It pains me to see, in this contemporary society, that adults who are supposed to love, protect and nurture our future are the ones destroying it by committing outrageous acts of violence against our children.
If we harm our children, what kind of future do we expect to have? A dysfunctional one, a future of further hardships and broken homes. Our children are our future and some adults, sad to say, are perpetrators of a crime that was inflicted upon them in their childhood so they grow with that pain and, in turn, inflict it on the innocent children.
No child deserves to be treated with such malice; no one deserves such treatment, and our constitution has legislation in place such as the Children Act to accommodate the prevention of cruelty to children and young persons.
However, parents/guardians are solely responsible for caring for their children and this includes pertinent screening of day care centres and babysitters who you would be leaving your child with for approximately eight hours.
Parents need to know the history of the establishment—how long have they been in existence? Be your own detective and ask questions of other parents to find out more. Drop in unannounced to see the environment and the treatment of your child when you are not present. You may be surprised what you see.
The recent video that has gone viral this week just brings back past pains, and names like that of Sean Luke (March 2006), Amy Annamunthodo (May 2006) and Jabari Hernandez (December 2013) among many other angels that have died due to neglect and violent abuse, come to mind.
What are we as a society doing? Turing a blind eye? Or are we going to stand up for our children especially the ones who could barely walk and talk for themselves. In a world that shows it is okay to be heartless and immoral, let us be the light in the darkness.
T&T is blessed but as adults fear seems to be our greatest problem that stops many of us from putting our moral beliefs into action. One act of kindness and bravery goes a long way. We can only have positive changes if we as a people make small but effective changes ourselves.
The Government, NGOs and police service can only do so much. We, the population, must stand up and claim our children as our most prized possession, after all, they are first and foremost our future.
Tenisha Sylvester