A 9 year old girl was accompanied by a teacher to the Couva Police Station last Friday, where she told officers that she was having sex with men in the village for a fee of five TT dollars each. This happened in Couva according to newspaper reports. The nine-year-old girl hid the dark secret from everyone in the village and it is estimated that she was "raped" by as many as 28 men before her rescue by police .
The resulting medical examination found that the girl was sexually active and HIV positive. Investigators believe the child was born with the virus. The mother is an HIV positive ex bar waitress and has 15 children. The state took away 14 of them leaving the girl child with her. The child said she was having sex with her mother's drug addict friends, brought to her by her mother. To support her addiction.
Eight men who were allegedly found waiting in line to have sex with the child have been questioned. A 71-year-old man who was caught in the act, was in police custody up to last night, and is expected to be charged with having sex with a minor. A woman appeared before Couva Magistrate Marcia Ayers-Caesar yesterday to answer charges of failing to report incidents of sexual abuse against a minor. She was not called upon to plead as the charges were laid indictably. The woman was remanded in custody and is to reappear in court next Tuesday.
On the radio this morning, an announcer was wondering how this could happen in a residential area with nobody seeing or reporting. In this country, drug crime is as deadly as anywhere else. If you know there is a drug hole in your area, you see, hear, say or smell nothing for fear of your own safety. A caller was wondering how could this happen here? In our beautiful Trinidad?
It happens everywhere. I've been lucky enough to give guidance chats with various youth groups for some years now. I've seen it before. I've also seen the victims unwilling to change because of their misconceived "comfort" zone. I've seen the abuse people endure by trying to change. I've also seen the wonderful social support from our government.
I'm not shocked at the news report. I'm shocked at the naivety of the Trinidad people. Drive by Curepe, Independence Square, Harris Promenade, Mucurapo St, Marabella Main road, Arima, and you will see them. Open your eyes. There are children sleeping on the street. They have an aggressive exterior, street smart, ready to scam you for food.
Yet we do nothing about the ones we do see. How many more are there that we don't?
The Children of the Night faq says, "Generally speaking, if a child is 10 years of age or younger and involved in prostitution, the parents are usually involved in the sexual exploitation of the child."
Maybe for real action, it will take another senseless, avoidable death...still, we do nothing.
The resulting medical examination found that the girl was sexually active and HIV positive. Investigators believe the child was born with the virus. The mother is an HIV positive ex bar waitress and has 15 children. The state took away 14 of them leaving the girl child with her. The child said she was having sex with her mother's drug addict friends, brought to her by her mother. To support her addiction.
Eight men who were allegedly found waiting in line to have sex with the child have been questioned. A 71-year-old man who was caught in the act, was in police custody up to last night, and is expected to be charged with having sex with a minor. A woman appeared before Couva Magistrate Marcia Ayers-Caesar yesterday to answer charges of failing to report incidents of sexual abuse against a minor. She was not called upon to plead as the charges were laid indictably. The woman was remanded in custody and is to reappear in court next Tuesday.
On the radio this morning, an announcer was wondering how this could happen in a residential area with nobody seeing or reporting. In this country, drug crime is as deadly as anywhere else. If you know there is a drug hole in your area, you see, hear, say or smell nothing for fear of your own safety. A caller was wondering how could this happen here? In our beautiful Trinidad?
It happens everywhere. I've been lucky enough to give guidance chats with various youth groups for some years now. I've seen it before. I've also seen the victims unwilling to change because of their misconceived "comfort" zone. I've seen the abuse people endure by trying to change. I've also seen the wonderful social support from our government.
I'm not shocked at the news report. I'm shocked at the naivety of the Trinidad people. Drive by Curepe, Independence Square, Harris Promenade, Mucurapo St, Marabella Main road, Arima, and you will see them. Open your eyes. There are children sleeping on the street. They have an aggressive exterior, street smart, ready to scam you for food.
Yet we do nothing about the ones we do see. How many more are there that we don't?
The Children of the Night faq says, "Generally speaking, if a child is 10 years of age or younger and involved in prostitution, the parents are usually involved in the sexual exploitation of the child."
Maybe for real action, it will take another senseless, avoidable death...still, we do nothing.
3 comments:
Those people in the media are asses, especially most of those radio announcers. They have no more social awareness than a doorknob. They *claim* to be for the people, but in most cases that just means 'look at me, i want to be popular so people will pat me on my back when i'm in public'. Bleh.
I think you hit the nail on the head. Everyone will read this, exclaim 'oh how horrible! oh the humanity! we need to do something about this' and then continue munching away on their croissants and cream cheese. The question each of us has to ask is what am *I* going to do about it. Not we, us, them. *I*!
Too easy to hide in the collective.
You're right it is definitely very easy to hide in the collective.
What do you do when it's the children's own parents who are subjecting them to the abuse?
In this case the teacher acted. In how many other cases do people say it's not their business? This gives a new meaning to it takes a village to *insert random word here* a child. Besides the men, it seemed that other villagers knew what was going on.
Ana - Independence of
Mind
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