Dear Editor,
“A girl child ain’t safe in a family of men,” says Sophia in Alice Walker’s The Color Purple. I felt sad when I read, in a recent letter to you, of the four-year old girl’s ghastly experience at the hands of a male relative.
A report released some time ago showed that the adults most likely to sexually abuse small children are trusted relatives, friends and neighbours. Both boys and girls are at risk.
In the film The Color Purple, the part of Sophia is played by Oprah Winfrey, herself the victim of child abuse. So was Maya Angelou. Fortunately, both women survived and have made a success of their lives. One can imagine Oprah’s shock and horror when it emerged recently that a member of staff at the educational institute for girls she founded in South Africa is now under investig-ation for child abuse.
In Maya Angelou’s case, her tormentor got his comeuppance, presumably from members of the close-knit community who discreetly despatched him to the nether world. Both women were brave enough to speak frankly of their experiences.
Paedophilia is a worldwide problem at the moment and is a cause of grave concern to those involved in child welfare. So many children now have access to computers and the internet, with its chat-rooms, that it is easy for them to be targeted by adult perverts posing as youngsters of similar age, luring them into clandestine meetings, leaving them vulnerable to all sorts of evil practices. In the UK, when these adults are caught, tried, found guilty and convicted, the penalties can be very severe. If sent to jail, the inmates show them no mercy.
I think where Guyana is concerned it is now definitely a case of “It takes a village (to raise a child)” and adults have to take extra steps to protect the children. I hope the four-year-old girl recovers quickly and does not suffer permanent psychological damage.
Yours faithfully,
Geralda Dennison