The children are the rock on which every nation’s future will be built, they are the greatest asset to be valued and protected. They will someday be the leaders in the different societies and nations where they find themselves. This was what the Africa’s foremost sage and rights activist, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela envisaged that prompted him to express that ‘The true character of a society is revealed in how it treats its children’.
Mandela aristocratically, foresightedly fixed his eyes on the future of the society considering children as the leaders of tomorrow. But it is sad to see how children are often marginalized and abused in our societies, to be precise in Nigeria.
The images of suffering and abused children continue to haunt the conscience of our environment, society and the world at large. Their rights are nowhere to be found and the image of children is viewed as object to be used and exploited. To curb such an ideology in our society, the Don Bosco Child Protection Centre in collaboration with Manos Unidas, Legend Ein Welt and PDO Nigeria organized a workshop on Child Abuse and Child Rights Protection and Policies.
The workshop incorporated other NGO’s like Royal Diamond, Fals Foundation and some members of Our Lady of the Sick Catholic Church Onipetesi. It was really an interacting moment and a learning process. Bosco Home Child Protection Centre believes and hold strongly that every child has a great potential. He is a great future of his generation and should be protected. Flashing back to the first computer lessons I had, I could remember the garbage-in, garbage-out recipe, invariably- whatever investment made in a child today extensively determines the society’s future. Unfortunately, the wellbeing of children particularly in African countries leaves much to be desired. The pertinent question precisely to those in government and religious leaders is, what future is in view, vis-à-vis investment in children in the society outside their own?
“I can only hope that we’ll one day wake up in a better world, where children are no longer abused or mistreated.”
Fr. Nnkemjinaka Onyenagubor
“Priest on the Street”