Hotline for abused children

THE EDITOR: I want to salute all three newspapers for keeping the Akiel Chambers issue on the front burner of national consciousness. Today, I begin with Newsday because you ran the piece this morning. Having three major newspapers in a country with less than 1.5 million people is an important aspect of democracy that people in TT take for granted. In the town where I mainly reside, we have 3 million people being served by one major paper. That paper decided what is news in print. I am glad something will come of this, it may be a little too late, but if appeals were made on radio, TV and in print, for other children so abused to come forward, in language that the children can understand, even within the families of those implicated, would speak out.

In the 1980s when the video Shattered Lives was made, initial discussions had included the possibility of creating a hotline that abused children could call for help, and putting the number on milk cartons and cereal boxes as well as candy wrappers. Perhaps, such a hotline, established jointly by all three newspapers, with a database available to all, would allow children to provide information that could be kept confidential until the source is checked out and investigated. Children may not tell their parents, but they may tell teachers, a family friend or a “best friend,” another child. Such people must be encouraged to report the information in an atmosphere free from fear and reprisal. Perhaps crime stoppers could help with this also, minus the reward. (Children should not start selling info about their own abuse).

We could turn this child’s sad tale into a national inquest on the sexual abuse of children, and do something about that. In times of crisis, an inter-agency task force can tackle problems that no one group can do alone. This is such a time. Shattered Lives Version Two cries out to be made. With a little urging from the media, with a hotline for abused boys to call, with daily keeping of the magistracy’s feet before the fire of justice for a silenced victim, we could, quite possibly, expose and run the child predators out of business. I am not for targeting people where they live, but in US cities, one can go online and check if child molesters who have been convicted, live in your neighbourhood. In fact it can be done for all sexual predators. (Very helpful for late evening women and joggers and walkers, and families with children.) We need something akin to that level of awareness, to protect the innocence of a TT childhood. Many of our children are raised by caregivers other than two parents living together. That fact should not expose them to victimhood as if they were throw away children. The newspapers have been the voice of a silenced child. Keep it up. Make something happen. Continue to be the voice for justice for Akiel and who knows how many others.

LINDA EDWARDS