⚠️ Awareness: child labour/sexual exploitation emergency contacts
The hint
"I need freedom",
"I can't take this anymore"
"What a cruel world"
"I am a human who deserves everything beautiful"
"I do not deserve the mistreatment”
"Every single day under the sun, 13 year old Mariam mutters the opening words of this article with a truck load of tears....
Mind you, this story you are about to read is based on a true life story and one of the incidents that happened recently in my environment in my own present, infact, one of them is under police custody at the moment.
To protect child's right, I have changed the name of the girl in this article as I was instructed by the family and the authority handling this case presently. I have also taken permission from the human right department to publish this article for educational purposes and awareness.
Now back to the story....
The story
Her dreams are shattered, her ambitions are quenched like a cold fire.
She wakes up to a heavy breasted man, tapping her hard on her back, ***“Get up lazy girl, work starts in five minutes”. ***
Some days, she walks on the street hawking.
She had no option apparently, she toiled under the scorching sun all day harvesting, weeding, cultivating all sorts of farm products on an empty stomach.
She collects them together on her tiny little neck and towards sundown, she begins trekking miles down to the factory .
The rhythmic clatter of machinery welcomes her from the hard day's labor. Day after day, her small hands worked tirelessly for a very meager wage sent to her family who is in abject poverty.
Oh,13 year old Mariam looks already like a 30 year old due to hard and forced labor.
Her dreams of education and a brighter future dwindle every passing hour. She only wishes to smile, tears and frustration embraces her, she dares not to say a word, else she would get hurt physically.
My reaction
When I reflect on Mariam's story, which is just an excerpt from the full story, two words keep striking my mind, “child labor and exploitation”. And I ask myself, can't there be a way out??
I believe that child labor has remained a penetrating issue worldwide with millions of children facing exploitation and oftentimes denied their fundamental human rights.
Some years back, it was trending here in Uyo and other cities in Nigeria, but much later when the government looked into it, it became less.
But I can't say it has stopped completely, because even last week, I witness a very seriouse case here on this topic.
According to the international labor organization (ILO), it has been estimated that roughly 160 million children are engaged in child labour globally, this little ones are faced with hazardous conditions and are denied access to education. Ref
This is very sad. The most shocking thing is that, sometimes this children face this from their close relatives, perhaps, their parents might have died a long time ago and they are now under the care of their relatives who turn out to abuse this children.
One of the reasons why free education was introduced for primary schools pupils to secondary schools students in Nigeria was to reduce or eradicate chid's labour and exploitation, but it baffles me that, this thing still happens with even more tense abuse like raping .
Let's save children like Mariam above by spreading this information. If you are not seeing it, others are seeing it.
Uyo
If you are in Uyo make use of the emergency contacts below if you see such cases.
Call the numbers or send a mail, they would respond. Atleast I know this unit works here.
Lagos
And if you are in Lagos or any of the eastern part of Nigeria, you can as well reach the human right defenders by calling them through their numbers or any other channels indicated below:
Website: https://hrdac.org.ng/
Phone: +234 803 302 4550
Mail : [email protected]
Note: Those contacts can serve anywhere in Nigeria, reach out incase of any complaints concerning this topic.
What's your thoughts on this topic?
How is it handled in your country?
Are there other better ways to create this awareness?
Please share your thoughts. And please pass this information to others, it could save a child's life and future.
[ All pictures are owned by @ubongudofot, unless otherwise indicated]
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Terrible stories and in the past, many years ago, also common in Germany, especially in rural areas. A lot has changed since then. Children go to school regularly and the composition of families has also changed. Today, children may go to work for a few weeks during their holidays to get used to duties and the need to earn money. That is a positive thing. Exploitation is the exact opposite and - in many parts of the world - not uncommon. You are right: education is an important key in the fight against such practices.
One more thing - please check the figures again:
Few years ago, cases like this were the top news in Nigeria from real activist with human conscience, while those bad eggs journalist keep hiding it just to protect the interests of their bad ass politicians.
However, to cover the shame, they introduced free education for children from primary school down till secondary or what others known as high school.
This was to lessen the amount of child labour and exploitation. Infact, as time goes on they started cooking in some of these schools to feed these children.
Unfortunately, it looks like it is back again. A lot of children(underage) are now facing abuse..., exploitation and some hard labour just to survive..., I am not talking from the news, but from what I see.
Thank you, it was a typo, now corrected.
And that is still an incredibly large number. People. Children. Victims in need of protection...
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You hive a great messages for our society because now a Days in our country child labor is not considered illegal and a child not focus on the education and work on their health so It is very beautiful post which seen on Steemit