Yesterday, I was surfing through my feed and stumbled upon @hrhmikelength post on how to tackle the corrupt Child Protection Service (CPS) and decided to look into the online campaign by @familyprotection and @markwhittam and know what it’s all about.
This idea touched me deeply as I’m a great lover of children so much I actually took up babysitting for a period of 19 months after college education. During this period, one thing I noticed about children is that they find it hard to do away with the affection they develop for anyone during their first 10 forrmative years and even beyond. Even till date, every child I took care of still have the affection towards me. My favorite, Adeniyi, still calls me “Dada” anytime she sees me.
Children need all the love and affection they can get during their formative years to become the adults we as a society want them to be. Of all persons in the world, children look up to their parents most for the love and attention. In 2010, research conducted at Duke University Medical School found out babies with very affectionate mothers grew up to be happy, less anxious adults. The study involved about 500 people who were followed up from infancy.
Our children are our future. If we raise children without love, then in actuality, we are raising tyrants for the future. If we want to grow old and live in a loving, peaceful environment, then raising children capable of love and affection is the key to that. That’s why it’s vital to make sure our children live in the best condition ever to aid in their physical, emotional and mental growth. This is where CPS comes in. An initiative that I find touching as the government takes a special interest in the welfare of our future generation. Sadly, where I come from, the chances this development is initiated in my country is very impossible at the moment despite the real life experiences most Nigerians see. But with the presence of @familyprotection, I feel I can come up with ideas that can affect the children in Nigeria positively.
“Children need all the love and attention they can get”
But as enticing as the idea of CPS is, sadly I’ve heard stories about how corrupt the system has turned to be. Stories not many persons in the world are aware of most especially from my part of the world and thanks to @familyprotection, the story is getting to us. I’m a living example.
I’ve heard stories where CPS are contacted by a divorced parent to fabricate lies about the other parent so he/she can win custody of the child (A real life story I intend to share later and expose some corrupt practices in the system). Stories where children are taken from parents are sold and trafficked for money that can never last. Recently, I watched the movie Gifted(2017) which highlighted a grandmother trying to find a better life for her grand daughter and in the process tearing that lovely girl away from her uncle. The highlight of that movie was how distraught Mary became when she was far away from the people she loved to the point for a moment she hated her uncle. Most children due to many foster home transfers and sometimes meeting abusive foster families, no longer know what it means to love anymore. They lose every form of love or attachments to the society. How then do we expect to have a better future when our children can’t know what love is?
How can the present corrupt system be tackled? After much research about the dilapidated state of the CPS, I have come up with some ideas to help tackle this issue:
- I noticed that the usual targets are parents who are poor and trying their utmost best to make their children live comfortably. And there are such regions in the world where most parents are struggling to make a living. Money is needed to run a court case and win it. Most families lose cases because they lack the funds to hire a good lawyer and run the case successfully. To help them, a support group can be created in these regions. Whenever there is such a case, a post can be made about it in steemit with daily or weekly updates. Earnings from these posts are then 100% donated to the cause so these children get to stay with their parents.
- Constant petitions and media campaigns should be made to send our message to the masses. With perseverance and persistence comes success. Granted, it might not get the desired result but continuous efforts to make these petitions reach the necessary parties will eventually be successful as soon as our social media campaigns gains ground worldwide.
- During court cases, our support group can send personnels to follow court proceedings to check for discrepancies in the court ruling and attempts by the CPS to use foul play to get court rulings in their favour. Also in the event where these children are put up for foster care, regular checkup should be made so these children are sent to the right foster homes and not trafficked as in some cases.
As time goes on, more ways will be employed to tackle this issue and make sure our children have the future they deserve. To show my sincere interest in this noble cause by @familyprotection and the need to generate funds to support poor families, 15% of the earnings generated from this post will be donated to helping families in this situation.
Finally I want to thank @markwhittam, @familyprotection, @thethreehugs, @steeminganarchy and @canadian-coconut for supporting this cause via upvotes and resteems. More ideas and suggestions will be coming up to advance this cause to the next level and make sure our voice is heard worldwide.
