Tag: Unicef

UNICEF urges support for “overwhelmed” social services

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has praised developments in the reporting of child abuse cases in the Maldives, but is concerned at the challenges posed to “overwhelmed” social services.

Mohamed Naeem, a UNICEF Child Protection Officer based in the Maldives, told Minivan News that although he believed developments in the area of child protection were proving “quite promising”, greater collaboration with members of the public, NGOs and government authorities remained key challenges ahead.

The claims were made as a number of stakeholders from across the Maldivian child protection system met at Bandos Island Resort and Spa last week to try and outline a programme on how to best cooperate on improving the welfare of children in the country, particularly in far flung island communities.

In a speech delivered at the Conference on Child Protection, Ron Pouwels, UNICEF Regional Advisor for Child Protection told the audience assembled at Bandos that outlining a strategy against violence towards children on a national level represented important societal developments.

“Across countries, many challenges remain and violence against children is still often accepted as a lawful practice in the education system, as a form of sentencing by judicial bodies and as a disciplinary measure in care institutions,” he said. “The gap between law and practice also remains wide and challenging. Protective legislation needs to be enforced, permeate the work of institutions and shape the training and ethical standards of professionals.”

Figures taken from an unpublished UNICEF report conducted back in 2008 to study violence against Maldivian children reported that abuse of minors was found to exist across wide sections of Maldives society, both at home and in school – as well as the wider community.

The report claimed that eight percent of student respondents had apparently been hit by a teacher, children with disabilities were found to come under higher risk of receiving physical punishment and girls faced a high risk of being sexually abused, particularly in the capital of Male’.

The findings also reported that eleven percent of boys in the study and 20 percent of girls were believed to have been sexually abused at least once in their life.

Looking ahead

Mohamed Naeem said at present there were no comparative figures on how the child abuse situation had changed in the country since 2008, though he believed there had been improvements in the reporting and monitoring of child abuse in its different forms at the very least.

“Cases of reporting child abuse is up immensely, however this has brought additional challenges that need to be faced,” he said. “With a growing number of cases being reported, social services are being overwhelmed and need to be strengthened.”

Naeem said that a key consideration in bolstering the country’s child protection would be in the provision of more support from local communities and government agencies to social services.

The UNICEF Child Protection Officer claimed that existing initiatives such as Child Protection Committees made up of public citizens who liaised with social services from islands where they did not have a presence were strong examples of the type of collaboration the organization hoped to see.

Naeem claimed that the Child Protection Committees model could be adopted by NGOs and government agencies to maintain a nationwide network focusing on child protection – an area UNICEF has said it will be actively supporting.

In light of this month’s local council elections, Naeem added that decentralised councils and governance were a further positive opportunity to install monitoring and protection systems to benefit young people.

“There are a lot of challenges that would remain in terms of getting such systems up and goin,g” he said. “However, the situation in terms of preventing child abuse is quite different since 2001, I think it’s quite promising.”

Beyond general optimism in terms of developments in national child protection, Naeem said that another key challenge remained for UNICEF and authorities in trying to identify children who were seen as being most vulnerable to possible abuse in society.

The Child Protection Officer claimed that although actions plan were being drawn up, difficulties remained in pinpointing vulnerable groups.

“This could involve cases where children are away from their families for education reasons, have disabilities, or come from single parent families or environments of drug abuse,” he said.

The Conference on Child Protection was held as UNICEF and its partners announced the allocation of US$1.72 million to promote children’s rights in the Maldives as part of a country-wide programme outlining development between 2011 and 2015.

In a statement, UNICEF said that activities identified in the 2011 plan include improving the legislative framework for child rights, strengthening the evidence base for policy planning, and improve capacity of government to deliver improved quality health care and water and sanitation services.

Support will also be provided to ensure enhanced national capacity to deliver inclusive and child friendly education, and to scale up services to protect the most vulnerable children and women from violence. UNICEF will also partner with civil society organizations and the media to enhance their capacity for active monitoring and reporting on children’s issues.

