Body of one-year-old girl found burnt in a dead-end street

A post-mortem report showed that the child found in a dead end street in Johor_Bahru could have been brutally abused before her death, with injuries showing that she had died from a broken spine.  Her death was due to severe spinal damage due to an impact on the chest! 

There is a possibility that someone has stomped on the child's chest! The post mortem report also revealed that the child had bruises all over her body before being burnt!

Reference: http://thestar.com.my/Cops: Burnt girl was abused

How could any human being to this to a 1 year old? May the little girl be safe in heavenly care!

 According to the World Health Organisation, up to 53,000 children are murdered worldwide each year!

War traumatised children of Syria

I read this report by Save the Children several times today.

http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/sites/default/files/images/untold_atrocities.pdf

The report, published by Save the Children, is a collection of testimonies from children living in refugee camps on the  borders of Syria which depicts a most disturbing picture of the horrors and extreme atrocities that children have been through in the conflict in Syria. 

For those of you too busy to read, let me highlight a few of the testimonies:

*Khalid 15 years old said, "They hung me up from the ceiling by my wrists, with my feet off the
ground. Then I was beaten. I passed out. I passed out from the severe pain of hanging like that, and from the beating.  They took me down and threw cold water on my face to wake me up. Then they took turns stubbing out their cigarettes on me."

* Wael, 16 years old recounted "These children were too weak to even cry. They just lay on the floor. They were also subjected to repeated beating with sticks, worse than us. I knew a boy called Ala’a. He was part of that group. He was only six years old. He didn’t understand what was happening.  I’d say that this six-year-old boy was tortured more than anyone else in that room. He wasn’t given food or water for three days, and he was so weak he used to faint all the time. He was beaten regularly.  I watched him die. He only survived for three days and then he simply died. He was terrified all the time. They treated his body as though he was a dog".

 

Moussa 15 years old said, " There were hundreds of us in prison – I was in a big cell with the other children. The youngest ones were nine or ten, they had been captured. I was beaten up every day, and they used electricity too.  In prison, when someone died, they kept hitting the body. There were dead bodies in my cell too – they’d been there for a long time and they stank. They were decomposing – there were maggots. Eventually, they threw me out. They carried me out on a blanket. I couldn’t move".

 

Anti-Assad Syrian groups claim close to 2,000 children have died in the conflict so far. In July, a British-based group called War Child said the Syrian conflict is “disturbingly unique” in the deliberate targeting of children, citing reports of hundreds of children being detained by the regime.

source: christemmanuel.org

source: rightnow.io

source: dailymail.co.uk

215 million children work!

Today, throughout the world, around 215 million children work, many full-time. They do not go to school and have little or no time to play. Many do not receive proper nutrition or care. They are denied the chance to be children. More than half of them are exposed to the worst forms of child labour such as work in hazardous environments, slavery, or other forms of forced labour, illicit activities including drug trafficking and prostitution, as well as involvement in armed conflict.

- International Labour Organization (ILO)

A haunting image of Giles Edmund Newsom, pictured aged 11, became a poster boy for child labour in the U.S.  Giles Edmund Newsom was working at Sanders Cotton Manufacturing Co. in Bessemer City when Lewis Hine photographed him in 1912 as part of an expose of the working conditions of children.  The 11-year-old had just injured his right hand at the textile factory, and it is shown in the image wrapped in a bandage. But what happened to the boy after the haunting  photograph was a mystery, until Joe Manning, a Massachusetts historian scoured records for Giles' death certificate, and found that he died of Spanish Flu in 1918, at around 18 years of age.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2174661/Historian-uncovers-tragic-fate-child-labour-poster-boy-Giles-Newsome-captured-haunting-1912-photograph.

Maid, 13, left starving...

Indian police rescued a 13-year-old maid who was locked up by her employers in their apartment with little food and water while they vacationed in Thailand.

The girl was rescued after spending 6 days locked up in the apartment, in an upper-middle class New Delhi neighbourhood.

News reports say her employers were doctors. The neighbours heard her crying for help and called police.

A child welfare official said the girl ran out of food after two days and was weak with hunger.

India's child labour laws make it illegal to employ children under 14, but the law is rampantly flouted.

