Parents with young children must be very careful when they take in adolescents in their homes. It is important to teach the young children about ‘bad and good touches’ and the urgent need to report them. Even when the adolescents are relatives, one must not assume that unmentioned incest taboos will keep the hot-blooded youths from fondling the younger children or even going all the away! This incident happened for real, it is true!……..The daughter of a friend of mine was repeatedly raped at home by her soft-spoken teenaged cousin who came to live with the family during the holidays. The daughter was silent for a while because of the shame of being used, as well as fear of reporting the violence to her ‘christian’ parents! The hardworking soft-spoken cousin continued  raping this girl whenever the parents left for work and her siblings were occupied with play or homework! And then the nightmares started. The story came out through a cancelling session conducted by family’s Pastor. Pregnancy tests were negative so do the STD tests! However, the damage to this girl and family relationships is severe! The cousin was returned back to his village home and his tuition fees were cut-off.  My friend started hating her husband because he failed to report his nephew to the police and failed to rebuke or punish the nephew! The daughter still gets horrible nightmares. Taking in poorer relative is cool and compassionate but it must not become a punishment or curse to one’s child!! Discuss the difference between “bad and good touches” with all the children living under your roof, even then ones living at your home temporarily/ holidays time, or when they go for sleepovers at their friends’ houses. Teach them who can kiss them and where. Not all kisses are good kisses; indeed not every person can kiss them. Prevention is better than cure, let’s protect our young ones!

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