Beauty Queen Stephanie Karikari is of the view that children from a very tender age must be introduced to speaking up when they sense that they are being violated in certain ways.

Stephanie in a new episode of her SK Diaries vlog that touches on social issues dubbed ‘Rape in Households’ suggested children be given a voice at a young age, so they grow with it.

She said kids at the kindergarten level, as done in the West, must be taught by parents and teachers when they are being touched in a wrong way.

“We need to create more aggressive awareness on this issue. And I suggest that we start from kindergarten in schools. This is because when you look at the western world, kids know their rights from a young age.”

“Our children must know that when someone touches you this way or that way, you need to tell somebody, tell a teacher or tell a parent. Let it sink into the heads so that when they are growing up, they know what is wrong or what is right.

“In the West, what happens is that, when there is some sort of child abuse and they get to school, they eventually end up telling somebody, like their teacher and the right measures have been put in place to act upon it. So, I believe we need to get that done where from kindergarten, a child needs to know, parents need to tell their children, and should even be told in school,” she added.

Stephanie also called out parents and guardians who conceal rape victims in their households saying they deserve hell.

She described rape as “just a whole embarrassing and really disgusting act.”

“At times, you have uncles, that have probably raped or touched their nieces and the parents of this little girl or boy. And they will say its a family secret and will keep it in the house. Maybe they wouldn’t be as close to the uncle anymore but it stays in the house. That is so wrong, and parents need to do better.”

“If you are a mother or a father and you have someone who is a rape victim in your house and you have kept quiet about it, well done. You have succeeded in destroying someone’s future, and you deserve a place in hell,” she fumed.

In Africa, the rate of child abuse is the highest at 34%. In Nigeria, 24% of females between the ages of 18 to 24 have gone through some form of sexual abuse and only 3.5% has been reported to the police. In South Africa, 41,000 pus women were raped between 2019 and 2019.

Similarly, in Ghana 514 rape cases were reported to the police with 1889 defilement cases reported.

Finally, she called on the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, the Ghana Police, the Domestic Victim and Violence Support Unit and NGOs to do six hundred times better in addressing rape cases.

Source: Citinewsroom.com