Every day needs to be child protection day

Sep 28, 2021 Letters

Dear Editor,

In September, we celebrate Amerindian Heritage Month, Education Month and Child Protection Month. All of these celebrations focus largely on children and adults’ roles in safeguarding and supporting the development and protection of children. Whilst as a society, we have made some progress in highlighting the harm that children face and critically acknowledging the increasing number of reported abuse cases against children, we nonetheless recognise that every day needs to be child protection day, and every opportunity can be a learning experience for children to ensure that more adults are taking responsibility for providing adequate care and support to children.
This year as we observe and host various activities to highlight education and protection, we recognised how critical it is to have good safeguards in place which becomes particularly helpful in dire situations. Heightened by the COVID-19 pandemic, we can only imagine the difficulties faced by parents who are separated from their children due to work and other reasons; ranging from finding trustworthy caregivers to ensuring that the children are keeping up with the new responsibilities placed on their shoulders, especially in the area of education.
Over the years, services aimed at safeguarding children have been promoted and encouraged through partnerships. However, fundamental services, which are specific to the needs of children and parents, have been highlighted by the voices of parents and children alike through various forum. Many concerns are being raised especially where children and parents may not have been included in the considerations when facilitating these decisions. Parents have been, over the past few months, lamenting on access to key services for children, particularly in the areas of education and social services that have been impacted in many ways as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The implications for parents and children range from parents’ inability to take care of their children, as it relates to adequate supervision, guidance and employment. As a result, children are vulnerable to varying forms of abuse including sexual abuse.
There is a need for a sense of returning to normalcy for the families. This can be achieved through decisions that are not too disruptive to children and their families’ everyday lives. Critically, the decisions on when and how often children should be in school, particularly young children, must consider supporting working parents, who are looking for safe places to leave their children. Hence, there is a need for the inclusion of parents’ concerns in these decisions, as these policies will affect their everyday lives and safeguard children.
“Together let’s keep them safe!”- Child Protection Week, 2021

Best regards,
ChildLinK Inc.
NGO National Coordinating Coalition Inc
SASOD Guyana
Patentia Achievers
SOCDA

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