Categories of Child Abuses

Introduction to Child Care and Protection (Category of Abuses)

There are two categories of children. Those born on the right and those born on the left. Children on the right are those from stable homes be it a single parent family or couples and have the necessary protection and requirements for their development and wellbeing.

While those born on the left are children who would have lost one or both parents, or have parents that are extremely sick or live in a constant state of domestic violence, substance or drug abuse or are victims of conflict and displacement, thus creating an unstable and unrealistic environment for the development of children.

Some children are born on the left and which is of no fault of theirs. While others are born on the right but due to death of one or both parents, or irreconcilable differences, leading to domestic violence and or delinquent or deviant behaviours push children born on the right to the left.

The easiest barometer to measure a healthy country is on how it takes care and protect children on the left and get them to the right, in line with its policies and their implementation. Western or advanced countries have understood this concept and invest appropriately in moving children from the left to the right. Children who are properly protected and educated become better and productive citizens providing a high return of investment for the country.

The question now is, what are the mechanisms in place to enable children on the left move to the right. This is the purpose of LINK-UP, to assist the Government in developing mechanisms and strategies in mitigating the effects suffered by the children on the left and how to get them to the right, by providing the necessary care and sponsorship opportunities.

In the Western or developed world, whose neo colonial  laws and systems we have adopted in Cameroon, children found on the left are brought to the right through various mechanisms such as among others, a hot line such as 911 in the US to report cases of abuse, foster care, adoption programs and orphanages being relegated as a main stream strategy to move children from the left to the right.

Foster Care: This is a system where trained and certified carers are paid by the state to care for abused or vulnerable children until there are 18 years of age.

Adoption: A system where parental rights are given to a carer or guardian or any other person to assume parental ownership over a child till perpetuity.

Orphanages: These are centers that are reserved for the housing and development of orphans and vulnerable children. i.e children on the extreme left.

However, in Developing African countries and Cameroon in Particular the mainstream structures available to assist children on the extreme left are orphanages, while adoption services are available, it is very unpopular due to the opaque regulatory issues and the expensive legal processes involved.

Thus, to get children from the left to the right, LINK-UP has adopted the Guardian Care system. A system built on the African community care and support system, developed on the ideology that it takes a village to raise a child.  In this system, children are protected and cared for within the family and extended family system or through good will individuals as guardians who opt to provide the necessary care and support to such children with love. They provide for the children by themselves, without any expectation from the government to support them in the process.

This is the informal mainstream support mechanism that had been in existence within African communities since ancient times and needs to be revived, formalized and made mainstream. However, due to the fact that this system is not officially regulated and with the failures in upholding the African principles and values of love and fraternal solidarity that governed such a system and curb abuses, many children are now exposed to the worst forms of child abuses with little provision for checks to mitigate abuses on such vulnerable children found within the Guardian Care system.

Thus, the Mission of LINK-UP hence forth, is to promote the guardian care system and to establish livelihood support mechanisms to enhance the incomes of those struggling Guardians parents to better provide the necessary care to the orphans and vulnerable children in their care.

N/B. Nutrition is a major impediment in the development process of a children and others. Without the proper nutrition, some children will not be able to develop their cognitive or mental capabilities or abilities and this aspect is often neglected in mainstream child development discussions or strategies in Cameroon as a core component required in the development of children.  Hence, the call for the intensification of livelihood development programs for Guardian Parents, since the Government does not give them any form of assistance to support the children in their care.

Some children who grow up in the left, end up becoming adults and continue reproducing children from the left, thus perpetuating the vitious cycle of poverty. To break this cycle, concerted and well-intentioned efforts must be made to achieve this goal. It cannot just occur by itself or by accident. Though some children born on the left end up devising positive survival mechanisms on how to overcome challenges generally referred to as grit, which enable them to grow into high achievers in their adulthood.

It is also sad to note that many children born on the right, due to poor parenting end up on the left with perceive consequences, reversing the gains their parents had made in their generation.