Likes(0)Dislikes(0)

UNICEF allocates US$1.72 million to promotion of child rights

UNICEF and its partners have allocated US$1.72 million to promote the rights of children in the Maldives, under the new UNICEF Maldives Country Programme 2011-2015.

In a statement, UNICEF said that activities identified in the 2011 plan include improving the legislative framework for child rights, strengthening the evidence base for policy planning, and improve capacity of government to deliver improved quality health care and water and sanitation services.

Support will also be provided to ensure enhanced national capacity to deliver inclusive and child friendly education, and to scale up services to protect the most vulnerable children and women from violence. UNICEF will also partner with civil society organizations and the media to enhance their capacity for active monitoring and reporting on children’s issues.

Partners for the implementation of the 2011 Annual Work Plan include the Juvenile Justice Unit of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Health and Family, Department of National Planning of the Ministry of Finance and Treasury, Ministry of Housing and Environment, Ministry of Education, Maldives Police Services, Human Rights Commission of the Maldives and the Maldives Media Council.

Likes(0)Dislikes(0)

Child protection conference ongoing at Bandos

The Ministry of Health’s Department of Gender and Family is hosting the National Conference on Working Together for the Protection of Children, over two days at Bandos Island Resort and Spa.

Speaking at the opening of the two-day conference yesterday, President Mohamed Nasheed expressed concern over rising incidences of sexual, physical and psychological violence against children in the Maldives.

Visits to islands and report from government departments, UN Agencies and NGOs revealed “a bleak picture of violence against children,” Nasheed said.

He emphasised the benefits of providing immediate assistance directly to children at risk, over spending money to set up systems and infrastructure to work for the protection of children.

Also speaking at the opening of the conference yesterday, UNICEF representative Bertrand Mendis noted a shift in societal attitudes towards cases of child abuse, and that more civil society organisations were being formed and that the media was reporting more on cases of violence against children.

He also referred to a survey conducted in the Maldives in 2008, showing that 26 percent of children have been psychologically abused and 14 percent of children physically abused. Eight percent of children have been abused by the teachers.

Likes(0)Dislikes(0)

JJU to establish Juvenile Act to take action against irresponsible parents

The Juvenile Justice Unit (JJU) will draft a ‘Juvenile Act’ outlining the actions that can be taken against irresponsible parents.

Spokesperson for the Juvenile Court Zaeema Nasheed said the JJU held a meeting with Prosecutor General’s Office, Police, Department of Gender and Family and the Juvenile court to discuss the draft bill, which it believes will help reduce the number of children becoming involved in crime.

”We have noticed that many children are led to crimes due to a lack of care from their parents,” Zaeema said. ”To reduce the number of children involvement the crimes, we should take action against irresponsible parents.”

”In the Maldives there are no laws on irresponsible parents.” Zaeema added. ”That’s why we face difficulties prosecuting such cases.”

”Sometimes when we go to deliver the chit from the court, the kid’s Mum or Dad says that they do not know where he lives or how to contact him,” she said.

”It is irresponsible for them to not know where their children live.”

She said that according to the law parents should protect children from danger, but that the divorces were leading the children to become isolated join gangs.

”When a couple divorces when they have children, then due to lack of care the child becomes isolated and they start going out to the streets,” she said. ”When they go out like that, they meet the gangs and join them and then they become involved in crime.”

She said that children usually became involved in crimes such as assault and battery, fornication and drug related cases.

Head of Child Section in Health Ministry Saudhath Afeef said that the discussion’s main target was to increase awareness among parents and children.

”With children we can make them understand that they also have responsibilities at their level,” Saudhath said. ”We can make aware parents by running advertisements and by holding awareness programs.”

She said that parents should not leave children on the streets saying that they “are grown up now”.

”The discussion are not finished yet,” Zaeema said. ”We will hold more meetings continuously.”

