Child Rape Victim Urges Govt to Allocate Resources to Fight Child Molestation
The founder of the Kalinago Ripple Effect Initiative and a sexual assault survivor, Whitney Melinard, has urged Dominicans to quash the culture of silence that surrounds any child molestation cases. In driving home her advocacy message, Melinard and partner Aminah Cuffy urged the Skerrit-led administration to devote more state resources to combatting child sexual assault in Dominica.
In celebrating the Child Assault Awareness Month, Melinard released a video where she relieved her personal sex abuse experience as a child and urged families, communities, and the government to rise up for the needs of rape victims in a more practical way. She said she suffered for many years in silence after suffering child molestation, and lacked the willpower to relate her ordeal to anyone or even mention the names of her molesters.
“In this day, when I can barely spend a week without hearing of a case of child abuse in the Kalinago Territory and in Dominica by extension, I stand aghast by the unjust men and women who are the fabric of the society, yet fail to put the interest of children and youth as the priority in the family,” Melinard lamented.
According to her, she stills feels that she could have been at fault for what happened to her as a child. But when she summoned enough courage to tell her parents what happened to her, Melinard revealed that “no one outside of my mom offered guidance or a helping hand to lead me to a place to where I could get justice. My own family circle opted to defend the perpetrators, who by then, were out of state.”
She disclosed that her school grades suffered as a result of her hurting pains and no one really cared. However, one education officer urged her mum to take her for mental health assistance. But having decided to speak out through her Kalinago Ripple Effect Initiative, Melinard said she will be prioritizing child rights and a support system for victims of child molestation or rape.
“I also hope to see children and youth become a priority in Dominica. We may not be able to control all of the challenges faced by children and youth, but we can work together to heal each other, and we can also try to find the strength to ask for the help we need. My story is just one of many,” she said.
To restore hope and deal with child sex molestation incidences in Dominica, Melinard is advocating for some changes from the government:
- Successful prosecution of child abuse cases
- Comprehensive counselling for child abuse victims
- Adequate reporting of child sexual abuse to families and communities
- Establishment of a family court to try child sex molestation cases
- Establishment of a sexual offenders register
- Stronger collaboration among social services, law enforcement, and legal systems
- Provision of $1 million to the Social Services Division
“In addition to the one million dollars budgetary allocations; I am also kindly requesting for an additional 10 social workers attached to the understaffed division of social services and Ministry of Kalinago Territory Upliftment and Kalinago Council,” she stated. “The resources will be utilized to implement programs geared at addressing the culture of silence. I see it; child abuse is now one big disaster that keeps re-occurring. Yet, we all fail to move our children and youth from the red zone into the safe zone.”
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