Source: http://www.theaustralian.com.au

Chid abuse in Malaysia

Child abuse is an offence in Malaysia, punishable under the Child Act (2001) and the Penal Code (revised 1997). Offenders may be liable to a maximum fine of RM 50,000 or up to 20 years imprisonment, or both depending on the offence. Offenders may also be punished with whipping in addition to the fine and/or imprisonment.

Despite significant strides made by the Government in improving child protection measures in recent years, statistics from the Department of Social Welfare show a rise in reported child abuse cases in Malaysia:

 2008: 2,780 child abuse reports
 2007: 2,279 child abuse reports
 2006: 1,999 child abuse reports.

The national reported figures in Malaysia represent ONLY reported cases to the Department of Social Welfare, police or hospitals/clinics when children are treated. Global experience shows that only a small proportion of child abuse of children is reported and investigated, and few perpetrators are held to account.

Source: http://www.unicef.org/malaysia/GetonBoard-Factsheet-Child-Abuse-in-Malaysia.pdf

More slaves world-wide than ever before!

We think slavery belonged to another era. We do not see slavery as something which is still happening today.

According to a shocking new documentary by Al Jazeera English, slavery persists in the United States of America and there are more slaves worldwide than ever before!

For more information please read: Al-Jazeera-documentary-claims-slavery-still-rife-in-the-USA

First image credited to http://commons.wikimedia.org

Second image credited to http://www.oregonlive.com/

My Mother's Day wish

Mother’s Day is so often thought of as a day of breakfast in bed, homemade cards, fresh flowers, dinner at a fancy restaurant and some special gifts. All these did not happen to me.

I spent Mother’s Day today grieving over the fate of this little 13 year old girl who was found so badly abused in Klang Malaysia.

She had a broken left arm, burn marks on her palm and her entire body, including her private parts, was scalded with hot water. Scars on one of her legs also suggested that she had been tied up and there was an iron-shaped burn mark on her back (see picture below).



The girl could barely walk and had visible injuries on her hands, face and scalding marks on her neck. The injuries may have been inflicted over the past four months. She may also had undergone two abortions! She is traumatised! So much suffering for such a young girl. Why was it not detected sooner?

A woman who was taking care of the girl has been arrested and placed under remand.

For Mother's Day I do not wish for gifts and celebrations. My wish is that such cruelty would not happen to any little child anywhere in the world.

Read full account from the Star :13-year-old cruelly abused

3 year old had 73 physical injuries!

In Johor_Bahru Malaysia, abuse victim Nur Dania Qistina, 3, died last Sunday. A post-mortem on Nur Dania Qistina at Sultan Ismail Hospital found signs of internal bleeding in the lungs and 73 physical injuries on the body!

Her father, 30, and her 25-year-old step mother had been detained by police

Please read: Deceased's siblings abused as well

Child abuse is a repulsive issue for the society and it would affect the image of the country. Furthermore, it is a big problem with a serious impact on the child's physical and mental health, well-being and development throughout their lives. Children should have the human rights of life free from violence, harm and exploitation -Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Susan_Tan

Her scalp was torn from her head and her toenail was pulled off!

In New Zealand, a 30-year-old West Auckland woman is alleged to have inflicted a range of horrific abuse and torture on her terrified daughter - causing injuries so bad that those now involved with the case, including experienced child abuse investigators, say they have been deeply affected.

The injuries range from her scalp being torn away from her head while she was dragged by her hair along the floor, to vicious beatings with various weapons, and having her toenail pulled off and salt and boiling water poured on to the bleeding wound.

The girl's parents have both been charged over her injuries which allegedly occurred over a two-year period. The Father also faces charges of using a broomstick and a vacuum pipe to assault her during eight days in November. The Mother faces 32 charges including injuring with intent, assault with various weapons, wilful neglect by failing to seek medical help, withholding food, and causing grievous bodily harm.

The case has shocked and horrified members of the public. After featuring in the story in the Weekend Herald, the paper received more than 50 emails from concerned readers, many of whom wanted to know what they could do to help the little girl who is now being looked after by caregivers. Her siblings are also in safe care.