Deputy Prosecutor General Hussain Shameem did not respond to Minivan News at time of press.

Likes(0)Dislikes(0)

Informal adoption laws and lack of legislation hampering Health Ministry

The Maldives has no laws governing adoption as the practice is forbidden under Islam, Minivan News learned yesterday during an investigation of the staff shortages at the Kudakudhinge Hiya orphanage in Vilingili.

State Minister for Health and Family Mariya Ali explained that the courts permit a “long-term guardianship” as there is no ‘formal’ adoption law in the Maldives.

One consequence of this ‘informal’ system is that the Maldives maintains a reservation regarding adoption after signing the UN Convention for the Rights of the Child (CRC).

Communications Officer for UNICEF Humaida Abdulghafoor said there is no adoption law in the Maldives “but it is being looked into right now.”

“The Maldives has a reservation on adoption in the Conventions for the Right of the Child (CRC), but culturally, we have an informal system where extended families will look after a child if his or her parents cannot do so.”

“There is no formal structure,” she said, “and the laws are not very strong.”

Mariya explained that if a child cannot be cared for by his or her parents, the court must look for next of kin.

“According to the Family Law, there are a number of people they must check first,” she explained.

If no one is found to care for the child, then they must be placed under care of the state, but the Ministry tries not to remove children from their homes if at all possible, she said.

Mariya explained that a study carried out by the ministry on adoption under Islam identified that “clearly the Western form of adoption cannot happen.”

In the Western form of adoption, a child takes his or her adoptive parents’ surname, “but in Islam that cannot happen.”

The alternative is long-term fostering: “We want the children to know their roots, which means there won’t be any corruption of lineage.”

But this has no guarantees of permanence, and finding adequate foster care is a long process.

“It is up to us to find parents who don’t have a history of sexual abuse, who don’t have a history of fraud, who don’t have a history of other offences,” Mariya explained, meaning the ministry had to do an assessment of every person who came forward wanting to foster a child.

She said the process of assessment can take up to six months – “It is very difficult for us to find a home for a child because we don’t have proper legislation to support us.”

In the meantime, the ministry has now completed regulations on minimum standards for children’s homes. Mariya said now that the costing for these guidelines to be implemented is finished, “this week we will send it to the Attorney General’s office, who will then table it in Parliament.”

“As soon as this comes through it will be a guiding document for the workers,” she said.

Mariya explained that due to staff shortages at the ministry, there was a backlog of cases waiting to be processed.

“There is only one staff member doing the case work,” she said, adding that they were hoping to get some assistance from NGOs in fast-tracking the case work.

“Ideally, babies need to be placed with carers before they’re one year old. This is the year when they form attachments,” she noted. “For children to form healthy attachment, we need to place them soon.”

She said the ministry had expressed its concerns over staff shortages many times, but “have not had any feedback about whether we’re going to get more staff or not.”

Another issue is age: “Most carers and most families that come forward want babies,” Mariya said, adding that “very few want an older child.”

Because babies need be placed with a family as soon as possible, issuing the cases quickly is essential.

She said “most of the time parents want to be given the child permanently, “which takes even longer. If they request for temporary fostering we could at least place the child with the parents and then proceed with the process, but right now we don’t get such offers.”

Orphanage

Kudakudhinge Hiya children’s home in Vilingili was started in 2006 and is a state-run initiative managed by the Ministry of Health and Family. They are currently caring for 51 children and is the only government institution of its kind in the country.

Minivan News reported yesterday that there was a shortage of cooks. Community Health Officer at Kudakudhinge Hiya, Iyaz Jadulla Naseem, said the staff shortage was due to the Civil Service Commission (CSC) removing the post of cook from civil service.

Spokesperson for the CSC Mohamed Fahmy Hassan said there are still some offices and institutions which have cooks working under the CSC, “but not island offices” because the post of cook had been “abolished by the Ministry of Home Affairs.”

