In an effort to make conversations about child abuse easier between adults and children, the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security has announced the launch of two new books.
The books – the Every Safe Child Story Book and the every Safe Child Colouring Book – were conceptualised by Minister Vindhya Persaud, and were launched earlier this week under the Ministry’s ‘Every Child Safe’ campaign, which started earlier this year.
Persaud took into account that it is not always easy for adults to explain matters related to child abuse. “The books are a comfortable way of opening up conversations between an adult and child so that they can address child abuse. It can be quite an uncomfortable subject for the adult to discuss with the child but this colouring book gives the opening and guides the adult on how to explain in a very meaningful way,” Persaud was quoted as saying in a statement issued by the Ministry on the launch of the books.
“This is an important component to the campaign where our facilitators will go into communities and work with people. It’s a very action-oriented campaign, so they will now have colouring books and storybooks for children that will educate them in a very sensitive and age appropriate way on child abuse,” Persaud added.
The storybook is a compilation of stories that came out of the Short Story Writing Competition for young writers. The stories of the ten winners, which were focused on various elements of child safety, were compiled. “The colouring book was a project I worked on with my team members and it is also activity based so that children can definitely have insight into child abuse,” Dr. Persaud said.
According to the Ministry, the intention is also for children to be educated on the subject and to know what to do in the event they are being abused. Towards this end, the books prominently feature the Ministry’s hotline numbers, which they can use to get help.
In addition to the books being used by the Childcare and Protection Agency (CPA) – the entity that is spearheading the campaign – they will also be given to the Ministry of Education for use.
The Ministry said funding for the project was provided through the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
The Ministry noted that under the ‘Every Child Safe’ campaign, a personal and consistent check-in with members of communities all across Guyana is carried out for help to identify perpetrators and bring relief to sufferers.
“These communities become essential partners of ours, so that wherever child abuse rears its ugly head, we will be able to know because there are people out there as our eyes and ears. Perpetrators will have the eyes of an entire community on them, so no one can escape that kind of scrutiny,” Dr. Persaud previously said.
The campaign fosters heightened vigilance on child abuse in communities and people will now be more aware of crimes that they should look out for and how they should report cases of child abuse utilising the 914 hotline and all the other avenues available to them through the Ministry.
Meanwhile, the 10 persons who won in the short story competition are Aradhya Ramjag (Aaila Runs Away); Daniel Persaud (Quick Thinking); Rondel Parks (Annie Calls 914); Vanessa Ramdehooll (Puppy Love); Daniel Lalchand (Early Morning Scare); Sajid Amin (Praying for a Miracle); Giovanna George (Tickling Tommy); Rachel Davis (Fire, Fire!) Roshanie Mahadeo (The Black Coat); and Shaquana Richards (Veronica’s Father).
