THE SHADOW PANDEMIC (SOCHUM- Social, Cultural and Humanitarian Committee)
Everyday, we have 23,040 opportunities to breathe ourselves into a new existence. However for some, a heavy hand presses against their shoulders silencing their will to fight, robbing them of a voice to scream help. “If my eye was black, my wrists stained with the purple marks of cuffs, my legs bruised and my heart split open, you would have noticed.” This however are not our usual times, with the worldwide restricted flow of movement plaguing our lives, who will notice and speak up for them that are voiceless.
Titled as the Shadow Pandemic by the United Nations, domestic violence and child abuse in the world have been propped up on an infamous pedestal, in the UK it has spiked by a staggering 65%, in the USA and Asia a whopping 20% increase has been noted. To paint a bleak picture of the reality of the matter, research predicts 15M additional cases for every 3 months the lock-down is extended. Alarmingly so, low and middle income nations lack access to contraceptives which would result in an estimated unintended
million pregnancies.
Uncertainty and fear fuels the abusers need for power and control which has been shaken by the threat of unemployment and economic turmoil. Intimidation their dagger of choice, they inflict mental and emotional distress. The simple 26 alphabets weaponized through manipulation to unveil a vile string of ideas and words aimed at crippling the abused women into submission.
Picture yourself, out on a boat, wind blowing, warm summer air landing on your skin, utter bliss. Your partner begins to shake the boat, at first its very light and you don’t pay mind to it, but it gets intense and you are thrust into the water, you can’t swim. You are drowning. Hands and feet flailing your legs give out in a crippling cramp, panic assumes its role and the need to inhale is so strong it consumes you.
Your lungs are burning so badly as you inhale water and in the pregnant darkness head facing downward, your mind betrays you and goes blank. You welcome a numbness that coils over you. Even the lightest leaf floating by seems like hope. A passing boat roars in the far distance but its sirens buzz away from you. There’s nothing more to live for. With every breathe, you die a little more inside. That’s the grim reality of domestic violence.
Childhood should be light and whimsical, playing in the rain, not navigating between the shadows of darkness and nightmares. The mainstream media has told the heart-breaking tales of child abuse by the people who are meant to be a shield for them, their caregivers. As poverty invites itself as the unwanted
guest, young girls are sold off for mere pennies to adults with despicably corrupt intentions.
Betrayal doesn’t stand to explain what these women and innocent children have gone through. We can’t betray them again, due to the conditioning that states “It’s not my problem”. We as a society have to take a firm stand on this matter that tears lives apart. If the sound of happy women and kids grates at your ears, it’s not the children that need to get checked.
Christopher Hitchens wisely said it all in his statement, “To terrify children with the image of hell, to consider women an inferior creation — is that good for the world?”
By; Lily Waithaka|Kenya Model United Nations
