UNICEF set to launch an anti-child abuse campaign website

UNICEF Indonesia is set to officially launch an anti-child abuse campaign website, www.pelindunganak.org, on Nov. 20, following the launch of its Pelindung Anak (Child Protector) campaign in August.

As well as the website, the campaign aimed at ending violence against children includes television and radio announcements, billboards and social media campaigning.

Prior to the official launch, UNICEF Indonesia says it has rolled out the website and a series of anti-child abuse campaign activities across a number of platforms supported and developed by Ogilvy and Mather Indonesia.

Jointly built by UNICEF Indonesia and the Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection Ministry, the Pelindung Anak campaign calls on every Indonesian – no matter what their age, location or profession – to join the national efforts to prevent child abuse.

UNICEF Indonesia’s chief of child protection Lauren Rumble noted that 40 percent of children aged 13-15 years reported that they had been physically attacked at least once in a given year and 50 percent of children reported having been bullied at school.

“Violence against children has never been talked about and less than 10 percent of victims are able to come forward,” said Rumble at a Pelindung Anak campaign luncheon in Jakarta on Thursday.

UNICEF Indonesia representative Gunilla Olsson said most people would feel personally distant from the issue of violence against children.

“Most people tend to think that victims of this violence are not their family members and not their children,” she said.

“Still,” Olsson continued, “the gotong royong (mutual help) spirit of communities in Indonesia can serve as a gateway to ending violence against children in the country.”

“If it takes a village to raise a child, it also takes a village to protect a child,” she added.

UNICEF Indonesia’s child protection specialist Ali Aulia said that the development of the Pelindung Anak website was important as it could serve as a main information source about child abuse and related topics in Indonesia.

“For its official launch in November, it is expected that the website will already have its own forum, enabling members to discuss various topics around the prevention and eradication of child abuse right across Indonesia,” Ali said.

He said it was urgent for inter-generational cycles of violence to be interrupted as soon as possible because child victims of violence were twice as likely to perpetrate violence as adults.

“Providing information and raising people's awareness of the issue is the first step toward ending violence against children,” Ali said. (ebf)

source: Jakarta Post

NEW DELHI: 4 Men Detained For the Rape of 4-Year-Old

 Nearly four days after the horrific rape and torture of a four-year-old girl in Delhi, no one has been arrested. The police have detained four men for questioning.
 
The child, who had lured to a jungle in Delhi's Kehsavpuram with chowmein and Rs. 10, had been raped, bitten, hit with stones and left to die. Her assailants had even tried to throttle her, but ran away after they had heard someone approaching, her father had said. She had somehow managed to crawl back home, bleeding and in terrible pain.
 
Although the child is now out of danger, she has sustained extensive damages in her intestines and private parts, apart from bruises and bites all over her body. Doctors say she will need a series of surgeries over the next six months to completely recover.
 

One of the four men detained by the police is 26-year-old Rahul, whom the child named as her assailant after recovering consciousness in hospital. According to her, Rahul had had lured her with noodles and taken her to jungle. There, another man is suspected to have brutally raped her, said police sources.
 
Rahul is a local resident. So are the other three men who have been detained, the sources in Delhi police said.
 
Officers said the case, which currently mentions rape, can also be expanded to include attempt to murder after the child gave details of the assault.
 
The chairperson of Delhi Commission for Women, Swati Maliwal, who visited the child at the hospital, had described her injuries as "horrific". Comparing the assault to the December 2012 rape of a medical student in Delhi that had led to nationwide protests, she had added, "Every day we have a Nirbhaya in Delhi."


source: NDTV
 

FIVE secondary school teachers abducted by gunmen.

According to reports by Per Second News, five Rivers State secondary school teachers have been abducted by gunmen on Monday. The teachers were said to be members of staff of the Government Secondary School, Agba-Ndele, Emohua Local Government Area.

As at the time of the report, the The Rivers State Police command not only confirmed the development, but stressed that efforts are on to secure their release.

In the mean time, the school has been shut down and all academic activities suspended.

source: Per Second News