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PS frowns at violence against children

Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Gender, Children, Disability and Social Welfare Erica Maganga has condemned violence directed at children in the country and reaffirmed their protection.

Maganga said this yesterday at Nkhotakota District Hospital after cheering up nine-year-old girl, whose mother scalded her with hot water last Sunday, wounding her on the stomach and the left hand.

Nursing wounds after being scalded by her own mother

The girl’s mother was last Friday convicted and sentenced to two years imprisonment with hard labour by Nkhotakota magistrate’s court. She goes into prison with a month-old baby.

Maganga wondered that despite existing laws aimed at protecting children, violence unleashed on vulnerable groups continue to happen across the country.

“As government, we have the responsibility to safeguard the rights of children. As such, we are very concerned with violence against children. We won’t condone such barbaric acts to prevail,” she said.

Maganga commended police and the Judiciary for the speedy trial, but lamented that similar cases take long time to be heard.

Child protection worker Gift Kalihe underscored the need for parents to embrace responsible parenting by protecting their children from any form of abuse.

“I was very shocked at the torture this young girl went through. Parents ought to be in the forefront protecting their children not the other way round,” he said.

The principal secretary has since donated two bags of maize and cash to the abused girl who is expected to be taken to her mother’s home in Dowa.

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