From bullying in the schoolyard to sexual abuse in the home setting - a two day workshop which started today is studying all forms of violence against children. It is ambitiously titled "Ending Violence Against Children" and is spearheaded by a constellation of child advocacy organizations: The Ministry of Human Development, the National Committee for families and Children, Restore Belize, UNICEF and the Special Envoy for Women and Children.
They're all coming together to tackle a problem that is institutional, interpersonal and structural. That's a lot to take on but CEO in the Ministry Judith Alpuche says they have to start somewhere:...
Judith Alpuche, CEO in the Ministry of Human Development and Social Services
"What we intend to do over the next 2 days is to really come together and fleshed out or at least have the bare bones of a road map to combat violence against children."
Ivan Yerovi, UNICEF Country Representative
"The idea of partnering with NCFC and the Ministry of Human Development is that for UNICEF to provide some support and technical assistance and some funding to make this topic discuss in the society; if we manage to put the topic on the public agenda and to have the society discuss about it, we think we can contribute to that."
Judith Alpuche
"What we have here over the next two days in a convening of the major stakeholders to get on the same hymn sheet if you will, to look at the work that has been done and to talk about what else do we need to do. An exciting piece of this conference is the children participation; there has been a lot of work on children participation before because we need to be in touch with our constituents if you will. We cannot really address this issue if we are not listening to the people who are experiencing these things and so you will see quite a lot of children here."
Jules Vasquez
"Much of the violence against children is structural economic systemic social violence. How do we combat that these things which are so endemic and engrained in the social construct?"
Judith Alpuche
"The data that we are considering really looks at that; violence in its broadest sense and is as huge and insurmountable as the problem may seem, we have to tackle it one child at a time, one block at a time - we just cannot just sit by the side and decide that this problem is just so pervasive just so endemic that we are not going to deal with. We know that in this room is not the Vicks for violence. It's not that we will have the panacea for it, but we do believe that bringing together the advocates that are working at grass roots level with families, with communities, in the schools, in the judiciary, on the front line that we really need to talk and get back on that hymn sheet together."
Ivan Yerovi, UNICEF Country Representative
"If we don't tackle this situation on a broader concept and a broader scope, we might be doing very small things for the following 15 years. We must start now."
The two day event finishes tomorrow.
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