Please read: Child Abuse Case: What the Mother told officials

"Children are our most precious national assets. It is up to every one of us to make sure that they are given priority and their safety and protection is top of the nation’s agenda" - UNICEF NZ Executive Director, Dennis McKinlay

12 year old abused girl in a vegetative state since 6 years ago died

A 12-year-old California girl who was beaten into a vegetative state by her stepmother 6 years ago has died. The stepmother, who is serving time for child abuse, could now face homicide charges, according to a published report.

Truly Lo, of Natomas, a neighborhood in northwestern Sacramento, was just 6 years old in 2004 when her stepmother beat and strangled her. The abuse was so severe that Truly sustained brain damage and fell into a coma. Evidence showed Truly had been slapped, spanked, beaten with a hanger and strangled for four to six minutes on May 11, 2004.

Doctors estimated Truly would only live for a day or two. Despite the dire diagnosis, Truly's Father refused to remove his daughter from life support. Truly remained in a vegetative state for six years and never regained consciousness.

Last Tuesday, Truly's oxygen levels dropped and she died at a children's care facility.

Reference: http://www.aolnews.com/2010/12/27/stepmom-may-face-homicide-charges-as-girl-dies-after-6-year-coma/

I learnt some shocking facts from http://www.childhelpusa.org/ about child abuse in the USA:

A report of child abuse is made every ten seconds.
Almost five children die everyday as a result of child abuse and more than three out of four are under the age of 4

6 year old adopted boy with bruises and welts over his body

In Denver, Colorado, a 6 year old boy, whom a couple adopted in 2006 suffered a bruised brain and had bruises and abrasions all over his body, weighing only 30 pounds when he was taken to the hospital. Doctors had diagnosed the boy as suffering bleeding in the skull and that he was at a "substantial risk of death."

Read more: Parents of brusied, underweight 6-year-old to face abuse trial

Some facts about child abuse:

• In 2005, 12.1 of every 1,000 American children, almost 900,000 in all, suffered abuse by adults, with parents of victims accounting for almost 80% of abusers.
  
• Every day, about four children die in the U.S. because of abuse or neglect, most of them babies or toddlers.
  
• For every incident of child abuse or neglect that gets reported, it’s estimated that two others go unreported.

Source: http://www.dosomething.org/tipsandtools/11-facts-about-child-abuse

Another innocent child lost in horrific child abuse case

A judge sentenced 24-year-old Tylar Hokanson after a jury found him guilty on two murder charges.

Prosecutors say Hokanson shook his stepson at least 15 times at a rural Northfield home in June 2009, causing internal bleeding. Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom says 17-month-old Nicholas Miller was being squeezed so hard, a bone broke in his back.

Authorities say the boy's condition worsened over four days, with no one taking him to the hospital or seeking help for his injuries.

Source: http://kstp.com/news/stories/s1855068.shtml

She had lived this way for 2 years, since she was 7!

Josimene and the photojournalist Gigi Cohen

Haiti, a nation of only eight million people, is home to some 300,000 restavecs -– young children who are frequently trafficked from the rural countryside to work as domestic servants in the poverty-stricken nation's urban areas.

Parents send their children away, often to wealthy looking strangers, hoping that they will be fed and educated in exchange for performing domestic work.

As poverty and political turmoil in Haiti increases, human rights observers report that the number of restavecs continues to rise dramatically.

Documentary photographer Gigi Cohen spent a month in Haiti photographing Josiméne, a 10-year-old restavec. Cohen's is one of 11 stories that are part of Child Labor and the Global Village: Photography for Social Change, a project of The Tides Center and Julia Dean & Associates.

Cohen's month with Josiméne evolved into more than a simple assignment –- the two forged a close relationship. Freelance producer Rachel Leventhal asked Cohen if, in addition to her photographic assignment, she would also make recordings for the radio. Using Cohen’s recordings, she tells Josiméne's story.

Josiméne lives in a two-room cinderblock house outside of Port-au-Prince. Her parents, who have seven other children, are small farmers in Haiti's remote and mountainous heartland.

Among her other duties, Josiméne cares for two younger children, cleans the house, washes dishes, scrubs laundry by hand, runs errands and sells small items from the family's informal store. She has lived this way for over two years, since she was seven. It has been over six months since she has seen her family.

