We need to break silence on child abuse – UNICEF

A child being hit by an adult is often seen as that adult disciplining the child, but that is not always so, as persons sometimes take their frustration out on children.

“If I was to hit an adult, I would be arrested, but if my child was here and I hit my child, that’s alright, that’s my prerogative as a parent…{{more}}but that is not so,” says UNICEF’s representative for the Eastern Caribbean area and Barbados Khin-Sandi Lwin.

Lwin expressed this opinion on Monday, April 18th at the Methodist Church Hall in Kingstown, while addressing persons at the National Child/Youth Policy Conference, which attracted a wide cross-section of Vincentian students, teachers and persons involved with youths.

Lwin said that with dealing with children, we must acknowledge that every child needs to be loved, cared for and protected and if this is not the case, “others have to step in” and we must realize that children are not our property, but that they have rights just like us.

Lwin noted that the way we deal with children usually has implications on how children function when they become adults, so when we find a child with an issue, we must deal with it early, because this can determine whether or not a child grows into a useful and productive adult.

She said that it is important that persons break the silence on child abuse and recognize what is child abuse.

“We think children are the property of adults and we can treat them any way we wish in the name of discipline, but it is sometimes an adult taking out frustration on a smaller human being that cannot hit back,” said Lwin, who stressed that there has been a struggle with caregivers in every country to recognize that child abuse is amongst us and hidden in many ways and “it is not even recognized as a problem in some instances.”

“One of the things that we have been struggling with is that we have to change our mind-set and know that children have human rights,” stressed Lwin, noting that the worst form of child abuse is child sexual abuse and it is taboo to talk about it, “but we have to talk about breaking that silence.”

Lwin noted that 23 years ago, St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG), signed the Convention on the Rights of a Child and this meant that the country made a commitment that all children in SVG will have their rights fulfilled.

“The rights of children in St Vincent and the Grenadines has been assured and we need to congratulate the Govern-ment,” said Lwin, adding that the convention made sure that children were recognized as human beings, because in the past, a lot of the times, children were seen as the property of adults to be handled in any way the adult saw fit.

She said that the convention meant that children had be sent to school, have health care, as when the rights of children were pronounced, it was recognized that human rights are for all human beings, including children.

She noted that in SVG, there is a good level of fulfilling the human rights of children, as here, children go to school healthy and well-nourished.

The conference was the brainchild of the Ministry of National Mobilization, Social Development, the Family, Gender and Youth Affairs.

Also addressing the conference were director for Social Development at the Ministry of National Mobilization Merissa Finch-Burke and Minister of National Mobilization, Social Development, the Family, Gender and Youth Affairs Frederick Stephenson.

Finch-Burke said that the conference aimed to give persons the opportunity to talk about child abuse and child violence, while seeking the opportunity to hear from persons “to build bridges towards protecting children.”

Similar conferences were simultaneously held in the rural areas, while the initiative targetted approximately 450 students.

Minister Stephenson, addressing the gathering, said that the hallmark of any good and developing nation is how children, adults and the elderly are taken care of.

He stressed that the conference was geared towards getting the input of children, as there is the need to break the silence and help stop the violence against children.

The Minister said that his Ministry, during Child Abuse Awareness and Prevention month (April), is seeking to continue the process of caring for the nation’s children, while the month of activities is being held under the theme, “Positive behaviour, model it so they can live it,” with the slogan, “Commend, praise, affirm, positive behaviour children must learn, stop emotional abuse.”

“…that is what we hope to achieve and it is our intention to have the theme and slogan always in the mind of children, not only in April, but the entire year”, said Stephenson, who noted that the Ministry tends to speak about child abuse and emotional abuse a lot during April.

“We live in a world where the negative is always highlighted and sometimes parents and teachers make negative statements towards children. Since in most cases children imitate what they see and hear, it is easy for them to take these principles into schools and even in the pre-schools. Unless we work on changing the psyche of our nation’s children, we run the risk of creating a generation of children that lack empathy, sympathy and sensitivity,” noted Stephenson.

He revealed that the Ministry will now execute its services relative to children’s care and protection through a child development vision, which will address issues through programmes and institutions like the Liberty Lodge Crisis and Rehabilitation Centre, the Child Abuse Rehabilitation and Counselling Vision, the Diversion Unit, the Truant Student Rehabilitation and the Children against Poverty (CAP) programme.

Minister Stephenson said that here, the Government has made significant strides towards strengthening children’s protection, as they have established, a division strictly for the protection and rehabilitation of children (the Child Develop-ment Division), which will handle all matters in relation to children with issues in the country.

During the conference, discussions were held on the rights of the child, parenting roles and responsibilities and the prevention and reduction of abuse and violence of children and youth as victims and perpetrators.