexual advances.Given anuncompromising  environment, as found in many of our boarding institutions the world over, where a college student is afraid to tell, any thing can happenand sexual abuse can go on unchecked for years  creating a cycle that will see an abused girl child becoming an adult female abuser of women. In many parts of the world,a disturbing trend in remand homes, homes for the disabled  and other places established to serve as correction centres for children with extreme degrees of stubbornness and ,those that have been described as children on the street, is that many of them have become victims of sex abuse, and by individuals employed to take care of them. In boarding schools across the globe, children are for many reasons shut out from their parents and guardian. This has encouraged different forms of abuse; the understanding that except for serious  medical emergencies, parents are allowed to communicate with their parents only during visiting days creates near perfect conditions for adults with deviant behaviour and abnormal orientation  to prey on  victims too young and too fragile to understand  inappropriate  and potentially harmful situations and negotiate themselves out and into safety.

    Religion, culture  and child abuse

    It is well known that doctrines exist that encourage polygamy, polyandry and same sex marriages. Some of these doctrines are fired by religious organizations and fiercely defended. There may be advantages but the dis advantages are numerous. Large families are prone to deprivations, incestuous relationships from poor or conflicting parental control measures, and unhealthy rivalries. In all, the girl child is seriously at a disadvantage since in the understanding of the Nigerian African, the girl child is both an asset as well as a liability. In some communities, men are pressured into marrying more wives in order to have  moremale children and so ensure they have stronger capacity for full representation in family matters.

     

    Education and child abuse

    The woman with little or no education pays little attention to logic, finds it very difficult to break with traditions that are harmful to health, even her own health, most likely to accommodate absurdities .She is likely to look the other way if reporting unhealthy family practices threaten her matrimony .

    Politics and child abuse.

    Only few politicians consider dangers derivable from their actions and inactions. By extreme policies designed to maintain them in power and very comfortable  lifestyle, sometimes running with the hares and eating with hounds, they create wars and  disputes  where women and children become vulnerable-as street hawkers, brothel and non brothel sex workers ,women of comfort etc.

    Genetics and child abuse

    There are some individuals who are born with body composition and mind set tailored towards the abnormal, the absurd, and the wicked.  Knowledge about the disconnect between the acts that these classes of people are capable  of and  the normal human feeling is not  readily available.The traits can be picked up early if parents care and are watchful. They are in the province of  Doctors who are Specialists in disorders of the brain, mind and body.

    Science and child abuse

    Exposure to social media has it’s  good, bad and ugly sides; only few parents monitor their kids, many of whom may be exchanging messages of sexual nature with men old enough to be their fathers . Inappropriate relationships  for age are frequently the hall marks of child abuse.

     

    WAY FORWARD/RECOMMENDATIONS

    What  Government can do

    Data bank on sexual abuse will notonly  help in knowing the extent of the problem, it will also help in the design of programmes to address the issues involved

    Policies

    There should be conscientious efforts  with regards to conflict resolutions, to tackle issues of inequalities in the distribution of the common wealth. More  peace committees like the one that saw Nigeria through the 2015 elections are needed in various aspects of our social and geopolitical life as a nation  .As has been canvassed, ‘eyes to eyes  is better  than eyes for eyes’. Dialogue and patience  with groups that have genuine and reasonable grievances will prevent clashes and conflicts that place women and children in harm’s way .

    As concerns poverty, eradication  and not alleviation should be the right thing to do. It is the height of insensitivity and inhumanity for any one to complain about payment of eighteen thousand Naira as minimum wage, even as the current economic situation drives people to eat from waste dumps. Women should be empowered by way of interest free loans, with government  assisting them to form cooperatives. The campaign promise to pay five thousand Naira to unemployed should begin immediately with adequate statistical support. The arithmetic  and methodology can be worked out by setting up task force units drawn directly from the federal and state ministries of economic development where you have statisticians and enumerators among others that can do the job. This will save costs and avoid the mistakes being realized in the implementation of the single treasury account(TSA). Government should also  clear the mess created by corrupt officials in the administration of pension funds and then go ahead to look into social well fare services for the elderly .

    Child healthand  Child rights

    Many of the children that have suffered physical abuse including sexual molestation did not know any thingabout  rights until many years after . There should be health education using social media , and other cheap and simple means .Children need to know they have their own rights, that they don’t have to be afraid to report any inappropriate advances, unusual and unofficial  punishment etc. Authorities can use local and other means of communication so  children become aware that there are channels through which  an abused child can report past and current abuse cases.

