Cambodian Christian Related Articles

Child abusing

By Seila Uon

It was a warm humid day, with white clouds floating across the deep blue sky. After two decades of civil war there are many missionaries come to work in Cambodia. There is a couple talking to one another. “Honey! I need you to help me today we need to go shopping” the wife said to her husband.  “I hate to go out in the weather like this and the traffic here is also very bad” “But we run out of things in our frig and especially the diaper for our son” the wife insists. “Ok, let’s go but you have to take helmets”.

Photo by Seila

 Their motor bike is running along one of the road to the city. All kinds of cars are running so fast. Toyota Landcruiser with number plate mark “OI” weaving among Mercedes Benze and brand new Honda CRV with the military number plates. The second hand motordoups are rushing back and forth. It made a loud noise and smell very bad from the smoke of those second hand pick up truck with a lot of garment factory worker who work over time.

It was a Sunday afternoon; their helper was out of duty. They had to take their son with them. He is too small to wear a helmet they put him between them so that they can protect them from any accident while they travel along the street to downtown. They were weaving through the bad traffic so the husband had to brake many times. Every time he brakes his wife lean toward him and their son has been sandwich between them. Sometimes their son has to struggle for breath and also his eyes trouble with the sweat from the father’s back. Poor a little boy! He is so little to refuse the offer to ride in between his parent.

The intension of the parent is trying to protect their children from any harmful circumstances. They mean not to harm their children. In Matthiew 18:6 clearly states that ‘but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it is better for him that a heavy millstone be hung around his neck, and that he be drowned in the depth of the sea. Jesus strongly mentioned in this verse against anyone who abuse the little ones. We adult sometimes over emphasize of protecting the children.

But in reality we are abusing our children which we do not realize. In school teachers were asked when there are an occasion of greeting any special guest from the other country they usually take children to stand along the road to wave a little flag and shouting some slogan. Children have to wait for several hours in a hot sun. Sometimes children are sitting in a hot sun while the adult what we call the VIPs are sitting in pavilion and utter a very long speech. Children are not allowed to walk out of the line. Even though they are thirty or need to use toilet.

The adults claimed that children need to be protected from all kinds of abuse. But they themselves abuse the children after sitting in a hot sun the children suffer from dehydration and headache, fever for several days miss school because of the indirect abuse. Parent sometimes abuse their own children by neglecting them or by deciding to do what they think to protect them. Parent need to ask their children what do they feel or what do they like? Not just presuming that they are satisfied all that you offer them. Some parents forget that children are the heritage from the Lord. So they need to take care of them in a way that honor to the Lord.