For normal reproductive life, a woman must have normal developmental milestones, which must necessarily begin in the girl child; for an example, the first menstrual flow requires a body weight of 40kg or more. Though early menses may not be regular , it steadies as the girl child grows into maturity and in good health as defined earlier, so that any deviations from an established normal pattern can be better understood and explained. Lack of regularity developing within the normal reproductive age can then be used as a diagnostic aid . Children born into happy homes, with adequate nutrition tend to have the first menses occurring within a range of time period considered normal. They also tend to have less troublesome issues with menses compared with children who are obese, undernourished or malnourished.
When well nourished, stress free young cycling teenagers of the same age are kept together in the same apartment or Hostel for some time, they tend to have menses coming about the same time . Stress arising from physical, social or emotional trauma apart from being diabetogenic also places more cholesterol in the pathways for the biosynthesis of the female hormones, particularly estrogen. More estrogen than necessary at a particular time for the girl child is capable of evoking stimuli that will force responses out of her which she may not have the capacity to control . Stressful conditions also have a way of weakening the immune system and reducing the ability of the individual to fight infections. It is therefore more likely for the girl child in persistent situations of sexual abuse to die from infections compared with older women facing similar challenges.
Examine the policy that is currently in place in many of the Federal Government owned secondary schools where parents are not informed that a child is ill and on admission at the Sick Bay until the illness gets beyond the capacity of the Medical team employed by the School. One wonders if the relevant authorities have paused to consider the fact that some certain disease conditions do not give the patient time to become ill ;that by the time it is finally understood that a disease or illness is beyond the professional competence of the managing medical team an affected Child will have reached the point where her conditions are no longer reversible
How did it all begin? Why would any one imagine that a secondary school teenager who happens to know the symptoms and signs of early pregnancy will decide to confide in the Nurse at the Sick bay in preference to her mother?
In the present arrangement of policies, rules and regulations, most if not all the schools and colleges where our young girls are kept are modified , glorified and regimented correction centres . In the passion to get the best out of these children and position them for better life, we have failed to take into consideration, the need to establish a routine health check and balance system that should be reviewed from time to time ,and in accordance with the School Health programme .
Cases of child abuse occurring in schools and colleges remain untold until ten twenty and thirty years later, in some cases, victims die and are buried with their secrets
By keeping them caged, with limited access to communication with their parents except visiting days, substantial periods of the life of the growing and developing girl child are spent with people about whom the children know but very little.
As the world burns and conflicts spread like wild fire burning in the Harmattan period, the girl child is at the greatest risk with little or no room to negotiate herself out of conditions that are clearly unsafe and unfavorable for health . Many will agree that when families are small, quality of life is better for the girl child for the simple reason that Mom and Dad will want to hold and to cherish .However ,even in polygamous families, every child wants to be loved and cherished ,to belong and appreciated, and out of sight is never out of mind. Studies have shown that whether a family is polygamous or not, the girl child demonstrates unalloyed taciturnity, love and understanding. She sees her father in her male teacher and her mother in her female teacher . This is the normal expectation. There are exceptions of course , but these are rare . It is therefore natural that outside the family system, patterns of behaviour of the girl child can be used as an instrument to measure the degree of family cohesion available for the child to enjoy and vice versa . And so depending on the source of abuse, an abused child is likely to grow up and become an abuser either in the family she will build or the family she is born into.
Under the conditions forced upon families by wars and conflicts, the girl child within the families of internally displaced persons finds herself vulnerable to physical and sexual abuse even from members of the extended family. Outside that, conditions that cause the girl child to lose one or both parents catapults the girl child into sudden poverty, with little or no capacity to escape physical abuse (including sex abuse) and negotiate for safe or safer sex
A young woman took a nine year old girl to the Children emergency room of a busy government hospital crying effortlessly . She appeared exhausted and barely able to stand without support . Whereas the young lady; later identified as her Step Mom claimed she fell down from a tree and fainted , there were scars distributed asymmetrically on the left side of the body of this girl . The back regions of her arms and fore arms showed well marked healing stripes . As soon as she was left alone with the Nurses, she asked to be given something to eat .
The situation just described is probably an example of the physical form of child abuse .
Long periods of separation from siblings ,mom and Dad have their own independent effects on the girl child. Any forms of abuse by way of verbal, physical ,emotional and psychological insults serve to weaken the ability of the girl child to resist abnormal temptations, either internally or externally generated. Compared with an adult of the same sex, the brain of the growing child is not as stereognostic. However, it is likely to accommodate a mental diary of with a larger volume , to absorb and retain for longer time periods.
As will have been known by many, to be in good health is not the absence of infirmity or disease conditions, but a state of COMPLETE physical , social and emotional well being. Depending on the type, nature and duration, an abused child finds herself fighting to maintain emotional balance throughout life. If she grew up in an environment where she was persistently shouted down, and never allowed to express her self , she is likely to grow up timid and afraid of every move she makes. On the other hand if she was forced to keep secrets as a result of incidents or activities forced on her, she is likely to grow up confused, with guilt, intra psychic conflicts and thought broadcasts . It is also important to note that depending on particular circumstances, explosive types of behavior, suicidal idealization and actual suicide are more likely to arise or develop in a girl child that has suffered or continues to suffer abuse.
source: The nation
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