CHILD ABUSE

In this week’s edition of The Anguillian, you will find a lengthy article about child abuse. Some time ago, six representatives of the Anguillian Education Department, Media and other Government Organizations attended a workshop on child protection and child abuse in Antigua.

The Two day workshop dealt specifically with the UN’s Convention on the Rights of the Child and our responsibility as media specialists, educators and pastors. Sanford Richardson, Commissioner of the Department of Social Development, was one of the invitees to the workshop and he and I spent a great deal of time debating, speaking and pondering how we might be able to bring more awareness to the Anguillian public about this ongoing and unfortunate issue.

Mr. Richardson spoke candidly with me about the DSD’s annual report and mentioned facts and statistics about the abuse of children in Anguilla. He felt very adamant about sharing the results of that report with the people and once he received approval from the PS of Social Development, he and I collaborated on a feature article that after much work is finally published this week. First of all, I must commend Sanford for his work. He has such a large heart and is extremely passionate and caring. He takes his job very seriously and it is obvious that he has strong goals in terms of affecting change in his country. I remember him specifically speaking about the twelve reported and documented cases of child abuse that ranged from sexual abuse to physical abuse. Although Anguilla is small, twelve cases is still a large number. Yet, thinking a little more, I reflected on the fact that in Anguilla and in the region there is a culture of silence for fear of stigmas or reprisals. Therefore, in my mind, I began to realize that the number of actual cases that do not go reported is probably much higher.
When I used to be a high school teacher, we were always reminded by the administration to be vigilant and proactive in looking for signs of child abuse. We were told to watch for bruises, red marks or mysterious injuries. Moreover, we were trained in noticing severe or drastic changes in moods or severe cases of low self-esteem. I must admit that I have become complacent recently in looking for these signs in the children in the ATA’s tennis programme. Therefore, I am going to pledge to myself to make sure I do not let obvious signs go unnoticed and I urge everyone who works with children to do the same. Be active in looking for signs of abuse in children because at the end of the day, they not only rely on adults to survive but to protect them as well from predators.