Mummies and Daddies, uncles and aunties, we have a problem: our girls are endangered! We must now find ways to confront the prowling threat and save our girls. Not confronting the prowling threat means we have surrendered our girls to the deviousness seeking to rip apart their tender hearts. Which inevitably puts us in the same category as the foolish shepherd who left his pen unguarded and allowed the enemy has a field day with his precious charge.

During the Question-and-Answer session with the girls (which I referenced in yesterday’s post, and who constituted a reasonable sample upon which to extrapolate to the rest of the population considering their diversity as to age, location, tribe, religion, and social economic status) the panel and management of the school made a shocking discovery.

Out of every 10 questions asked by the girls, at least 7 questions were on the subject of rape! (Incidentally, none of the speakers mentioned the subject of rape or discussed it in their presentation,
which came as a shocker to everyone at the high table.). The questions came in different formats and dripped with innocence, frustration, pain, helplessness, confusion, disappointment, and lots more.

What most of us read about daily of reports of sexual abuse and violence was brought home in such an unsettling manner.

We must look beyond cosmetic solutions and quit playing the ostrich or any of his more popular chameleonic forms. Discussions about rape and what needs to be done must now begin in every home. Mummies and Daddies, uncles and aunties who have abandoned their fighting duty posts because the call of economic survival has become stronger must remember that no one said one must surrender one for the other. Who said one could not fight effectively on both fronts?