Guyanese advocates against child abuse now have a toolkit to help them formulate solutions to deal with various forms of mistreatment meted out to the young.
The European Union (EU) in collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) last evening launched a toolkit to coincide with today’s observance of the 25th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
“It looks at how we can help protect child rights in areas such as infrastructure, governance or budget support, all of which are directly relevant to the EU’s operations here in Guyana and in the region,” EU’s Ambassador to Guyana, Robert Kopecky told attendees at the launch, which was held at his Bel Air Springs home, last evening.
He further explained “By providing practical guidance on how we can focus on children in all of the work we do, this new toolkit aims to ensure that children’s rights and initiatives to promote the well-being of all children are effectively integrated and applied across all of our EU development programming,”.
Kopecky said that while much is being done in terms of advocacy for children rights he is convinced that more can be done. He said he hopes that the toolkit will become an important resource for colleagues at EU headquarters and delegations and across the international cooperation field in ensuring that they take children’s rights into account in all areas of their work.
Marianne Flach, UNICEF representative for Guyana and Suriname echoed that while much progress has been made over the years, issues such as violence and abuse continue to be a problem in society. She stressed that dealing with the abuse children face requires input from all of society.
“We must work together, government development agencies and civil society to address the many challenges that prevent children from being able to claim their rights,” she asserted.
Flach explained that the toolkit, divided into eight modules, covers a broad spectrum of areas, from development to governance to working with NGO’s and civil society.
“The toolkit will provide a practical guide on how to integrate a child rights approach in developing programming, budgeting, policies and legislation, and how donor agencies can support governments in implementing their commitments to protect and fulfill children’s rights,” she stated.
As such she said that she hoped that the toolkit would act as a catalyst for forging stronger avenues of cooperation.
“We hope that this toolkit will be a useful resource as we work together with the EU and all stakeholders to ensure that the promise we made to children 25 years ago will be kept for generations to come,” she said.
Students of the Lodge Secondary School wowed guests with their steel pan renditions of songs while the cast of Merundoi performed a skit on dealing with child abuse in Guyana’s society.
