THE PHONEBOOK

Debby has been having sex with Mr Offia her home lesson Teacher,since she was 10 and became pregnant for him at 14.Neglected by her busy father and isolated by a mother who cares more about money making than raising kids, she sought solace in the arms of Mr Offia who consistently took advantage of her In her attempt to terminate the pregnancy using a local concoction, she fainted and was rushed to a hospital.
At the hospital, she was diagnosed with acute liver failure due to the injection of poisonous
substances; the doctor also informed her parents that she was carrying a child.

This unexpected turn of events triggered a series of “tsunamis” that altered the life of the family forever. As the doctors were battling to save her life, her situation got worse as she started bleeding from different orifice and lapsed into coma.

This prompted Debby’s father to seek the intervention of law enforcement agents, who lunched a full scale investigation into the incident.

As they searched through her room, in a bid to find clues as to why the 14 year old will want to take her own life, they stumbled on an SMS sent to her mobile phone directing her on how to use a concoction to terminate the pregnancy.
However, the identity of the sender remained a mystery as the phone number saved as “My Chocolate” could not be traced to anyone.

While the police were trying to unravel the chocolate mystery, Debby’s situation was getting worse, the occasional movement of fingers has not happened in three days and the family was becoming increasingly worried, while staff of the intensive care unit of the hospital continued to assure the family that they were doing all they could to ensure that their daughter pulls through.
After several days under the close watch of doctors and nurses,Debby eventually died, leaving her parents in a state of devastation.

As her corpse was been conveyed to the mortuary, the police Invited her father for a chat, they have been analysing Debby’s phone records and have discovered a pattern of calls made by
a certain number registered to Mr Offia but saved as Mary on Debby’s phonebook.

Mr Offia was eventually invited but he feigned ignorance of the abnormal phone book entry, stressing that his relationship with the deceased was purely academic, which manifested in her improved results at school, a claim he said could be substantiated by the deceased parents.

With no substantial evidence linking him to the death of the Teenager, he was let off the hook and allowed to go home. But the Police detectives believed he knew more than he was willing to admit, so they secured a search warrant and stormed his residence and to the relief of the team the search produced the “chocolate” sim card the police had been looking for as well as some of Debby’s personal belongings.
Mr. Offia was later charged to court and is presently serving his sentence at a prison in Koton karfe, kogi state, Nigeria.

As I’m beginning to find out, parenting is no child’s play, it could sometimes determine whether couples continue to live together or go their separate ways. No matter your temperament, your teenage child will drive you to the limit.

In my years as a teenage teacher and instructor, I have seen parents leave their homes so as to escape the torment and pain of trying to correct a teenage child.

The surging hormone makes it difficult for teenagers to view issues logically, making them increasing emotional. This is an aspect of teen development that is difficult to understand. Nevertheless, studies have shown that the frontal cortex of the Human brain does not develop until a person is within their twenties; the brain of a teenager is therefore a work in progress.

Building trust and openness is important if any relationship is to succeed. This also applies to the relationship between children and their parents, as children approach their teenage years, these surges in hormones and pressures from peers combine to make the teenage years the most challenging period for most parents.

Nevertheless, as I have discovered over the years, most parents tend to isolate a troubled teenager which further complicates an already difficult situation. Friendship, engagement and innovatively deploying activities that help teenagers channel their energy and redirect their anger are some of the pathways that have helped several parents find the rhythm in their quest to achieve a balanced relationship with their children.

A complex world of intrigues and power play among couples has combined to deny young people the love and attention they truly deserve, more and more teenagers are leaving home to peer up with bad influence which eventually lands them in jail for the lucky ones and six feet under for the not so lucky.

The Media and the internet have taken up the responsibility of molding the young ones amongst us, leaving us to pursue the careers we treasure. But in the end we will all pay the price for the moral mistake we all combine to initiate and live with the repercussions of raising a generation without values.
Directly or indirectly, we owe these kids the responsibility of letting them know that they are loved, and that despite the barrage of challenges they face in a world that is constantly changing, we will never turn our backs on them.


