A three-day workshop got underway on Wednesday in Dominica to train 40 facilitators as they tackle the issue of violence and abuse against children in Dominica.
The workshop is a collaborative effort of the Ministry of Education, ChildFund Caribbean, International Centre for Assault Prevention (ICAP) and UNICEF.
According to ChildFund National Director, Durval Martinez who was addressing the opening ceremony held at the Public Service Union building, ChildFund has been conducting research and the findings showed that 32 percent of children globally have said that their rights are being violated.
“That it itself was very alarming. According to the same survey that was conducted, over 6000 children did consider that the all forms of abuse, whether at the schools, in the house settings or in the streets, is one of the most prevalent problems they faced,” Martinez said.
Meanwhile Executive Director of Lifeline Ministries, Tina Alexander, who was speaking on behalf of UNICEF, said the right to be protected from all forms of physical or mental violence, abuse, injury and maltreatment is one of the fundamental rights contained in the Convention of the Rights of a Child.
“Unfortunately in the Caribbean the protection of children from all forms of violence continues to be an area for enhance and sustained action,” Alexander noted. “All too often children are victims of sexual violence. Bullying is a growing problem.”
She stated further that principals and teachers must be supported so that they can develop the skills needed to help to protect and support the holistic development of students in their care.
“Greater efforts are required to ensure that schools are places of safety and support for all children,” she said.
Chief Education Officer, Melena Fontaine said the Ministry of Education will continue to put measures in place, “so within all of our education institutions the practices and principles of child friendly or effective schools are implemented.”
According to her, there have been positive changes in the schools that have embraced such initiatives.
“However, we are also aware that we have a lot of work to do and this is particularly highlighted when incidences of violence against children come to the fore,” she noted. “The ministry is very appreciative of the effort of ChildFund Caribbean in bringing this project to Dominica and is honored to be partnering with them.”
“We expect to see more children and adults displaying their knowledge of self protection and prevention strategies as well as an increase in self confidence among children to enable them to self protect and report all forms of bullying, abuse and assault by children as well as adults,” Fontaine said.
Go to https://www.childfund.org/ for more information on Childfund.
Statistically worldwide, one in four girls and one in six boys will be victims of sexual abuse before they are 18 years old. This is a worldwide problem and requires caring adults who are willing to stop this from happening through prevention education for adults and children. For more information please visit http://www.internationalcap.org
Jeannette:
Thank you for this information. I hope people will take notice of it.
Sincerely, Rev. Donald |Hill. Tnternational Evangelist.
It would be appropriate to provide workshops across the country for clergy, school teachers, and others who work with children such as guidance counselors, doctors, nurses, foster child case workers,
police, and even judges.
At these workshops:
Current laws should be reviewed and suggestions could be made for improvements in the laws and submitted to the appropriate government people.
Those attending should be taught how to identify the signs of abuse and what to be watching for.
The skills of questioning a child in a way that draws out the needed information without creating further fear and makes follow up as easy as possible.
The importance of proper interaction with other team members needs to be stressed.
Obviously, some of these matters should be addressed by people with special training.
Good people with expertise should be happy volunteer their time to contribute to such a worthy cause.
Sincerely, Rev. Donald Hill. International Evangelist.
Child abuse is a problem in many nations not only Dominica. We hear of it in Canada (although I have not see any stats). I am writing to DNO readers world wide and am not making a limited reference to Dominica.
Being a counselor as well as a father and grandfather I am (like most of you) saddened to hear of child abuse anywhere. I am also heartened to learn of highly reputable organizations uniting to battle this evil. It must be addressed on many fronts and a team effort is needed to do this.
The laws need to be reviewed to assure that the police and the courts have the necessary tools to work with.
It should be legally required for anyone knowing of abuse to report it to the police.
All junior students should know that there is at least one person in school they can talk to if they are being sexually or otherwise abused. This should be somebody carefully selected and briefed for such responsibility.
Sincerely, Rev. Donald Hill. International Evangelist.
Oh puh-leeze! Stop preaching to the choir, and instead hold a workshop for the ministers, judges, and police officers who somehow become lame when its time to protect our children and prosecute the perps.
Maybe you should consider that these supposed advocates for children rights are the greatest offenders and in the process fail at their responsibility to protect the very children in their care. Additionally all this talk about children rights the issue of rights is compounded by the failure of the system to ensure that children exercise their responsibilities. The school system needs to re-visit the issue of teaching life-skills, courtesy, communication skills and civics at the school too often the abuse of children is directly linked to a failure on their part to understand and exercise simple features communication which would alleviate this high occurrence of abuse. Too many Dominicans raising ill-mannered children that are discourteous, rude, disrespectful and themselves abusive hence giving rise to the occurrence of these issues. Parents need to nurture their children properly and should desist from the bad practices such as making threats to others etc
Thank you. I want to know if a minor is pregnant, why does the parent ‘have’ to agree to testify. Once the person is a minor, then the authorities do not ‘need’ the parents consent to press charges. The proof is in the pudding, the child is pregnant. smh