By CHARLYN IKPE

Stakeholders have decried the growing incidences of rape and child abuse in the society, arguing that the problem has become a major public health concern.

At a seminar tagged: “Addressing Abuse and Preparing for Puberty in Individuals with Special Needs” and organised by The Child Restoration Initiative, CRI, they noted that the problem of rape has caused a lot of problem and rejection in the lives of children, teenagers and their relatives.

In her views, the Founder/President of CRI, Mrs. Nneka Obiagwu lamented the physical, emotional, sexual abuse and the neglect of individuals with special needs in the society regretting that little or nothing is being done to address it.

Noting that the Lagos State Government has been blazing the trail in the area by addressing the rights of persons with disabilities with a key provision on prohibition of cruel and inhumane treatment to peoples with special needs called the Lagos State Special Peoples Law 2011, she stated that the prohibition in the law is a timely response to a widespread pattern of abuse and discrimination of persons with special needs in Nigeria .

The law provides a clearly defined legal avenue through which such human rights violations may be challenged.

Obiagwu restated CRI resolve to draw attention to this social malaise with the hope of creating awareness to drive its elimination and keep our children safe.

“CRI also recognises that another area of uncertainty and great anxiety for parents is on coping with the upheavals experienced by children with special needs during puberty and is inclined to address this as well in the second segment of the seminar.

Noting that most times sexual education is not addressed in children with special needs, she said: “Unfortunately research has shown that individuals with special needs face a greater risk of sexual abuse and are also the most disadvantaged by a lack of appropriate and comprehensive sex education. The universal statistics show that they have lower chances of receiving appropriate form of sex education, increased risk of abuse by predators, increased risks of STD’s, early pregnancy (in girls ) and forced abortions and least chances of having abuse cases reported and/or prosecuted.

“Yet just like typically developing kids, they have bodies that are maturing physically and equally experience the same emotional upheavals their typical peers do only more intensely exacerbated by their challenges during puberty,” she added.

She further stressed the need to provide necessary information to them before they reach puberty in a positive and constructive manner that is educationally appropriate and in a manner they can understand.

Speaking, Executive Director/Project Coordinator of the Christiana Fate Foundation, Mrs. Christiana Akindolie who was also a Guess speaker at the event also said it is imperative to enlighten parents about child abuse and the preparation for puberty in individuals with special needs.

Akindolie who spoke “On child sexual abuse in children with special needs”, described child abuse as any improver sexual activity or forced sexual contact which happens between an adult and a child or a teenager and a child”.

Recalling that in the year 1999 the world health organisation declared child abuse as a public health epidemic and in 2004 the African regional officer of WHO declared it as a silent epidemic, she said children are abuse in so many ways such as “touching a child genital area, forcing a child to touch an adult genital area, sex, incest, rape, anal sex, fingering (either using finger or object), having sex or masturbating in front of a child etc all these are a way of abusing children, a normal adult might think it’s nothing but before one could realized it the child has gone far and may be beyond control in sexual activity.

She advised that parents should be careful in whom they leave their child with because most of the issue of rape comes from within the family members. She said 30 percent of child abuse cases are from parents and relations, 10 percent from strangers and 60 from care-givers, house helps, volunteers and neighbours.

“Abusing a child sexually has lot of effects on the child like loss of confident, some of them might turn out to be gay or go into prostituting and also having the tendency to abuse other children, but if the parents of the child are very observant they will notice some changes in the child like pain in the child private part, bruises/bleeding, difficulty in walking/sitting, itching/irritation etc,”.

she urge parents not to respond badly or blame the child for anything when he/she open up about being abused but the best way to go about it is to be calm, listen to the child carefully, reassure the child of your support, and report as soon as possible to the authorities.

Barrister Abiye Tam-George lamented that the government was not doing anything to protect the children.