From http://www.npr.org/

The violence, exploitation and abuse experienced by children all over the world takes many forms, including corporal punishment, harmful traditional practices, hazardous labor, sexual exploitation, trafficking, association with armed groups and forces, and needless placement in prisons and institutions - UNICEF publication: Progress for Children: A Report Card on Child Protection (No. 8)

3 year old literally beaten to death!

Chandler Detective Gary Fuller has investigated hundreds of murders, but he has only one victim's photo on his desk: Schala Vera, 3, whose brutal slaying a year ago Tuesday had a profound effect on police and medical staff.

Kepra Jack, one of the nurses at Mercy Gilbert Medical Center who tried in vain to save Schala's life, has never been so shaken. She just recently began sleeping through the night again.

"It was the worst thing I have ever seen," said Jack. "She was wet when she got here. She was naked," Jack said. There wasn't one part of her that wasn't bruised, Jack said.

The child was blue and purple from being whipped, police say, repeatedly by a belt. Her mother, Susan Joan Witbracht, 27, and her mother's boyfriend, Dauntorian Lydel Sanders, 24, have been charged with her murder and could face the death penalty. They are being held without bail.

Please read more at http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2010/08/27/20100827chandler-schala-vera-abuse-campaign.html

She died five days after her third birthday. That day, Sanders whipped her repeatedly with a belt, investigators reported. Schala's face fell between her knees, then Sanders whipped her back, investigators said. He picked her up and dropped her, repeatedly, on the tiled bathroom floor, according to court records. While she was sprawled on the floor, a door was repeatedly slammed into her head, records stated.

"That little child was literally beaten to death," Favazzo said. "She had the strength to crawl between the toilet and the wall, between a sink and a toilet. A 3-year-old has to die alone."

Treating their youngs worse than animals do!

An 8 year old daughter and another younger child were badly burnt by their father who threw acid on his wife and the children, in terengganu, Malaysia. The girl will be scared for life! Is he an animal or a human being?

Please read full sotry: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/8/17/nation/6869091&sec=nation

This reminded me of an episode some years back. A man wanted a divorce from his wife. Her immediate response was, "Please don't do this. How about the children? Her immediate concern was the effect it could have on her children. The man missed the point. Instead the man's response was "I don't want the children. You can have the children" . Even the animals take care of their youngs until they are independent. Is he an animal or a human being?

Then again, equating these type of people to animals is degrading to the animals, to say the least!

May God embrace this little soul

Landon Payne, a picture taken when he was 2 years old.

About 20 people gathered outside the kearneycounty Courthouse in Nebraska to remember a boy who they said, “didn’t have a chance.” The small group stood with candles in a vigil for Landon Payne, the 4-year-old victim of alleged child abuse who died in December in rural Kearney County.

Read full report http://www.kearneyhub.com/news/local/article_d85054c6-a0a3-11df-80c8-001cc4c03286.html

and

http://www.lexch.com/articles/2010/07/22/news/regional/doc4c47657653ba9068462334.txt

“It just seemed to me that this kid had nobody. He had nobody. We would have been there for him if we had known. We need to stand for him now,” said Jacque Shepard of Kearney, who helped organize the vigil on Facebook.

“He didn’t even have a chance,” Shepard said, tears in her eyes.

“Because he could not fight for himself, we are here in his stead. Because he did not have a ‘family’ we are now his family. We seek justice for Landon, we seek change so that there are no other Landons who fall through the crack, and are ignored by those who are here to serve and protect.”

Dr. Matthias Okoye, director of the Nebraska Forensic Medical Services performed an autopsy on Landon's body on Dec. 23 and said the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head. Okoye said the boy was dehydrated, malnourished and emaciated.

Court records also cite an interview with Landon's sister, who also lived at the home. She said Sharon Turnell poked the boy's feet with tacks and whipped him with a stick. She also described an instance when Sharon Turnell, Dustin Scoville and Charles Turnell had hung Landon on a hook outside at night, describing the hook as being on a wooden pole, where you could hang your hat and coat.

She said Sharon Turnell threatened to cut off Landon's penis with a knife and had heated a knife over the stove and held it next to his penis. The girl said Charles Turnell was putting hot sauce on Landon's penis while Sharon heated the knife.

