I've been quiet lately.
Overwhelmed by the weight of suffering which media is able to leak out to Australians with consciences.
The clock is ticking on us as a nation.
The generations to come will be ashamed of us.
They'll wonder why we did so little and why some found excuses to perpetuate the horror.
Did we choose this?
'We can stop this horror — we, the ordinary people from all across the nation, who say enough with your hubris, selfishness and rancour — get these children off of Nauru now or face our wrath at the only place many politicians seem to care about: the ballot box.'
Susanne Legena chief executive officer of international child rights agency Plan International Australia.
"Most of us would never justify the torture of a child because they are not 'one of us'." — Susanne Legena. (Supplied)
Dr Vernon Reynolds spent two years as a child psychologist on Nauru.
He told the ABC children on Nauru are giving up on life: some have stopped eating, drinking and talking. He holds grave concerns that soon, children will die.
Already, the children are self-harming. One child poured petrol over herself, another child ate metal wire, and another took a deliberate overdose. These children were aged just 10 and 11 years old.
The unsettling fact is that at a young age, these children have come to realise the only way they can escape this hell is to make themselves so ill that they are removed. This is an unfathomably desperate situation.
Just last week, a 12-year-old child was evacuated to Australia after refusing to eat for 20 days. An evacuation order that the Australian Border Force reportedly tried to block. ABC NEWS
The next Federal election will reveal who we truly are.
Will we be revealed as a nation who condones and perpetuates child abuse?
Or will enough of us stand together to tell all governments IT'S GOT TO STOP!
Overwhelmed by the weight of suffering which media is able to leak out to Australians with consciences.
The clock is ticking on us as a nation.
The generations to come will be ashamed of us.
They'll wonder why we did so little and why some found excuses to perpetuate the horror.
Did we choose this?
'We can stop this horror — we, the ordinary people from all across the nation, who say enough with your hubris, selfishness and rancour — get these children off of Nauru now or face our wrath at the only place many politicians seem to care about: the ballot box.'
Susanne Legena chief executive officer of international child rights agency Plan International Australia.
"Most of us would never justify the torture of a child because they are not 'one of us'." — Susanne Legena. (Supplied)
Dr Vernon Reynolds spent two years as a child psychologist on Nauru.
He told the ABC children on Nauru are giving up on life: some have stopped eating, drinking and talking. He holds grave concerns that soon, children will die.
Already, the children are self-harming. One child poured petrol over herself, another child ate metal wire, and another took a deliberate overdose. These children were aged just 10 and 11 years old.
The unsettling fact is that at a young age, these children have come to realise the only way they can escape this hell is to make themselves so ill that they are removed. This is an unfathomably desperate situation.
Just last week, a 12-year-old child was evacuated to Australia after refusing to eat for 20 days. An evacuation order that the Australian Border Force reportedly tried to block. ABC NEWS
The next Federal election will reveal who we truly are.
Will we be revealed as a nation who condones and perpetuates child abuse?
Or will enough of us stand together to tell all governments IT'S GOT TO STOP!