Abuses of the Girl Child in Some African Societies: Implications for Nurse Practitioners

Abstract

The definition of a child in African societies varies. From the moment the girl child can talk and walk, she is allocated responsibilities within the family. Westernized cultures view such responsibilities as forms of abuse. Thus, various reports had been written about girl children and had been critical of African societies without acknowledging that Africa is a very large continent. This paper sets out to identify, explore, and present potential areas of abuse of the girl child, for example, female circumcision, child slaves, rape survivors, child soldiers, child prostitution, teenage pregnancy, and arranged marriages. This paper suggests strategies that healthcare professionals could initiate in situations where a girl child is being abused.

Causes, Spectrum and Effects of Surgical Child Abuse and Neglect in a Nigerian City

“…Therefore, for every male child that suffered surgical child abuse or neglect, approximately two female children did and this was similar to other forms of child abuse earlier reported 8 . Children with congenital malformation, especially those obvious to non medical personnel at birth, were mainly maltreated because of the archaic traditional belief that children born with malformation were taboos and were usually thrown to the 'evil forest' before the advent of western civilization.…”

The essence, opportunities and threats to Advanced Practice Nursing in Sub-Saharan Africa: A scoping review

“…Clinical placement has the greatest impact on students.47.(Gilmore and Mcauliffe, 2013), Middle-Income Countries “Effectiveness of community health workers delivering preventive interventions for maternal and child health in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review” To analyse the effectiveness of the community health workers maternal and child health care in resource poor countriesLiterature review.17studies, out of the 10281 studies identifies, were includedModerate level of quality studies were included from 10 countries. The main areas of preventive services rendered by the community health nurses were: prevention of malaria, health education, promotion of breastfeeding, new-born care and counselling.The community health workforce was effective in mother- related strategies of prevention of under-five mortality such as exclusive breastfeeding and skin to skin kangaroo care.48.(Hendricks et al, 2016) Sub-Saharan Africa “Factors present on admission associated with increased mortality in children admitted to a paediatric intensive care unit (PICU)” Determining the sociodemographic factors and paediatric assessment tool to use in maximizing benefits to children on admissionRetrospective reviewMalnutrition resulted in about 16.6% child mortality rate.“Paediatric Risk of mortality, paediatric Logistic Organ Dysfunction and Paediatric Index of Mortality 3 all under predicted the mortality rate in children”.49.(Khalil, 2006), SSA “Abuses of the girl child in some African societies: implications for nurse practitioners” To define, explore and describe girl child abuse in sub-Saharan AfricaDiscussion paperAfrica is huge with diverse sociocultural activities. Girl children are counted secondary children in many patriarchal societies in Africa.…”

Stifled Voices: Barriers to Help-Seeking Behavior for South African Childhood Sexual Assault Survivors

“…The myth that men can be cured of HIV and AIDS by engaging in intercourse with a virgin helps to maintain the incidence of infant rape (Pitcher & Bowley, 2002). Although the majority of sexual assault perpetrators against young girls and infants are strangers, there have been instances reported where close relatives who are HIV positive raped infants in an effort to be cured (Khalil, 2006). Additionally, in extremely unfortunate instances, it has been said that for a fee, parents have been known to leave their infant and toddler daughters unattended in the home or in open areas where they are easily accessible for a rape to occur (Finkelhor, 1994).…”

“…Traveling alone for long distances during varied hours, including leaving at dawn and returning after sundown, can increase a girl's chance of being a victim of sexual assault (Jewkes & Abrahams, 2002;Khalil, 2006).…”