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End the killing of disabled children
THERE must be many readers who share
our disgust at the reported murder of disabled children by their
parents and relatives.
To most Papua New Guineans, the gift of children is a great
blessing.
If a child is born with physical or mental defects, most PNG
mothers and fathers continue to love their offspring as if he or
she was the most precious gift in the world.
That’s an experience common to parents of disabled children in
most countries.
There can be no room for the kind of community scorn that has
apparently driven these parents to kill their own children. It is
another face of the hatred and fear that is the lot of too many
HIV/AIDS victims in villages, and it is not far removed from the
torture and murder of alleged sorcerers.
These are major offences against the law.
Far more importantly, they are offences against the community and
all humanity.
What does it mean to be human?
What are the special qualities that distinguish humanity from the
animals and all creation?
First in a long list must come the capacity to love.
That human quality is on display daily in ordinary homes
throughout our country.
There is the love parents have for each other, the love they have
for their children, and the love that links the members of a
family.
Then there is the special kind of love, one that knows no
boundaries and is evident in hundreds, perhaps thousands of homes
throughout PNG.
This is the love shown by a mother who sits and feeds her crippled
son or daughter, or gently washes the twisted limbs of a
paraplegic.
It is the love given by a father to a son who is not as bright as
his brothers and sisters, a youngster who will never grasp some of
life’s most important details.
Some of our children are born without sight, or hearing or the
power of speech.
That does not make them unfit to share a village with others.
Many youngsters afflicted with deafness or blindness or who are
born mute have excelled in school, often scoring marks well above
those of their supposedly better equipped peers.
There is nothing funny about a child who cannot walk.
Given the affection of all those around such a child, he or she
can achieve many, even most of the goals that a more mobile child
can learn.
Why are these children being slaughtered?
We’re told it’s because the parents find themselves incapable of
looking after these children.
That’s what we’re told, yet we see splendid examples of disabled
children and youths playing an active role in communities
throughout PNG.
The more likely explanation is the least defensible — the fear and
ignorance displayed by the surrounding community.
There has been a recent increase in the vicious murders of alleged
sorcerers, nearly always elderly men and women incapable of
defending themselves against violent attack.
There is no distinction between these savage killings of disabled
children and the deaths of the innocent elderly.
This is a community problem.
Cannibalism and many other customs today deemed unacceptable by
villagers have long since passed into history.
The scorn and stigma heaped upon disabled children or adults in
villages and towns are equally unacceptable and must join
cannibalism as an ancient evil relegated to the history books.
That won’t happen without a great deal of effort from concerned
members of the community.
If churches have a role in today’s village society, then they
should be making sure that the disabled in surrounding communities
are not the subject of attack, of cruel jibes and jokes or of any
other activity calculated to isolate and marginalise them.
Ministering to those most in need has always been a central plank
of the Christian platform, and these disabled children and adults
could not be more in need.
We are aware that certain churches have made giant strides in
trying to assist the disabled to assist themselves, and they
deserve the greatest credit.
But as these reports of murdered children show, the problem is
both deep-rooted and widespread.
Only a major change in attitudes will stamp out this evil for
ever.
 
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