•SCRIC, SOAR preach against scourge
From Scholastica Onyeka Makurdi
Horrible and dehumanizing conditions in the form of sexual abuse, forced marriage, poverty, hunger and deprivation remain the daunting challenges facing thousands of Benue State children living in internally displaced persons (IDPs) camps across the state.
Following these challenges, the Benue State Child’s Right Implementation Committee (SCRIC), supported by Sexual Offences Awareness and Responses (SOAR) Initiative, has commenced sensitization visits to some identified sexual and gender-based violence-endemic communities and IDP camps with a focus on provision of the Child Right’s Law (2008) education.
SOAR Initiative is a non-governmental organization funded by United Nations Trust Fund (UNTF) and African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) to carry out activities in Benue State, including prevention of all forms of child sexual abuse, as well as provide care and support for victims and survivors.
The NGO is carrying out interventions in IDPs in three Benue LGAs, including Anyiin in Logo LGA, Gbajimba and Uikpam in Guma LGA and in Naka in Gwer West LGA, where they have also set up Camp Child Protection Committees (CCPC) to further be on the lookout.
When the committee visited Anyiin IDP camp, located in UBE Primary School, Logo, the camp manager, Mr. Mnenge Samson, lamented persistent cases of SGBV taking place in the camp.
According to him, a teenager, Mwuese (not real names) was raped and impregnated while living in the camp. She was one of those who escaped from her village when herdsmen militia attacked them in 2018. At the camp where she currently lives with her parents and siblings, Mwuese and her younger siblings do not go to school, just as they do not know from where or when the next meal would come. Hunger, he said, has been their permanent companion.
When she was raped, the man responsible for the pregnancy was identified but nothing was done to bring him to book. Instead, her father, Mbaapasega Mondo, from Kemberagya/Tswarev council ward of Logo LGA, forcefully gave her into marriage, not minding her age.
Mnenge said: “I didn’t like it but I couldn’t stop him because we were in the camp. I knew it was against the Child Rights Act, based on the training we were given here in the past by SCRIC, because the girl was a minor.
“Another similar case is about a widow, Ngunan Suega, who gave her under-18 granddaughter into marriage to a man in Taraba State and collected money.
“We equally spoke against it but she said nobody helped her in giving birth to her daughter.”
He identified hunger in the camp to be responsible for their ordeal, saying that most parents forced their children into those marriages to enable the girls have food to eat.
He also said some men in the camp were in the habit of luring underage girls with money and other gifts to defile them, saying the girls were helpless due to hunger.
Mnenge, therefore, appealed to the government and humanitarian agencies to provide them with medication, food and shelter.
“We are suffering in this camp. See the way this place is. When rain falls, it falls on us. We don’t have food and we don’t have anywhere to go and look for food. When we try to go to our farms, Fulani herdsmen kill us.
“We are suffering from different kinds of ailments like malaria, hepatitis and typhoid but there’s no way we can treat ourselves.
“The most important thing is that government should help us to go back to our ancestral homes where we can take care of ourselves”, he said.
Earlier, the project officer of SOAR, Mr. Chibuzor Njoku, said the training, which also had members of the Camp Child Protection Committee and Community Child Protection Committee as participants, was part of the action plan by SCRIC to sensitize communities about the Child Rights Act, which has been domesticated in Benue State long ago but some people were not aware of it.
Director, State Ministry of Education, Mr. Titus Aniho, informed the displaced persons that the Child Rights Law was meant to protect children from abuse and SOAR had formed a committee with members drawn from civil society organisations (CSOs), the judiciary and the media to handle such cases.
According to him, other acts of child rights violation punishable by the act included denying children and wards education, gender-based violence and denying children the right to expression and to be heard.
Aniho urged parents and guardians to avoid such unlawful acts against children but rather enlighten them and report to appropriate authorities when their children are abused or when their rights are violated.
During the interactive session, parents asked several questions to know whether the child rights act was against the punishment (beating) of children by parents, at what age children should be allowed to express their opinions on key issues in their families and communities as well as what government was doing to reduce the rising rate of out-of-school children.
Aniho said the punishment of children was allowed but the children should be punished appropriately. He, however, cautioned that if any parent, guardian or teacher does not know the rules of discipline or punishment, they should not administer it on children.
On the rate of out-of-school children, the director said basic education was supposed to be free and parents needed to be informed about it. He also discouraged multiple levies in schools, to enable indigent parents cope with the cost of education for their children.
Speaking on the principles of child rights in society, a representative of the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, Mercy Shawon, added that children have the right to be protected by their parents and society, the right to be cared for, the right to protection from child trafficking, domestic violence and all forms of physical abuse.
She called for collective efforts from parents and the latrger society to protect the rights of children.
Speaking on behalf of the community, kindred head of Aya East community, Zaki Nyam Ibah, who received the SOAR team, appreciated the organization and the committee for their concerns and efforts to sensitize them, saying they were equipped to better protect the children.
He also called on government to come to their aid, especially by relocating the IDPs out of Anyiin UBE Primary School back to their ancestral homes so that their children could have a conducive environment to live and learn and their parents would be able to farm and sponsor their education as it was in the past.
Zaki Ibah also encouraged Tiv people to teach their children their native language to preserve Tiv culture and to help the children have a better understanding of English language, observing that many of them can hardly read and write, making it difficult for them to communicate and express themselves like their peers elsewhere.