Good Hope Ministries has established a ‘Protecting Our Children’ program. Village committees are formed. They may consist of their chief, a policeman, a teacher, and other community leaders, to which all villagers are taught to report any abuse. The committee then sees to it that the victim is taken care of and that the abuser is taught the correct way, God’s way, to treat their children.

We placed Emmanuel in charge of overlooking this program and this is what he said:

My heart cries for these children. There is just a lot of abuse happening every day. It really breaks my heart. It’s either we will hear a child has been abandoned by her mother, or a girl has been raped. We hear of unthinkable beatings, a father killing and hiding the body of his own child; kids that are left with no support and just growing up without knowing what love is. An under-aged girl is forced into marriage. Every time I think and hear about these things, I remember my days when I was cruelly treated and abused. I keep crying to God to give us more wisdom and the resources to carry out this program until the message has reached every community, every school and every market place.

We teach the following to the children:

• What abuse is
• The different kinds of abuse
• What to do when they are being abused

After the child abuse lesson, a Form 1 boy shared about abuse/neglect at home.

“I’ve been living with my uncle’s family for a long time, but his wife treats me badly. She doesn’t give me enough food, and sometimes I go to school hungry. When I come home, she scolds me and says I’m lucky to have a roof over my head. She hits me with a stick or anything she can find. I’ve tried to talk to my uncle, but he just tells me to be good.”

“Now that I’ve learned about abuse, I know what to do when I am abused. But most importantly, I wish my guardians could learn about this lesson of abuse, maybe they can change and start treating me well. And again it’s not only me who is suffering from abuse. I have friends who may not share what they are going through but if parents can be taught this lesson that we learned, I feel they will have a change of heart to protect us instead of abusing us”