    Governments at federal and state levels should  give due considerations  legislative backing to the child rights act and also provide support in the area of finance and logistics to individuals and organizations involved in anti  childtrafficking activities

    Family planning: for over two decades efforts to assist Nigerians accept behaviour change towards healthy family planning services have not been largely successful;    Ignorance due to the very high rate of illiteracy ,religious injunctions and  cultural practices that place the girl child second as necessary but not essential, have  been responsible. Sadly, the poor seem to think it is fun, producing boys and girls they have no means to feed and send to school.

  • Abuse of the girl child: Different shades, perpetrators and health implications

    For normal reproductive  life, a woman must have normal developmental milestones, which must necessarily begin in the girl child;  for an example, the first menstrual flow requires a body weight of 40kg or more. Though early menses may not be regular , it steadies as the girl child grows into maturity and in good health as defined earlier, so that  any deviations from an established normal pattern can be better understood and explained.  Lack of regularity developing within the normal reproductive age can then be used as a diagnostic aid . Children born into happy homes, with adequate nutrition tend to  have  the first menses occurring within  a range of  time period considered normal. They also tend to have less troublesome issues with menses compared with children who are obese, undernourished or malnourished.

    When  well nourished, stress free young cycling teenagers of the same age are kept together in the same apartment or  Hostel for some time, they tend to have menses coming about  the same time . Stress arising from physical, social or emotional trauma apart from being diabetogenic also places more cholesterol in the pathways for the biosynthesis of the female hormones, particularly estrogen. More estrogen than necessary at a particular time for the girl child is capable of evoking stimuli  that will force responses out of her which she may not have the capacity to control .  Stressful conditions  also have a way of weakening the immune system and reducing the ability of  the individual to fight infections. It is therefore more likely for the girl child in persistent situations of sexual abuse to die from infections  compared with older women facing similar challenges.

    Examine the policy that is currently in place in many of the Federal Government owned secondary schools where parents are not  informed that a child  is ill and on admission at the Sick Bay until the illness gets  beyond the capacity of the Medical team  employed by the School. One wonders if the relevant authorities have paused  to consider  the fact that some certain disease conditions do not give the patient  time to become ill ;that by the time it is finally understood that a disease or illness is beyond the professional competence of the managing  medical team an affected Child will have reached the point where her conditions are no longer reversible

    How did it all begin?  Why would any one imagine that a secondary school teenager who happens to know the symptoms and signs of early pregnancy will decide  to confide in the  Nurse  at the Sick bay in preference to her mother?

    In the  present arrangement of policies, rules and regulations,  most if not all the schools and colleges where our young girls are kept are  modified , glorified and regimented correction centres . In the  passion  to get the best out of these children and position them for better life, we have  failed to take into consideration, the  need to establish a routine  health check and  balance system that should be reviewed from time to time ,and in accordance with the School Health programme .

    Cases of child abuse occurring in schools and colleges remain untold until ten twenty and thirty years later, in some cases, victims die and are buried with their secrets

    By keeping them caged, with limited access to communication with their parents except visiting days, substantial periods of the life of the  growing and developing girl child are spent with people about whom the children know but very little.

    As the world  burns and conflicts spread like wild fire burning in the Harmattan period, the girl child is at the greatest risk with little or no room to negotiate herself out of conditions that are clearly unsafe and unfavourable for  health . Many will agree that when families are small, quality of life is better for the girl child for the simple reason that Mom and Dad will want to hold and to cherish .However ,even in polygamous families, every child wants to be loved and cherished ,to belong and appreciated, and out of sight is never out of mind.  Studies have shown that  whether  a family is polygamous or not, the girl child demonstrates unalloyed taciturnity, love and understanding. She sees her father in her  male teacher and her mother in her female teacher . This is the normal expectation. There are exceptions of course , but these are rare .  It is therefore natural that outside the family system, patterns of behaviour of the girl child can be used as an instrument to measure the degree of family cohesion available for the child to enjoy and vice versa . And so depending on the source of abuse,  an abused child is likely to grow up and become an abuser either in the family she will build or  the family she is born into.

