Awareness program on child abuse

REPORT ON THE OUTREACH PROGRAM HELD ON THE 25TH MAY 2016
TITLED: CREATING THE AWARENESS OF CHILD ABUSE AND NEGLECT ON EVERY CHILD
TIME: 10:30AM
MEMBERS: FATOYE OLURANTI
OLATUNJI ADEBOWALE
IDOWU BOLUWATIFE

We arrived at Nawarudeen Primary school, Mowe Ogun state, along Lagos/Ibadan expressway at 10:25am, heading to the Head teacher’s office, we were welcomed and she introduced us to the pupils, we would be discussing with, which were the primaries 4 and 5.
They all stood up to greet HHCI members, and quietly seated to hear from us, thereby Ranti introduced HHCI (Happy Healthy Children Initiative) to the pupils telling them the purpose of their coming , which was to  enlighten and creating the awareness of child abuse to the children. Ranti therefore asked the pupils “who is a child”? , and they all answered and said they were children, Ranti applauded the pupils, and further asked for the meaning of abuse, a pretty young girl by name OLAWALE  TITILOPE , stood up to answer, saying “abused means when you tell someone that He/ She  is  STUPID”, the pupil applauded her for answering the question.
Ranti continued to discuss with the pupil in a simple language of an article she prepared for the teachers on child abuse and neglect, saying “The term "child abuse" refers to the violence, mistreatment or neglect that a child or adolescent may experience while in the care of someone they either trust or depend on, such as a parent, sibling, other relative, caregiver or guardian” after a brief talk with the pupils, she called on a member of HHCI, whose name is OLATUNJI ADEBOWALE, he continued with the discussion citing five categories of child abuse making examples and cracking  jokes to arrest the pupils’ concentration more on how a child can be abused, maltreated and neglected, both in the category of abused namely: physical, sexual, psychological, emotional abuse and neglect.
After Debo’s brief discussion with the pupils, Ranti came back to ask the pupils, how did they enjoy the talk:
Observation: Titilope was delighted and said that she was now convinced that child abuse is more than calling somebody stupid.
Question: A boy named Kareem asked that what could be his reaction to his guardian when he was made to overwork domestically like washing clothes that is more than ones capability as child.
Response: HHCI replied “meet with your guardian politely and tell him/her its beyond your capacity to wash all the clothes at once, you would do the washing little by little, till you finish washing all.
Question: Another boy, Juwon sought HHCI advice on how he could cope with his Aunt (uncle’s wife) who used to neglect him for her children (i.e. not treating them equal as children), Juwon went further to say that “she doesn’t like to have him relate with his cousin”, that felt so bad.
Response: HHCI advised him to engage himself into doing things that makes him happy, Ranti further asked him what do you enjoy doing?, then he replied by saying he likes to draw (comics drawing), then Ranti said he should engage himself into making a story with comic drawing, and that after she would help in the publication, and he was happy with a smile on his face.
Ranti asked the pupils if they will love to have HHCI at their school once again, the pupil crowdedly answered a big YES

CONCLUSION
Ranti also make a big notice to the pupil “that if they notice any abused of any kind from their loved ones or rather they are feeling  unhappy, they should feel free to discuss with their teachers, through their teachers to HHCI, and that HHCI will be happy to help them feel Happy again
A little token of pens was distributed to the pupils and their teachers, and an article on creating the awareness of child abused and neglect on every child.
RESULT
On the 26th of May 2016, the school manager called HHCI to show her appreciation on their visit to the school.