Landon's sister also said Landon was not fed, and while the rest of the family ate, he would be in the corner. She said Katie Payne pulled out Landon's hair and Sharon Turnell encouraged other children in the house to pull out his hair.

My tears could not stop flowing when I read about Landon. May those responsible, the disgusting scums, be brought to justice!

"If you don't want them, give them to social services. Don't kill them."

A fruitless search was on for a missing 2-year-old boy with an infectious smile. Now authorities believe that all along he was buried under 400 pounds of concrete in a trash can.

In Moncks_Corner,_South_Carolina USA, a boy's father and his girlfriend were arrested,two days after the couple concocted a story about the boy falling into the Charleston Harbor near a popular tourist destination, authorities said.

Human remains were found that matched the description of the boy the couple had given. The body was wrapped in 32-gallon trash bags encased in concrete in a bin so heavy a farmer had to hoist it onto a county vehicle using a backhoe.

Authorities are awaiting DNA to confirm that it is Rodricus Williams, but they left little doubt they believe it is by charging Roger Williams and Grace Nichole Trotman with homicide by child abuse.

A neighbour who lives acrosss the street said "if you don't want them, give them to social services. Don't kill them."

Read full article: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gdEUbyl5tt72NmunIbgGQsHJzi1QD9GRHCPO0

His mattress was soaked with urine, the bare floors covered in faeces!

He had no toys or clean clothes. His mattress was soaked with urine, the bare floors covered in faeces. A storm shutter sealed the window shut and blocked all sunlight.

Authorities said they uncovered the conditions while searching for the boy, who had been reported missing after he slipped out of his room and hid from his parents.

The boy's father Thomas Anthony Boone, 38, and stepmother Kimberly Sue Boone, 39, were charged with three counts of aggravated child abuse after an investigation concluded that the Port Charlotte couple "willfully abused, tortured" and "caged" the boy inside his room.

Information from: www.heraldtribune.com/article/20100622/ARTICLE/6221072/0/RSS01

Most of us dismiss child abuse as stories we see on the news on the T.V. set, the Internet, in newspapers, or learn about through other media sources. Child abuse is not that. It is happening next door, down the street, and within our own community. And it’s time the problem is taken seriously.(Copperwiki.org)

Abused, tortured 4-year-old's death is beyond horrific

4-year-old boy , Ethan Stacy, died May 9 following four days of abuse by his stepfather and mother. He had recently arrived in Utah to spend the summer with his mother as part of a child custody agreement.

The abuse started May 5, when 31-year-old Nathan Sloop dealt a brutal beating to the boy's head and face, according to police documents. Ethan's 27-year-old mother Stephanie Sloop did nothing to stop the beating, and might have had a substantial hand in the abuse, prosecutors said Friday. The couple married one day after the beating, locking the injured boy in a bedroom and going to the Davis County Memorial Courthouse.

Ethan got no medical attention and suffered further abuse, including burns to his feet and legs, before his death, police said. After he died, the couple allegedly disfigured his face and buried him near Powder Mountain ski resort. They reported him missing Monday, but their story unraveled about 12 hours later.

Both are now being held in the Davis County jail without bail. If prosecutors file anticipated aggravated murder charges against them later this month, they could both face the death penalty

Read full article: http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_15094513

May the little soul be protected by God forever.

Brutal torture of 14 year old by employers

In Ca Mau, Vietnam, on April 29, Nguyen Hoang Anh, a 14-year-old employee was hospitalized with multiple injuries. Apparently he was tortured by a couple for over a year without being detected. Anh has told police that he was subjected to regular beatings and brutal torture including having hot water poured on him, cleansing chemicals flung on his injuries, and his teeth pulled out with pincers.

Head of the Ngoc Chanh police department, criticized neighbors and locals who knew about the torture being inflicted by Huynh Thanh Giang and his wife, Ma Ngoc Thom, but did not inform the police.

Giang, 33, and two of his employees, 17-year-old Tran Van Khanh and 18-year-old Lam Van Quynh, have been placed under arrest.

The details of torture have shocked and angered the public and raised questions about the governance of authorities under whom the abuse happened undetected for such a long time.

Please read the full article: http://english.vietnamnet.vn/social/201005/Officials-under-scrutiny-in-Ca-Mau-child-abuse-case-908794/