A 14-YEAR-old student of Wakapoa in the Lower Pomeroon River has allegedly been impregnated by her father. Now five months pregnant, the child has been admitted to the Suddie Hospital, while her father is in custody at the Charity Police Station. Reportedly, her mother and other relatives seem to have been complicit in the crime, having tried to keep the horrible act a secret until the enforced hospitalisation of the teen.
Another child from Wakapoa, then 13 years old, recently gave birth to twin babies at the Suddie Hospital.
According to reports, the latter child was raped and subsequently discovered pregnant by her teacher after her parents had been imprisoned, and she was left alone with her siblings.
A few days ago, a distressed mother reported that her teenage daughter, who had been having sexual relations with an adult male since she was aged twelve, was locked up in the Bartica Police Station. The Police had charged her for wandering, and refused to release her into her mother’s care.
Where are the child welfare authorities, the community leaders, family members, neighbours and even teachers when these lechers are preying on the vulnerable children in society? Surely any sort of abuse of children should be the concern of everyone.
Child abuse is when a parent or caregiver, whether through action or failing to act, causes injury, death, emotional harm or risk of serious harm to a child. There are many forms of child maltreatment, including neglect, physical abuse, sexual abuse, exploitation, and emotional abuse. Close relatives and even strangers also abuse children.
According to Wikepedia, there are many signs to look out for if one suspects that a child is being abused.  It is important that if anyone sees these signs in any child that they get help right away.

Physical abuse of a child is when someone deliberately causes physical injury to a child. There are many signs of physical abuse, including marks or injuries, or signs that a child is in pain that is not due to illness. Some signs are bruises, blisters, burns, cuts and scratches.
Physical abuse includes striking, kicking, burning, biting, hair pulling, choking, throwing, shoving, whipping or any other action that injures a child. The result of abusing a child can be internal injuries, brain damage, broken bones, sprains, dislocated joints, emotional and mental harm, lifelong injury or even death.
Sexual abuse occurs when an adult uses a child for sexual purposes, or involves a child in sexual acts. It also includes cases when a child who is older or more powerful uses another child for sexual acts or excitement.

When someone harms a child’s mental and social development, or causes severe emotional harm, it is considered emotional abuse. While a single incident may be abuse, most often emotional abuse is a pattern of behaviour that causes damage over time.
Emotional abuse is rejecting or ignoring a child; telling a child he or she is unwanted or unloved; showing little interest in a child; not showing or returning affection; not listening to the child; not caring about the child’s feelings; breaking promises, cutting a child off in conversation, shaming or humiliating or calling a child names, criticising, belittling, using language or taking action that makes a child feel worthless.
Emotional abuse is also blaming, insulting, punishing a child without cause, keeping a child away from people he/she loves, encouraging a child to lie or do wrong or criminal acts, telling lies to a child.
Child neglect is when a parent or caregiver does not give the care, supervision, affection and support needed for a child’s health, safety and well-being.
If a child is being abused, it is important that someone reports this abuse to the authorities, because if this continues, the child may never recover, or may become an abuser because of such exposure to depraved actions by one or more adults in his/her life.
A police station is no place for a 13-year-old girl. Not very long ago, policemen at an East Coast police station had reportedly sexually molested two teenage girls whom they had forcibly kept overnight. This scenario has allegedly been replicated in various communities across the country.
Punishment for abusing any child should be so severe, that the mere thought of it should in and of itself be a deterrent to predators; but for sexual deviants who violate children, especially fathers, who are supposed to be the bastion of protection for their children, taking them away from their homes and families is not the answer, because most often than not, these fathers are the sole breadwinners, and the entire family oftentimes are left in pecuniary circumstances.
Sexual predators should therefore be clinically dealt with; such a remedy would solve their proclivity to sexual aberration, while leaving them accessible to their families and remain capable of earning their own living instead of being dependent as a burden on the State’s coffers.