Child rights protection seminar in Prague
The recent case of a ten year old boy who ended up in hospital with a nervous breakdown as his divorced parents battled over visiting rights, has fuelled awareness among Czechs of the different ways in which a child can be abused by those closest to them. It was only after the fall of the communist regime that social workers and the media could speak openly about the extent of child abuse in this country. Even so many Czechs still find it hard to accept the fact that children who ostensibly appear to be well looked after may be suffering private agonies. At an international seminar organized by the Our Child Foundation on the occasion of its 10th anniversary, Mrs. Mary Marsh, director of Britain's National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children explained that this was not an isolated problem.
"The awareness of abuse in the UK was much, much lower than it is now. People used to deny it existed. They wouldn't accept that it was happening close to them amongst people they knew and for some time we were accused of making it up and scaremongering. That's not the case any more, people do understand that this does go on and that the real danger to children is in fact more likely to be at home than anywhere else. We used, in the past, to have quite a lot of institutional abuse in children's homes and education facilities. The Church has had to face up to some terrible cases of abuse...A lot of that has changed because we have got better at the way in which we screen people who are employed to work with children. But the private abuse of children remains a big problem. I think the right way forward is to make sure that people understand the scale of the abuse that is going on but at the same time to get on with preventive action and to intervene where it has happened and to particularly look after those children who have been seriously abused because if we don't they will grow up into very unhappy adults who will not make good parents themselves, who will not establish good relationships with other people and so on. In the end the most important thing in the protection of children is having people who are trained and supported in doing what is very important but difficult work and getting everybody in society to know that there's a part they can play too. "
As one of the speakers at the seminar explained effective child protection requires the development of three key areas: public awareness, legislation and social services. The Czech Republic, a signatory of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, is currently working to establish all three and the Our Child Foundation, an NGO which emerged on the scene shortly after the fall of communism, is very much a driving force in this respect. We asked its deputy chairwoman, Mrs. Jarmila Knight to tell us about the organization's current projects.
"Our main project is the Safety Line, which is the equivalent of the British Child-Line, and it was actually founded on their principles. It has been in operation for nine years now and we get on average 2,000 calls a day from Czech children. Of course, not all of them are seriously abused or maltreated but I would say that about 7 percent of those who call every day need professional help. We are now in the second year of our project aimed at taking children's rights to school all over the country and we hold seminars for teachers - to teach them how to inform children about their rights. And we have just finished a one year project with the EU against secondary victimization of child witnesses -showing children how to best handle what is a very stressful experience for them. This is something in the way of a preventive measure for all children."
Among the organizations' most recent projects is a toll free telephone hot line called "message home" encouraging children who have run away from home to make that first all-important call. If you would like to learn more about the Our Child Foundation you will find information, in English, at www.nasedite.cz
