Children’s rights lobby group Save the Children International has entered into a collaboration with teacher organisation, Beacon Teachers Africa to train children on abuse prevention skills and reporting.
The move, according to NGO Project Coordinator Viellinah Gitau, was informed by the need to address gaps that exist in child abuse prevention, such as a lack of deep understanding of their rights.
She said cases of abuse of children, including physical, emotional, or sexual, have been on the rise, calling for a change of tactic in tackling them by empowering the victims themselves with the skills on how to avoid them or report to relevant authorities when they arise.
Speaking in Embu Town during the training of learners from Mbeere North Sub-county, Ms. Gitau said many children have been suffering in silence for lack of a safe environment to speak.
“As an organisation, we felt that there is a need to sensitise children by giving them a platform where they can speak and learn their rights that they could not be aware of,” she said.
Left unaddressed, the officer said issues of child abuse could leave victims with devastating effects in different spheres of life, such as education, relationships, health, and mental wellbeing.
She noted one of the mistakes parents and adults make is to tend to think they know so much about issues affecting children and even go ahead to make decisions for them without their involvement.
“Bringing them together and hearing from them has brought to the fore other cases that one could imagine a child has been going through,” Ms. Gitau said.
Founder, Beacon Teachers Africa, Dr. Joan Mwende, said they target to reach as many schools and children as their resources will allow.
“This is a message that every child should hear; learning to self-protect is the beginning of protecting the child,” she said.
She said it has proven futile to teach adults to protect children, but the children themselves don’t understand what they need to be protected from.
Ms. Mwende said children need to be taught the ways in which adults and other people in the community can abuse them and the tools they can use to protect themselves.
She noted that Embu County was a “hub” of child abuse, including sexual violence and Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).
“I cannot say any part of Embu is absolutely free of violence against children, and it is important for us to help the children understand how to self-protect and protect others,” she said.
By Samuel Waititu
