LISA HANNA ENCOURAGES JAMAICANS TO REPORT CHILD ABUSE

Youth and Culture Minister Lisa Hanna last week issued an appeal to parents, guardians and communities to join the Government in the fight against the scourge of child abuse.

“The time has come in Jamaica to stop the abuse. The time has come to stop the incest. We can’t do it on our own, we have been investigating, we have been taking children away, it has to start from the communities,” she said.

Hanna, who was speaking at a ‘Pon di corna’ reasoning session held March 20 at the Half-Way-Tree Transportation Centre in Kingston, said people can assist by reporting known or suspected cases of abuse, including neglect.

She said the Ministry of Youth and Culture “is seeing too many situations of young children being sexually abused, but are afraid to report it because the person who abuses them is an older person, or probably a member of the family”. As such, she said, it is the adults who must step in and make a report.

She noted that procedures are in place at the Office of the Children’s Registry (OCR) and the Child Development Agency (CDA) to deal with reports of abuse.

“You don’t have to come in person. You can just call. You don’t even have to give your name, all you have to do is say the address of where that child is being molested or abused or the school the child goes to,” she pointed out.

Reports of known or suspected cases of abuse, neglect and abandonment can be reported to the OCR at 1-888-protect (776-8328), the police at 119 or call the CDA at 948-1145, or any of the CDA’s parish offices.

Hanna said that the ministry receives about 220 calls per week