Child protection is everybody’s business, says Children’s Authority

The Chil­dren’s Au­thor­i­ty of Trinidad and To­ba­go is urg­ing cit­i­zens to take a more ac­tive role in pro­tect­ing vul­ner­a­ble chil­dren as it marks 11 years since leg­is­la­tion was passed es­tab­lish­ing the or­gan­i­sa­tion.

In a me­dia re­lease is­sued, the Au­thor­i­ty said chil­dren across Trinidad and To­ba­go con­tin­ue to face “un­prece­dent­ed lev­els of abuse” at the hands of those en­trust­ed with their care.

The or­gan­i­sa­tion re­vealed that since be­com­ing op­er­a­tional, it has re­ceived be­tween 4,200 and more than 5,400 re­ports of child abuse an­nu­al­ly. Ac­cord­ing to the Au­thor­i­ty, the ma­jor­i­ty of cas­es re­port­ed in­volve ne­glect, fol­lowed by sex­u­al abuse, phys­i­cal abuse and emo­tion­al abuse.

The Au­thor­i­ty said the fig­ures un­der­score the ur­gent need for col­lec­tive na­tion­al ac­tion and greater pub­lic vig­i­lance in re­port­ing sus­pect­ed abuse.

It re­mind­ed cit­i­zens that re­ports of abuse can be made di­rect­ly to the Au­thor­i­ty at 996 or to the Po­lice at 999.

The or­gan­i­sa­tion stressed that ear­ly in­ter­ven­tion can sig­nif­i­cant­ly im­prove out­comes for af­fect­ed chil­dren and fam­i­lies, adding that time­ly re­port­ing may help pre­vent fur­ther harm.

As part of its an­niver­sary mes­sage, the Au­thor­i­ty re­it­er­at­ed its com­mit­ment to strength­en­ing part­ner­ships with stake­hold­ers, in­creas­ing pub­lic ed­u­ca­tion ef­forts and ex­pand­ing aware­ness ini­tia­tives aimed at cre­at­ing safer en­vi­ron­ments for chil­dren.

The Au­thor­i­ty al­so en­cour­aged cit­i­zens to em­brace the mes­sage that “Child Pro­tec­tion Is Every­body’s Busi­ness” and work to­geth­er to en­sure the safe­ty and well­be­ing of the na­tion’s chil­dren.

May 18 marked 11 years since leg­is­la­tion was en­act­ed for the Au­thor­i­ty to pro­vide care, pro­tec­tion and re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion ser­vices to chil­dren and their fam­i­lies in Trinidad and To­ba­go.