    Under the conditions forced upon families by wars and conflicts, the girl child  within the families of internally displaced persons finds herself vulnerable to physical and sexual abuse even from members of the extended family.   Outside that, conditions that cause the girl child to lose one or both parents catapults the girl child into sudden poverty, with little or no capacity to escape physical abuse (including sex abuse) and negotiate for safe or safer sex

    A young woman took a nine year old  girl to the  Children emergency room of  a busy government hospital  crying effortlessly . She appeared exhausted  and barely able to stand  without support . Whereas the  young lady; later identified as  her Step Mom claimed she  fell down from  a tree  and fainted  , there  were scars  distributed asymmetrically on the  left  side of the body of this  girl .  The back regions of her arms and fore arms  showed  well marked healing stripes .  As soon as she was left alone  with the Nurses, she asked to be given something to eat .

    The situation just described is probably an example  of the physical form of child abuse .

    Long periods of separation from siblings ,mom and Dad  have their own independent effects on the girl child. Any forms of abuse by way of verbal, physical ,emotional and psychological insults serve to weaken the ability of the girl child to resist abnormal temptations, either internally or externally generated.  Compared with an adult of the same sex, the brain of the growing child is not as stereognostic. However, it is  likely to accommodate a mental diary of with a larger volume , to absorb and retain for longer time periods.

    As will have been known by many, to be in good health is not the absence of  infirmity or disease conditions, but a state of COMPLETE  physical , social and emotional well being.  Depending on the type, nature and duration, an abused child finds herself fighting to maintain emotional balance throughout life. If she grew up in an environment where she was persistently shouted down, and never allowed to express her self , she is likely to grow up timid and afraid of every move she makes.  On the other hand if she was forced to keep secrets as a result of incidents or activities forced on her, she is likely to grow up confused, with guilt, intra psychic conflicts and thought broadcasts . It is also important to note that depending on   particular circumstances, explosive types of behaviour, suicidal ideation and actual suicide are more likely to arise or develop in a girl child that has suffered  or continues to suffer abuse.

  • Abuse of the girl child Different shades, perpetrators and health implications

    For normal reproductive  life, a woman must have normal developmental milestones, which must necessarily begin in the girl child;  for an example, the first menstrual flow requires a body weight of 40kg or more. Though early menses may not be regular , it steadies as the girl child grows into maturity and in good health as defined earlier, so that  any deviations from an established normal pattern can be better understood and explained.  Lack of regularity developing within the normal reproductive age can then be used as a diagnostic aid . Children born into happy homes, with adequate nutrition tend to  have  the first menses occurring within  a range of  time period considered normal. They also tend to have less troublesome issues with menses compared with children who are obese, undernourished or malnourished.

    When  well nourished, stress free young cycling teenagers of the same age are kept together in the same apartment or  Hostel for some time, they tend to have menses coming about  the same time . Stress arising from physical, social or emotional trauma apart from being diabetogenic also places more cholesterol in the pathways for the biosynthesis of the female hormones, particularly estrogen. More estrogen than necessary at a particular time for the girl child is capable of evoking stimuli  that will force responses out of her which she may not have the capacity to control .  Stressful conditions  also have a way of weakening the immune system and reducing the ability of  the individual to fight infections. It is therefore more likely for the girl child in persistent situations of sexual abuse to die from infections  compared with older women facing similar challenges.

    Examine the policy that is currently in place in many of the Federal Government owned secondary schools where parents are not  informed that a child  is ill and on admission at the Sick Bay until the illness gets  beyond the capacity of the Medical team  employed by the School. One wonders if the relevant authorities have paused  to consider  the fact that some certain disease conditions do not give the patient  time to become ill ;that by the time it is finally understood that a disease or illness is beyond the professional competence of the managing  medical team an affected Child will have reached the point where her conditions are no longer reversible

    How did it all begin?  Why would any one imagine that a secondary school teenager who happens to know the symptoms and signs of early pregnancy will decide  to confide in the  Nurse  at the Sick bay in preference to her mother?

    In the  present arrangement of policies, rules and regulations,  most if not all the schools and colleges where our young girls are kept are  modified , glorified and regimented correction centres . In the  passion  to get the best out of these children and position them for better life, we have  failed to take into consideration, the  need to establish a routine  health check and  balance system that should be reviewed from time to time ,and in accordance with the School Health programme .

    Cases of child abuse occurring in schools and colleges remain untold until ten twenty and thirty years later, in some cases, victims die and are buried with their secrets

    By keeping them caged, with limited access to communication with their parents except visiting days, substantial periods of the life of the  growing and developing girl child are spent with people about whom the children know but very little.

