By Paula O.M.OTUKILE
Mahalapye, Botswana
On the fight against GBV the eyes are on the girl child and the mother respectively but there is a lot going today concerning open sexuality and liberty for one to be whatever they feel. This emancipation of the LGTB has come with positive changes of welcoming everyone as they are and fresh liberation movements and social action due to more awareness on the issues of sexuality and acceptance. However there is an unbecoming pattern of some gay men who have a regular tendency of abusing young boys, which is not right.
Like they did to choose their sexuality and express themselves they ought to let young boys grow and choose who they are too, not force them into sexual activity at a tender age for their pleasure without consent.
During the school holidays and weekends that’s when the preys strikes, so parents must be careful who they leave their kids with.
October 2023 became a nightmare to some family as one student who was writing primary school leaving examinations was raped by a neighbor, this boy was traumatized and a teacher and the school head had to intervene and involved the police. It is with a heavy heart that today another incident occurred where a teacher s allegedly said to have killer himself due to shame of fear of confrontation after being ambushed of repetitive incidents of violating a boy in Shoshong, near Mahalapye village.
School must be a safe place where a child feels free and confident and comes back with positive feedback stories of having learnt and being fulfilled.
A Teacher is a parent, a gurdian and a safe place for the children. They are the second parents to children. There is a need to reinforce order in schools to remind teachers who they are, in the eyes of the kids they teach, to the schools and the community.
When an educator violates students it takes away the trust of the parents on the educators that they are wolves not protectors of these kids, it kills the prestige and the honor of decades of what a teacher is. The trauma is too much for the child and the colleagues as well as the entire school and the parents.
The narrative that depicts a girl to be the only abused person or a woman gives abusers a bigger room to thrive and do rubbish with too much liberty because both genders suffer abuse.
There are homes which men are quiet because they are abused and fear to be labeled because they are beaten by a woman. The police must take action if such people come to report. There must be no biases. The boy child tend to grow with too much fear to speak out in terms of abuse by men, women or anyone because the expectations are he should be man enough or strong. The strong people are those who report abuse and who stand against any injustice not shy away from their problems.
When we emancipate the girl child let’s include the boy child too. There is a lot going behind close doors concerning the boy child that is why some end up doing drugs and smoke earlier.
A child needs love, education, clothes, food, the right to play and to be free as week as to feel peaceful and a shelter to call home and a school to learn, but if these are taken away from him through abuse of any dormir is a great tragedy and traumatic to a young soul.
These two incidents verify that there is a lot to be done in terms of raising awareness about sexuality on the children and in schools. Teachers must stop abuse, parents must stop abuse, children must not abuse each other. People must live in peace
