ANTIGUA – Child abuse experts in Cayman would like the country’s media to get more involved in the issues surrounding this alarming problem.
Although child abuse is not a serious issue in the Cayman Islands, specialists on the subject said that if the media disseminated more information, the few incidents that arise could be tackled much earlier than they have been in the past.
This was one of the points raised at a two-day workshop held in Antigua last week titled Responding to Child Abuse in our Communities.
Delegates were invited by UNICEF and included not just the obvious social works, psychologists and educationalists but members of the clergy and media. Delegates came mainly from the Caribbean’s British Overseas Territories, namely Anguilla, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands and Montserrat. Antigua had representatives too. Cayman had six educationalists and child care experts at the forum, which was held at the Jolly Beach Resort near St John’s.
Felicia Robinson is manager of the Child Protection Programme in Cayman.
‘We see the media being involved particularly in prevention, in terms of providing information to children and families in the wider community and creating more awareness on child abuse. The media can help not only in terms of the risk factors but what are also the strategies for prevention. I think the media has a role in working with the other stakeholders and the child protective services, in terms of working more sensitively as well as promoting education. We’re hoping that the child protection services will see the media as having a broader responsibility and not shying aware from the media,’ she said. ‘We think traditionally we’ve always seen the media as being hostile to them but there is a rule where the convention rights of the child requires that the media becomes involved in terms of community sensitization.’
From this workshop Mrs. Robinson hopes far more empathy from the media in the future on all aspects of child abuse.
‘We hope that the media will leave much more informed on the issues of child abuse and they will see child abuse not just as the face of a child and carrying the story of a child but that they will see their role from a much broader perspective in terms of providing information to communities from a research point of view and signs to look for. I hope that they will become more involved in promoting events around child abuse prevention.
‘Every year there are several key marker points where they can contribute in awareness. We hope the media will take on the role as well in terms of advocacy through bringing situations to light that they would see themselves as partners in working with the providers around sensitizing or even calling governments to account to address certain situations which they know are impacting upon children.’
Around 40 delegates attended the workshop on 19-20 September and covered such topics as the realities of child abuse in the Caribbean, reporting and managing child abuse in religious and educational settings and how the media can help in child protection.
The workshop was chaired by Barbados-based Harry Blackett, senior manager of the National Children’s Home and jointly mediated by Mrs Robinson and Heather Stewart, a child protection specialist who works at the UNICEF Eastern Caribbean office in Barbados.
Related Videos
