We have already talked about this topic (“the new slaves 05 January 2023”) but after welcoming little A. two days ago, it seems that we have an obligation to bring up this sad topic again.
A is 7 years old, taken in by a primary school teacher to be a house girl or rather, a little slave. The primary school teacher is now under police custody.
The neighbors, (tired of hearing the little girl cry and scream because of the teacher’s abuse and beatings), finally decided to intervene and contact social services, who then reported to the police. The police intervened and saved the little girl from the clutches of the teacher and brought her to the Shukurani shelter, and they arrested the teacher.
The little girl is full of scars on every part of her small body, even her face because she was constantly beaten with a stick until she bled.
Some may think that Africans are savages but the act of beating children is not a phenomenon limited to Tanzania, let alone the African continent. In Italy, we witnessed similar scenes/situations: a father slapping his small son at a restaurant, a mother dragging her daughter out of the restaurant, screaming in her face that “you’re ruining our evening”, children placed with a smartphone in their hands “so they’ll be quiet while we have fun and talk to our friends”, when just a coloring book would be enough to entertain a child, but maybe it’s not trendy enough…
Let’s go back to the violence towards children which unfortunately manifests itself in various forms:
Physical violence: any act which causes physical harm as a result of unlawful physical force. It includes all action intended to hurt and/or scare.
Psychological violence: lack of respect that offends and mortifies the dignity of a person. It is less noticeable because it leaves no visible scars on the body, but it’s just as serious as physical violence. It includes: public and/or private humiliation, intimidation, blackmail…
Sexual violence: it is a crime committed by those who illicitly use their strength and their authority to force someone to perform or undergo sexual acts against their will through violence or coercion.
No child, anywhere in the world, should experience violence; KISEDET tries to stop this cycle of violence, in our small way, by living by it every day, and always standing by the children and young adults who live in conditions of extreme poverty and degradation. Join us and together we can!