Africa-Press – Malawi. Well, some people have no aorta of shame. Yes, I know that some people can be devoid of shame in this country and other countries. However, it is the extent of lack of shame that determines whether one has no sense of shame or enjoys the association with shame. In this case, I am talking about the so-called child rights defenders in Mulanje District.
Something happened in the Southern Region district recently. In this case, a child was locked up in a police cell and, against protocol on handling children who are suspected of being in conflict with the law, the child was mixed with adults in that dingy police cell.
From the child’s own account, some of the adults that were locked up in the cell victimised him, such that he longed for freedom. To make matters worse, the poor boy was put under lock and key with hands tied with elastic rubber. And, as expected, the elastic rubber did the damage on the boy; blocking blood flow and killing some important tissues.
When Mulanje District Hospital officials could not handle the health emergency that arose, they referred the case to the referral Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre, where medical personnel made the painful decision to amputate the boy’s right hand.
Not just that; they also amputated two fingers from the left hand, fingers that were beyond redemption because they were extensively damaged. What has befallen that boy is beyond the imagination. That 13-year-old boy who had his hands tied for four days while in police custody at Misanjo Police Unit in Mulanje must be traumatised right now.
Even if it were an adult, the ‘reality’ would have been too painful to stomach and, yet, this is the reality of that innocent Mulanje boy, who now has to learn to use three fingers that are remaining on the other hand. Yes, a boy who has to learn to write with three fingers where, just two weeks ago, he had 10 fingers on both hands.
No, I do not want to say the world is cruel. It is some people in some, or all parts, of the world that give the world a bad name. Anyway, what has made me angry is that some Mulanje-based people, calling themselves child rights defenders, have issued a senseless statement pretending to condemn what happened to the boy in Mulanje.
Those people want to pretend that they really care for the child when, in fact, they slept on the job because the boy suffered harm while they were busy doing other things in Mulanje District
In fact, I have the impression that the statement has been written by one person because, in some instances, the author of the statement has made first-person references, where, for example, the author is saying “I”.
That, again, means the so-called child rights defenders were busy doing other things and left the job in one person’s hands. Well, that is the tragedy of our time. People are ‘busy’ sleeping on the job and, then, when something happens, they are the first to be pretending that they care. The truth is different.
If the so-called child rights defenders really cared, they would have intensified public sensitisation on their role so that, when the boy’s mother and relatives realised that there was something wrong at the police unit, where they were being denied the chance to see the boy, they would have done the needful: Informing child rights defenders in the district.
However, this did not happen- meaning that child rights defenders in Mulanje District are getting things wrong somewhere. As such, they should have kept quiet on this issue, instead of pretending to care for the child when, from the rushed statement they issued, it is clear that half the time they know what to do and half the time they do not. Please, Mulanje District child rights defenders, just shut up.
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