“A children’s shelter is under the Ministry of Health and Family,” Fahmy said, “and therefore, if they require a cook, I’m sure the CSC would appoint someone.”

He said the home’s administration had to make a request, which then had to be submitted by the Ministry of Health and Family to the CSC.

“They are in a special category, and any post that is required to safeguard the children will be created.”

Mariya Ali said the recent staff shortage “was due to downsizing” and added the ministry has “brought up the issue of staff shortage eight times” in meetings at the ministry.

“It is dangerous not to have enough staff [in a children’s home],” she said. “The CSC has a blanket formula… there are actually not a lot of staff taking care of the children.”

Mariya said the corporate sector was also helping the ministry, and “one major resort operator is willing to give us a doctor who will be visiting the facility regularly.”

On the issue of the cooks, she said the ministry has “advertised and approached the corporate sector to ask if they are able to give us a temporary solution to the cook, but they have not given us an answer.”

A helping hand

There are several ways to help Vilingili Orphanage. Mariya said there are two funds at the moment, and there is a donation box at Kudakudhinge Hiya, one at Hulhumalé ferry terminal and one at IGMH.

“Or people can approach us directly [at the Food and Drug Authority building] and we will direct them where to go.”

Mariya said setting up a pay-pal account for people to make deposits into the fund’s bank account was “a great idea” and she would look into it.

“We are also planning a sponsor a child campaign,” she said, which would hopefully ease the strain on the government to care for all the children at Vilingili.

“It is the responsibility of all of us to care for these children,” Mariya said.

She added that she hopes “different corporate sectors and even the public, individuals, can come forth and say to us ‘we are willing to cover the staff costs for one person.’ Then we could have enough staff.”

She noted the corporate sector is already sponsoring staff at the Ministry of Health and Family to go on a training course in England with UK-based children’s charity, Barnardo’s.

Likes(0)Dislikes(0)

Four children taken to hospital in “very serious” child abuse case

Police and the Ministry of Health and Family have confirmed they are concurrently investigating a “very serious” case of child abuse.

Sub-Inspector Ahmed Shiyam confirmed a number of children had been taken to hospital, but did not divulge further details.

Minivan News understands four children were taken to Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH) by ministry workers yesterday to undergo medical examination following allegations.

Inspector Mirufath Faiz, head of the family and child protection unit, said the children had suffered from physical abuse and neglect. She explained authorities were withholding all information for the sake of the investigation.

“There are so many things we need to find out,” she said. “When we have more information that we can share, we will share it.”

Deputy Minister of Health and Family Mariya Ali said all details are being withheld for the protection of the children.

“We have the childrens’ best interest in mind, and that means we cannot give out any information that might put them in danger,” she said.

Mohamed Shihaab of Child Abuse Watch Maldives said he understood the authorities’ fear that evidence would be corrupted, or that the families of the abused children would suffer more if their identities are known.

“There is no need to disclose the identities of the children or their families, but the incident needs to be reported. It’s important that the community knows if something like this is happening,” he said.

Shihaab said he believed people are not reporting incidents for several reasons, one of them being the lack of confidentiality for the victims. The other is the need to provide witnesses so an abuse case is taken seriously.

“People need to know that justice will be carried out,” he says. “If they do not have enough evidence, their case could be dismissed.”

IGMH has not commented on, or confirmed, the case.

Likes(0)Dislikes(0)

Unicef to help combat erosion in Meedhoo

The Central Province office has said an agreement will be signed with Unicef to combat beach erosion in Dhaalu atoll Meedhoo, Voice of Maldives reports.

Ibrahim Umar Manik, deputy state minister, said funds had been secured after a survey conducted on the island to determine the cost of the project. He added land reclamation on Meedhoo will also protect its sewerage plant and football field, located about ten feet away from the beach.

Meedhoo islanders have put up sandbagged at the beach as a temporary measure to prevent erosion. Umar said a permanent solution would be to reclaim land and construct a pier or harbour.

Likes(0)Dislikes(0)