Speak up when you witness acts of violence against children.
The appeal came from acting manager of the Licensing and Monitoring Unit of the Children’s Authority of T&T Chandrakala Sooknanan.
She made the comment while delivering the feature address when Touching a Life Foundation held its fund-raising dinner at the NCIC Nagar, Chaguanas, on Saturday night.
She said since the Children’s Authority of T&T became operational on May 18, 2015, there had been 35,000 cases of abuse.
She said, “The most reported types of abuse are sexual abuse, physical abuse, neglect and emotional abuse and the perpetrators are known to the children, maybe family members or persons known to the child’s family. On average, every year we have received 4000-5000 reports of cases of abuse in T&T. The children who come to our attention are from 0-17.”
Sooknanan said the authority’s role is to keep families together.
“Quite often people may form the view that the authority looks to remove children from families. Sometimes that leads to a reluctance to report the abuse, but I assure you, the authority’s ethos is our philosophy that children thrive best with their families if they are in a secure and loving family environment, and so we always seek to keep children within their families where possible, where it is appropriate and where it is in the child’s best interest. If removal is necessary, if a child is in imminent danger and needs to be rescued, our first option is always a suitable family member, a relative who can provide that safe space for that child. It allows the child to maintain ties with their relatives and their culture.”
She said other options include kinship care, foster parents and fit persons.
She said the authority was everybody’s business.
“The task of treating with child abuse and child protection is a mammoth one it cannot be one agency. It cannot be one programme, one NGO—it has to be us together as a community effort. Over the past two years, with everything that we have been experiencing globally and here with the COVID response, we are seeing as well, a complexity in the needs of the children. So the task of the CA is huge, it is mammoth and together we can do better,” she added.
She said child protection was everybody’s business.
“The authority remains available to anyone who is willing to work with us, we continue to collaborate and I encourage you to work with us to keep families together. Let us not be silent when we see acts of violence against children. We have a role, a legal responsibility as parents and guardians, as teachers, as leaders amongst all others, to report instances of abuse when we become aware. We must keep that village alive, it takes a village to raise a child, to protect a child, we have to be the village that addresses the needs of the most vulnerable.”
Indra Roopnarine, the chairperson of Touching a Life Foundation, said everyone couldmake a significant difference in the lives of children.
Roopnarine said her organisation hd been able to save the life of a 12-year-old child who was contemplating suicide.
“That child was so pressured, had no where to turn, felt like he was going to lose everything and he said, ‘You know what? It is time for me to leave.’”
“This is a 12-year-old child and he wants to leave because he is unable to cope with his situation.”
Roopnarine said many people are finding it difficult to cope with stress.
“How many people know statistically, children are dying, taking poison, and young people are destroying themselves. I know several instances in villages where people are actually trying to hang themselves because they don’t have a job and when they hang themselves their children will be left on the street.”
Roopnarine said her organisation planned to work with frustrated parents through its outreach programme.
