Chances are you have already seen this video of a Trinidadian mother beating her 12 year old daughter for posing semi-nude on Facebook.
Many of us shared the video with our friends or commented in support or against the mother’s action but now that this is no longer the headline of the day, what’s next for this single Trinidadian mother and her 12 year old daughter? Do we really care? Or have we moved onto the next headline of the day?
While I do not condone abuse in any form, I like many people from the Caribbean, will admit at least in private, that we understand what could have driven her to such action.
I want you to watch this video and see for yourself that limited choices for single mothers in Trinidad and Tobago can result in a terrible future for their kids.
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Most single-mother families have limited financial resources available to cover education, child care, and health care costs. Many have no access to after school programs. The child’s mother feared her daughter getting pregnant. She said,
“I do not believe in that. They are not ready to raise a child. Look someone was telling me of a 15-year-old girl who is pregnant and her mother is not standing with her. Her mother told the authorities she is no longer capable of raising that child and today that 15-year-old is raising a child in an institution”
The Trinidadian Education Minister recently provided data that reveal the following;
- over 2,500 teenage girls become pregnant per year with the majority dropping out of school
- by age 19, over 1,000 girls will have had four children;
- and 50 per cent of mothers in Trinidad and Tobago are single parents.
As for defending her action, the child’s mother, said
“I know that the government is trying its hardest best to show no nonsense and no tolerance, but as I said off air, I really do expect it and I will embrace it, I will wear that bracelet as a badge of honour for my kids,”
“I will go to jail and sit down proudly, knowing that my 12-year-old daughter, even the 10-year-old coming up, did not bring shame and bring a child for me at 15 or 12 or 16.”
I hope next time when a similar video surface that we pause and think about the people that it affects not just the headline and the catchy phrase.
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