A report published in Monday’s edition of this newspaper which revealed that a 14-year-old girl, who was allegedly prostituted by her mother, had been sent to the New Opportunity Corps (NOC) for two years has drawn outrage from child rights advocates and rightly so.
According to the report, the child, who had been living at Mahdia for most of her life, was removed from the area in January, following reports that her mother was lining her up to grant sexual favours to men in the area and collecting money from them. (The mother has since denied this claim, though the child has claimed it was in fact the case.) The child was brought to the city by officers of the Child Care & Protection Agency (CCPA) and placed in an institution, which she promptly left. This action saw her being branded a runaway and she was subsequently found and placed before the court. At the end of the hearing, the magistrate ‘sentenced’ her to two years at the NOC, which her mother told this newspaper was the best thing for her child.
Unfortunately, this is not the case. In fact, the evidence available points to the fact that very little that has been done with and to her, in her 14 short years of life on this planet has been done in this child’s best interest. Her mother had told this newspaper earlier that when the child was a mere three years old, she had left her with her ‘stepfather,’ who used the opportunity to sexually abuse her. Although she reported the incident and followed through, which saw the man being jailed, the damage was already done. Most women baulk at leaving their daughters with their stepfathers, even in cases where the men concerned are completely trustworthy. This was not done in the best interest of the child, but in the interest of expediency. The mother was about to give birth and either could not or chose not to find another woman—relative or friend—to care for her child while she was hospitalized.
Though she claimed to be so hurt as to contemplate suicide after her toddler was sexually molested at a mere three years old, the mother did nothing that would help the child in the long term. There was no attempt to seek counselling for the child who would have been not only physically, but mentally and emotionally damaged by that sick act. Again, her best interest was not considered. Instead the mother subsequently moved to Mahdia, a community often described as lawless and immoral, with another partner. This move did not place the mother in a situation where she was able to spend more time with her only daughter and sons. Rather, she was forced to take up employment as a security guard which removed her from the home for 12 or more hours at a time.
There was no information as to whether the magistrate had sought and obtained a probation report before handing down ‘sentence.’ One suspects that this did not happen as it is impossible to imagine that any right-thinking magistrate would have gone the NOC route after listening to all of the facts.
Child and human rights activists have for some time now been advocating the removal of ‘wandering’ as an offence from the law books. It is widely recognised that when children run away, which is what is deemed ‘wandering’ there is usually an underlying reason.
Often, there is something wrong in the home. And even if there isn’t, the answer is not to deem the child a juvenile offender and lock him or her away from society, but to get to the root of the matter through counselling and turn that child’s life around. There has been no move to put this in train.
The NOC has been in the news for some time now for all of the wrong reasons. Following a fire at the facility in 2012, an enquiry was held into the way it was being run. To date, the Ministry of Youth has not made the report nor its recommendations public. Last year, after a group of teenage girls escaped and spent some time living ‘in the bush,’ allegations of physical, psychological and sexual abuse had surfaced. Following a police investigation, the Director of Public Prosecutions had recommended a complete overhaul of the institution’s operations and for qualified and professional staff members to be hired to work with the troubled children who are sent there. There has been no indication that this was done.
Meanwhile, underage criminal offenders continue to be sent to the facility, along with children who might simply be running away from a bad situation, or who would have been led astray. The NOC has not lived up to the ‘new opportunity’ it claims to promise the children sent there. Where are the success stories about young people who have done stints at the facility? Instead, as in the case of Adrian Bishop, who was shot dead by police last September, parents have been ruing the decision to have their children sent to the institution.
Maybe it is not too late for the 14-year-old girl, considering that she has only just been sent there. Perhaps the CCPA could find a way to appeal this sentence and work with this child so that she finally gets the chance and the new opportunity she deserves.