    As the world  burns and conflicts spread like wild fire burning in the Harmattan period, the girl child is at the greatest risk with little or no room to negotiate herself out of conditions that are clearly unsafe and unfavourable for  health . Many will agree that when families are small, quality of life is better for the girl child for the simple reason that Mom and Dad will want to hold and to cherish .However ,even in polygamous families, every child wants to be loved and cherished ,to belong and appreciated, and out of sight is never out of mind.  Studies have shown that  whether  a family is polygamous or not, the girl child demonstrates unalloyed taciturnity, love and understanding. She sees her father in her  male teacher and her mother in her female teacher . This is the normal expectation. There are exceptions of course , but these are rare .  It is therefore natural that outside the family system, patterns of behaviour of the girl child can be used as an instrument to measure the degree of family cohesion available for the child to enjoy and vice versa . And so depending on the source of abuse,  an abused child is likely to grow up and become an abuser either in the family she will build or  the family she is born into.

    Under the conditions forced upon families by wars and conflicts, the girl child  within the families of internally displaced persons finds herself vulnerable to physical and sexual abuse even from members of the extended family.   Outside that, conditions that cause the girl child to lose one or both parents catapults the girl child into sudden poverty, with little or no capacity to escape physical abuse (including sex abuse) and negotiate for safe or safer sex

    A young woman took a nine year old  girl to the  Children emergency room of  a busy government hospital  crying effortlessly . She appeared exhausted  and barely able to stand  without support . Whereas the  young lady; later identified as  her Step Mom claimed she  fell down from  a tree  and fainted  , there  were scars  distributed asymmetrically on the  left  side of the body of this  girl .  The back regions of her arms and fore arms  showed  well marked healing stripes .  As soon as she was left alone  with the Nurses, she asked to be given something to eat .

    The situation just described is probably an example  of the physical form of child abuse .

    Long periods of separation from siblings ,mom and Dad  have their own independent effects on the girl child. Any forms of abuse by way of verbal, physical ,emotional and psychological insults serve to weaken the ability of the girl child to resist abnormal temptations, either internally or externally generated.  Compared with an adult of the same sex, the brain of the growing child is not as stereognostic. However, it is  likely to accommodate a mental diary of with a larger volume , to absorb and retain for longer time periods.

    As will have been known by many, to be in good health is not the absence of  infirmity or disease conditions, but a state of COMPLETE  physical , social and emotional well being.  Depending on the type, nature and duration, an abused child finds herself fighting to maintain emotional balance throughout life. If she grew up in an environment where she was persistently shouted down, and never allowed to express her self , she is likely to grow up timid and afraid of every move she makes.  On the other hand if she was forced to keep secrets as a result of incidents or activities forced on her, she is likely to grow up confused, with guilt, intra psychic conflicts and thought broadcasts . It is also important to note that depending on   particular circumstances, explosive types of behaviour, suicidal ideation and actual suicide are more likely to arise or develop in a girl child that has suffered  or continues to suffer abuse.

  • Abuse of the girl child Different shades, perpetrators and health implications

    Abuse of the girl child Different shades, perpetrators and health implications

    Sixteen year old Omonsiegho(not her real name), an SS3 girl  in a mixed sex Boarding School was  asked to stand on her desk ; her offence? Not paying attention . For the rest of that class, the  punisher; a middle aged, unmarried ‘Geography Teacher’ ignored her pains ,suffering and tears as she shifted weight from one lower limb to the other , seeking any position that will reduce her pain and  give her some comfort . A few days later, Omonsiegho was called out to the front of her class and asked to sit on the floor .The rivulets of tears as she tried to express her innocence were made irrelevant by the relentless instructions and counter instructions shot at her to stand, sit, move away, and lie down .The old ‘angel and arch angel of Geography as he was often referred to, and  whose  selective notoriety the School Authorities seemed resigned to put up with was  at it again. The young girl went through emotional trauma she alone can truly describe, as she tried to make sense of it all . The questions on the minds of many of the boys and girls  who may have watched several episodes of this type of behaviour from the Geography teacher  may not be too difficult to imagine  ;  many of them would have liked  to know if  he would  do this to his own biological daughter if she did  whatever. As it turned out following investigations, the Geography teacher was in the habit of coming down hard on female students, and especially the bright and beautiful ones .It was his way of softening them up before launching attacks. He was  however  friendly with the boys and always ready to assist them ,even financially.

    If one might ask; is there something fundamentally different  between people who have willingly gone through  the God given  process  of reproducing themselves and those  who have not or are unwilling to do so? Considering that the human mind is the most complicated and unpredictable entity known to man, how do you tell which Classroom teacher is capable or incapable of doing what ,when it comes to  health of School  children and child abuse?

