IT TAKES A
COMMUNITY TO KEEP OUR CHILDREN SAFE!
In one of my
previous post I mentioned about keeping an ongoing communication open with the
children in your life. The reason for my talking about “children in your life”
is that I wish to address all adults who are stakeholders in the issue of
well-being of a child – you could be a parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle,
teacher, or a mere neighbor. Because it
takes a community to keep our children safe! More about this later.
Now, when
you are talking or listening to a child, you need to be aware of certain key
points that matter.
First of all
with regard to child abuse or child sexual abuse or even beginning of a potentially
dangerous contact with a perpetrator the strange fact that haunts us is that
the child DOES NOT REPORT the incident to the concerned adult. If at all the
children talk among themselves it never reaches adult ears.
Now why do
you think this happens?
It is
because the child is an evolving person with limited abilities and
understandings.
In our
entire lives the only task we undertake with zero knowledge, zero experience
and zero exposure is that of being a parent. This does not mean that we do not
LOVE our children. But LOVE is such an over-estimated but under-understood
emotion and a state of being.
Loving
someone does not prevent that person from having a sudden illness.
Loving
someone does not save that person from being robbed, attacked or murdered.
Loving the
world around us does not protect it from its predators who rob it of its
natural resources.
Love as an
emotion alone accomplishes fairly nothing much. But love as a commitment, love
as an action on the other hand fairly makes the world go round!
When you
love yourself you take care of yourself – you do not drink, smoke or abuse your
body in any way. You do not abuse your mind by polluting it with all negative,
unproductive thoughts. You do not abuse your heart or emotions by harboring
hate, dislike, vengeance or anger.
When you
love your children you actively take care of them – their bodies, minds and
spirits.
And children
need not mean only your biological children but ALL children, simply because
they are the future of our world.
So any adult
should actively care for the children around them. Because it takes a community to keep children safe.
More on how
to do this later, or better still, why don’t you readers add your comments on
this?
Links to
refer – just two for now, there are dozens!:
