Young activists speak out against violence, abuse children
Enough is enough! This is the message that Kids Link will be advocating as they rally and speak out against violence and abuse on children this Saturday.
Kids Link is an organisation linked with the Save the Children Fiji made up of young activists in their teens.
The whole day event will be held at St Joseph the Worker in Wainibuku, Nakasi, starting from 9am.
16-year-old Timoci Mocebalavu said it was high time that not only children knew about their rights but parents acknowledged it.
Hearing of the recent increase in the number of children abuse cases before the courts, Timoci said, he also witnessed children in his neighbourhood being abused and neglected by their parents.
“Many parents know the law on violence against children. They also are aware of children’s rights, but they choose to ignore the practice. This is rather unfortunate,” he said.
“We will be at Nakasi with an aim to bring families together and create awareness on family time and child rights.”
16-year-old Abigail Aguilar said: “Because we are children some parents don’t think that our rights are important to us.”
Why Nasinu?
Save the Children Fiji chief executive Iris McKenzie said Nasinu had been recently identified by the Department of Social Welfare as the hotspot area where a high number of children were being abused.
Therefore, Save the Children conducted a Positive Discipline and Everyday Training with the single mothers at Wainibuku who revealed that their stress levels led them to hurt their children.
Ms McKenzie said through the programme the mothers were told how to deal with their children without physically and emotionally hurting them.
“Many years ago, we would not hear about cases of child abuse, but now we do and this is good because children are becoming aware of the wrong that is being done to them,” Ms McKenzie said.
Edited by Ranoba Baoa
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