UNICEF is enhancing its awareness campaign on violence against children. You've surely seen the "Time Out" television advertisements during our commercials breaks, which show parents the alternatives to physical discipline. Well, UNICEF representative Ivan Yerovi says they will now extend their campaign to the community and they plan to do that through an EU grant. Today at a ceremony held at UNICEF's office, Yerovi and his team told us how this grant will further enhance their work and help them reach out to more families.
Ivan Yevori, Country Representative, UNICEF
"Children in the country suffer from violence and sexual abuse etc. The idea here is to work with partners that - community to raise awareness of those issues that are affecting children. We just want to make sure children in the country have a voice and be able to present their cases of situations that are affecting them to the authorities. Working at the community level also is helping is to raise awareness, but at the same time we are working with national authorities, with the Supreme Court for instance. You need be aware of the figures, the statistics and you know that almost one girl is being raped or sexual abused in the country per day. It's not an easy task. It's not an issue we have to be proud of. To the contrary, that's something we all have to be aware of. The main goal at the end of the day is to reduce the level of violence, but also to increase the action of the national authorities. If we have a person that have committed a crime, we would like to see the legal system active on that and therefore we would like to reduce the level of impunity."
Luwani Cayetano, Child Protection Officer - UNICEF
"When we talk about psychosocial support being provided that's what we mean is making sure that the partners are increase in children's awareness. Once you've increased awareness, something happens and you want more information and you want to be with people in your age group to happen and you want more information and you want to be with people in your age group to share that information. So then the partners provide them with spaces where they can work together and come together as children to find their voice, to be empowered. But then following that process is a social worker. So the children are doing it on their own, organically, but then a social worker is there to help to guide that process. Then we also know that children don't grow up in isolation; they don't exist by themselves. And so the parents are working together with the same social worker that is working with the children. So our partners are providing what we call that wrap-around to the child and to their family."
Reaching out to the community is just one aspect of their approach. As you heard in the interview, UNICEF is also partnering with the Supreme Court to restructure the law concerning penalties for perpetrators and protection of victims. Yerovi explained how this balance between the community and the justice system can help in detecting and prosecuting these cases.
The grant is over $100,000 US dollars.
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