I want to share a conversation with you all today. It is with the hope that we can get justice for these vulnerable children who are victims of what looks like an organised crime syndicate that specialises in the rape, molestation and torture of deaf children who are boarding students at the Ube School for the Deaf Kuje
It has become important for me to do this because I need your support to save these children.
I will however protect the identity of one of the victim that I am familiar with and whose ordeal exposed this extremely evil act.
Along with my good friends and samaritans on social media we raised money to assist send this child abroad for a heart surgery when he was two years.
A few weeks ago I chatted with his mum and asked after him:
Me: We are good. Hows Xxxx?
Mum: Xxxx is now much better . It has been traumatic for the family. Xxxx had a hellish experience in the school for the deaf Kuje. Just one term in school his body and his impression of men has been battered. He signed to us how senior boys sexually assaulted and mutilated him and other boys in the dormitory at night. He signed how the seniors tied his hands with chains and sodomize him, He said it was so painful he cried and blood used to come out from his Anus.
He said other children also go through this suffering they were even scared of sleeping at night. He narrated how his School father dipped his penis into his throat and when he vomits the semen they hit his head with a plank of wood.
He narrated that the seniors wake them up and take them outside the school at night on motorbike to the bushes where people are killed The boys tortured him with fire burns all over his abdomen. One of his finger nail was mercilessly removed.
We have reported to the school and we have joined the PTA to take some steps.
We have sent letters to NAPTIP, National Human Rights Commission, NURHI, NDLEA, legal aid, Albino Foundation, Police Commissioner, Federal Ministry of Education.
Boarding Schools for The disable should be deboarded and let these children go to schools in their localities and return to their homes after school.
Deboarding is our aim. Many abuses are going on at the boarding schools and no one is talking we need to be their voice.
It’s a sad story, Xxxx was abused several times. He has developed post traumatic disorder, he has repeated nightmares at night, he was seen by the consultant family physician at The National Hospital who examined him and confirmed that he had been sexually molested (as in medical report) He has referred the boy to the paediatric surgeons. Thank God he is negative for HIV and hepatitis. we will further screen him after 3 and 6 months.
There are no other schools for the deaf in Abuja and environs, all parents have to take their children to the UBE school for the deaf, Kuje with the hope of the children having access to Secondary school and after gain admission to the university.
We contacted someone at the UN, who came and saw him at Abuja. She was very touched and promised CSOs will be involved with NACA
We, the PTA as a short term damage control effort contacted the ED NPHCDA who graciously approved screening kits for HIV, Hepatitis B and C, VDRL , pregnancy test, Hepatitis B vaccination for the children as appropriate by age and manpower.
We hope to organize an awareness campaign, health education and, health check up and mass screening for STDs for the students. You can imagine if a student has this illnesses and is spreading it amongst other students . It’s a disaster with the capacity to implode on us all.
Sorry am breaking this sad news after a long time. This failed system has terrified, raped Xxxx of his innocence, exposed him to diseases (chronic illnesses, psychiatric illness and adult cancers). My heart bleeds for all these children. If this is happening in the deaf schools then how about the school for the blind?
The boarding system for these children living with disabilities has to stop and Inclusive Education adopted for them because they are too vulnerable.
The doctor said he needs to see a psychologist and a dentist and also needs an MRI all because of the several hits to the head and face.
After the awareness campaign and testing only God knows what the findings in all the school children will be like.
Me: This must not go unpunished…
That will be great thank you very much sir. The children are caged in such schools rotting as the days go by while the boarding school contractors smile to the bank. My friend said they are very strong and influential so we need many voices, CSOs, influential persons, to lead.
Our Government LEA Schools and Secondary Schools can be strengthened to be inclusive education schools. They can be strengthened to accommodate the education of children living with disabilities to get equal quality education amongst their normal peers in the same classes.
I did a course with the northern Illinois Institute in 2013 on the Perspectives of Disability. This segregation is denial of their rights to quality education in a safe environment.
They can have a class with the hearing and the hearing impaired while a teacher teaches the normal hearing children the sign language teacher signs to the hearing impaired amongst the class.
In fact, Nigeria already has some pilot schools which have commenced the inclusive education system so why can’t such be practiced in our LEA schools.
The school may not cooperate because we intend during that exercise to question every child in private with neutral sign language interpreter on if they have been abused and who has been doing it. So that the children are counseled and followed by the psychologist.
The National human rights commission agenda for 2019 is to remove any discrimination to education. Inclusive education into mainstream schools is the answer. So we will be catalysing it by God’s grace.
From his expressions he showed he was taken to a place where they kill people I suspect either a terrorist place or kidnappers den. They have some students already initiated that pretend are students (so the boarding must stop).
So they gave him human flesh to eat he refused to eat. They beat him, hit his head with plank of wood and hit a nail on his head above his right eye. This boy survived it. He narrated in sign language that they kill people by slaughtering and turning people’s heads. Whenever you see him you will see the scar. It’s Very scary. Maybe some terrorist groups are trying to lure children with disabilities. These people wanted to kill Xxxx oh.
They were forcing him to eat his faeces. And they were drugging him because we noticed Xxxx who was hyperactive had become calm and we thought he was becoming matured. the boarding authorities don’t allow parents to go to the hostels and peep into the sickbay. Whenever we visited him we have to stay for up to 1hr before they bring him to see us, so whenever he came with the seniors to see us whatever we ask him how he is faring he kept saying all is well. I once took him out to barb his hair and I asked him he said all was well. But now he said they threatened to kill him if he told us what he is going through.
This system in the school has failed my son as he has gone backward in his academic performance. before he joined the school he could write 1 to 100, write names of things in the house, my phone numbers etc now he cannot.
He is so terrified and scared of men and boys.
These segregational educational boarding system does not actively involve family members of these children in their education, I was surprised to see parents during the PTA meeting learning ABC in sign language so that means that the parents are not even able to communicate with their children effectively to get information about their welfare in school.
I was able to see The Honorable Minister of Education and his permanent secretary and convey our plea as parents of a child cheated by this present segregational education system and a plea for inclusive education and and a stop to boarding for all these children living with disabilities.
If we are able to help him and other children living with disabilities to get quality education, they will grow to be advocates for the human rights of children living with disabilities. Who knows these children may even be the ones to drive their disability bill that is taking ages to actualize.
I discussed with some parents of children in that school who had to withdraw their children for similar reasons and chronic renal infections. Some were transfered to other boarding schools within the country, presently they complain its the same and we are all in a dilemma where our children with disabilities will get education.
One can infer what children with other disabilities like the visually impaired and physical disabilities are also facing these challenges.
They are all vulnerable to abuse and the present boarding system is not the best for them.
#stopboarding for children living with disabilities. #inclusiveeducation is the answer.
Me: what’s the name of the school?
Mum: Abuja school for the deaf kuje
***My people. You can see clearly the amount of danger these kids have been subjected to. We cannot keep quiet while this happens to our children.***
Please share this widely so that it receives the due attention. I hope it will also encourage others across the country, who may have also been victims of this evil to speak up.
#EndTheRapeOfVulnerableChildren
I do not know what to make of this. What exactly does the writer want? Justice for the child or inclusive education? Or scrapping of of boarding facilities in deaf schools? While I am all for justice for the child and pray for his total healing, there are points in this writ that begs for answers. One of such is the question of how a primary school pupil was able to sign all these. How old is the boy? And how knowledgeable is the mother in receptive and transmittive sign language? I ask this because the biggest problem facing Deaf… Read more »