Quote.
We may not be able to prepare the future of our children, but we can at least
prepare our children for the future
—Franklin D. Roosevelt

http://www.publichealth.com.ng/health-department-directory/ 
 CPS Test

JUSTICE DENIED

Baby Hadiza had been in and out of the local clinic for the past six months. Born two years ago to a revered Islamic cleric in the village of Kida , Hadiza’s health continued to deteriorate despite spending over 15 weeks on hospital admission and taking all the prescribed medications her health was still far from normal. Several days later, the family was referred to the city’s General Hospital; it was at this  facility that baby Hadiza was diagnosed with AIDS, but how? Protested the Cleric, looking visibly angry and emotionally distraught but that was it, his little girl was HIV positive.

Subsequently, both parents were sent for HIV test but the results came out Negative.

However, going through the patient’s medical records, the medical team soon realized that the baby was diagnosed with Anemia 12 months earlier and was transfused with 200mls of blood. Could this be the missing link? Sharp practices and deliberate noncompliance with standard procedures among health personnel especially in rural communities have led to several loss of lives.

In developing countries, corrupt politicians and contractors also tend to compound these problems with the supply of substandard equipment’s, fake reagents and outright embezzlement of funds appropriated for the development of health facilities in rural communities. To them and their co-conspirators, the pandemic is a money spinning machine that must be milked at all cost.

Endemic corruption has ensured that funds appropriated for HIV programmes end up in private bank accounts, leaving patients without medications and the public without kits to determine HIV status.

The presentation of claims for awareness programmes and events that never took place is perhaps the most worrying aspect of this kind of fraud, as it completely denies the public the critical information they would sometimes require in order to make lifestyle changes.

These activities coupled with the insensitivity and outright noncompliance with standard procedures by some health workers has ensured that progress in the fight is consistently stagnated.

Today, the integrity of blood from blood banks in these areas remains a source of worry to many, while the locals have entrusted their lives to the hands of these few health professionals; some have betrayed that trust.

Quote

“Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody’s going to

know whether you did it or not.”

—Oprah Winfrey

NEGOTIATING SILENCE

                                                         NEGOTIATING SILENCE

Mrs. Umeh came to our small clinic in tears, her baby was dying, his body temperature was up and his arms and legs were twitching. She needed help and she wanted it fast.

As her cry for attention grew louder, I noticed a dark man about six and half feet tall trailing her everywhere she went.

Her child was looking malnourished and almost paper white. After consultation with the doctor, they were sent to the laboratory for urgent blood grouping as the child needed fresh blood transfusion.

At the laboratory, the mystery man turned out to be the child’s father, he had come to donate the blood his child needed. As we carried out the required tests on his blood sample, it turned that Mr. Umeh, a police officer was HIV positive.

“Oga” he exclaimed please, please don’t tell my wife, so we obtained the blood from another source after he made incoherent excuses to his wife on why he could not donate, and the child was transfused.

Few days later, after declining another post-test counseling session, Mr. Umeh, appeared at my residence with a sack of beans and a white envelope in his hands. In his words “I have come to thank you for all the help and assistance you offered me and my wife when our child was on admission at your Hospital” As I watched him deceptively spew those words, he reminded me of his earlier demand that his test results be kept secret. I thankfully rejected his gifts and advised him to seek counsel and treatment fast.

As he left my house I realized how far people are willing to go in order to conceal an ailment.

Few months later, his wife was back at our clinic, this time to register at the antenatal clinic, I was interested in her HIV results and waited anxiously for it.

To the amazement of all including myself, the result was negative! I immediately asked for a repeat test and the result was the same, she was asked to return for another repeat test in 4 months’ time.

As I left the clinic that day, I pondered over many possibilities. As the disease control officer of the community, I was bent on ensuring that I had all the information before reaching a conclusion.

When she returned four months later, she was already seven months pregnant but was still looking strong and healthy. After her samples collected and analyzed, the results still came back negative.

As she walked away with her results, the team brainstormed over the possibilities, as I was slid into depression. I knew Mr. Umeh had not been faithful to his wife, I knew he was HIV positive, I knew he

did not want her to know, I knew I wanted to prevent her and her unborn child from getting infected, yet I was helpless because the tests were done in strict confidentiality.

Quote

“You can’t make decisions based on fear and the possibility of what might happen.”—Michelle Obama