    Mr Geography teacher is using the persistent physical and emotional abuse of  Omonsiegho as a way of getting something he alone badly wants? How many other young girls have gone through similar experience? Can Omonsiegho find the peace of mind to read her books in the prevailing conditions?

    Child abuse comes in as many shades as can be imagined .  In majority of cases and for those cases involving sex, the perpetrators are not people you very readily suspect;

    Commonly  under continuous subordination, senior  students  may subject   junior others to various forms of abuse .

    Teachers at the top  may engage in all sorts of inappropriate behaviour if they find themselves in positions of absolute power ,where no one cares

    There have been  well documented cases of heads of religious organizations sexually abusing  daughters  and  their mothers among  their followers, doing so  for years without  any one daring to cry out about the  evil acts. Where such followers are regarded as mere numbers, physical abuse may take many forms  including excessive chores, whiplashing , shaking , pinching and kicking

    Cases involving  Moms  and Step Daughters have also been followed where  the girl child is starved  , placed on long periods of starvation diet or low quality diets for refusing to get involved in abnormal or  inappropriate sexual relationship with the woman she calls mother

    Uncles, Aunties , care takers and care givers who are deviant and yet see nothing wrong with their brains  have in several studies been found to  subject children kept in their care to different forms of abuse including those which place sexual health and reproductive career of the girl child in jeopardy.

    There  is indeed  a possibility no matter how remote, that  in those situations  where fathers are said to have  forced themselves on their daughters, they are not the biological or true parents of the girls involved. It is the opinion of  experts in DNA research that only women know the biological fathers of their kids, as most first born children do not belong to the men who claim them.

    When the cat is away , the mice play  without ceasing ;incestuous relationships are more likely to be common in polygamous and polyandrous relationships as well as those involving single parenthood where multiple partnering is the norm. In the study by this writer and late Dr George Chinyere Uzor, the researchers were surprised to observe that family heads were frequently in support and  at times pressed on to suggest it . The girl child in these settings  apart from the risk of growing up to be a disjointed  woman also suffers physical  and  other forms of abuse . If the language she understands is vulgar, crude and harsh, such will be her best way of expressing her self as she grows up with a character and an attitude. Whereas she sees nothing wrong in getting into quarrels and with the  free use of verbal invectives, accepting own faults and the use of words like ‘sorry’ may be strange to her. The researchers observed that religion,  level of education,  socioeconomic status  culture  and inability of Governments to give legal backing to the Child rights act were among the  important factors which influenced abuse of the  Nigerian girl child.

    It is  important to remind readers and stake holders in the educational sector particularly at the primary and  secondary school levels, something only very little about  how  the  strict rules and regulations in many of these schools and the ways and methods  they are applied place  majority of the female pupils and students  in these schools at very high risks of child abuse , including sexual forms of child abuse.  Unless the relevant authorities are constantly at alert and are able to maintain vigilance even during unguarded hours, loads of abuse can go on under the cover of darkness and with people least expected to be involved. Shame and pride will battle themselves within the abused child to prevent her from reporting any  such activities. Beyond that, there will always be  the fear  on the side of the abused child that she will end up being the one to get the blame . Moreover, she will have been warned  to expect  unpleasant consequences if she told any one any thing.  After all , students are usually not represented at meetings of Parents and Teachers’ Association.

    We should also realize that it is not only in Catholic schools that  young boys get abused by Priests and Holy Fathers for long periods of time without any one doing anything. Deviant patterns of behaviour are now being forced on children in secondary schools all over the globe By many standards, females have higher capacity for stress management and have demonstrated higher reserve with regards to practical coping device and ability to keep it inside, but girls mostly are at the receiving ends and would rather suffer in silence than tell .When a woman wants to tell, she is likely to tell it all, but when she chooses not to tell, she tells nothing to no one.  If similar abuses are being  perpetuated  by women of the same faith, no one will know until some one tells , which  as is the pattern with the males usually takes decades. What if routine psychotherapeutic checks were carried out in these schools, would it have helped to reduce  the  number of victims and the length of time the abuse lasted? We may never know . What must be emphasised is that  in  many of  the secondary schools and colleges in the world today, including my country, Nigeria,  there is need to  seriously sit back and  ask  if  some persons who have been entrusted with positions of responsibility  are not regularly taking advantage of some certain policies, regulations and rules meant to keep the girl child away from falling into the province of abnormal and dangerous  life style, to actually do more to cause more damage   in respect of her physical ,emotional and sexual health.