The Tribune

THIS week is guest editorial week at The Tribune - we have invited a series of contributors to offer their views on different issues throughout the week. Today’s editorial is written by Terneille Burrows, founder and president of Rise Bahamas.

AS a child I prayed for world peace. Since then, I’ve narrowed that request down and now ask for improved child protection in our country. Sometimes it feels like a mammoth task! For example, one important child protection law that was passed in the House Of Assembly in 2013 has yet to be fully enacted a decade later. There can be no logical explanation for this, except lack of political will and lack of empathy.

Eleven-year-old Marco Archer was abducted and murdered in Nassau, Bahamas in 2011. The then opposition party was up in arms about the handling of the case, and proposed a missing child alert system and sex offender registry entitled, “Marco’s Law”. There was no public education campaign surrounding the introduction of the registry, and the Marco Alert has yet to be finalised.

If the roll out of Marco’s Law is any indication of the level of prioritisation successive governments have pertaining to the protection of children, then our country continues to fail generations of youth and families. Last year, the Minister of National Security Wayne Munroe said a four-year prison sentence imposed on a 40-year-old man who impregnated a 14-year-old schoolgirl was too long. There was an uproar from the public about the callous statement and rightly so. It was dangerous, shameful, and we expect better from our lawmakers.

Bahamians are now also seeing more reports of people who hold positions of power preying on children. In recent news, a former Senator was charged with sexual assault of a little boy and a Defence Force Officer was arrested for allegedly raping a 13-year-old girl. We are largely reactive when cases of crimes against children are brought to light. Although we complain about it via social media for a few days, sadly, there is no real change that comes about from the temporary outrage.

However, I believe that the majority of Bahamian people do care about the protection of our most vulnerable residents. Now, more than ever before, there are many ways we can show it. One is through supporting an advocacy organisation and keeping the conversation at the forefront:

• Follow, comment on, like and share social media page posts

• Invite friends to like their pages

• Make your own posts tagging the organisation’s page and using key hashtags

• Sign and share petitions

• Share post links through your WhatsApp groups, broadcast messages and email lists

• Mention their advocacy work on radio talk shows call-ins

• Write Letters to The Editor

• Show up to their events (meetings, demonstrations, outreach, etc.)

• Volunteer

• Donate

On the six-month date of Baby Bella Walker’s murder, in May of last year, Rise Bahamas proposed “Bella’s Bill”. It seeks to amend the Child Protection Act to expand the categories of stewards of children that are mandated to report suspected child abuse. We want immediate family, caregivers and guardians to be added to the list in section 63 of the Act.

It will take widespread and sustained public outcry to help get this amendment added.

Let’s work together to ensure that Child Protection becomes a high priority for our government in The Bahamas.