ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates - Monday, April 7th 2014 [ME NewsWire]
The
Ministry of Interior (MoI) and the Ministry of Social Affairs revealed
the positive and fruitful results that the joint initiative to identify
child abuse cases and the appropriate response process has achieved. It
is noteworthy that the initiative launched as part of a training program
was held at the Abu Dhabi Police Officers’ Club. It targeted 258
administrative staff and nursery supervisors across the UAE, with a view
to raise awareness on child abuse identification mechanism and set up a
system to report any violence against children at nurseries.
The
participants in the training program recommended enacting policies for
the protection of children in all nurseries and schools at the State
level. They also urged to review criteria for granting licenses to open
nurseries and they include the following: child protection policies; and
attending the special training program for child protection held by the
Ministry of Interior’s Child Protection Center in cooperation with the
Ministry of Social Affairs for the top management in nurseries and all
workers in nurseries to qualify them in the area of child protection.
They also stressed the importance of implementing the inspection
procedures, which provides for checking the criminal background of any
person working in the child supervision or care in nurseries and
schools.
On the same note, the participants called upon the Ministry
of Interior’s Child Protection Center to adopt the child protection
draft policies in schools and nurseries across the UAE. These policies
would set the standards to be developed by nurseries and schools.
Moreover, they stressed the need of acquainting all nurseries and
schools cadre with these policies, and develop a training plan to meet
the needs of nurseries and schools.
Major General Nasser Lakhrebani
Al Nuaimi, Secretary General of the Office of HH Deputy Prime Minister
and Minister of Interior lauded the coordination and cooperation with
the Ministry of Social Affairs in the application of this initiative
successfully. “The Ministry is endeavoring to implement preventive
initiatives to protect the child similar to this initiative at the State
level, in cooperation with the Ministry of Social Affairs and the
partners of the Ministry of Interior’s Child Protection Center from
local and international organizations,” indicated Major General Al
Nuaimi.
The Secretary General called upon the participants,
especially nursery supervisors to play their role to the fullest, in
terms of identifying and reporting any signs of abuse against children,
to whom they are very close. He pointed out that nursery supervisors are
major partners in the prevention and protection processes, in
collaboration with the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Social
Affairs.
Major General Al Nuaimi also urged parents to protect their
children from any kind of psychological and physical abuse. He
underscored the importance of providing children with family care and
emotional support, to produce a healthy society, free of social problems
that could compromise its security and stability.
He confirmed that
innocent children who get abused could be storing up problems to society
for the future. “This calls for concerted efforts to avoid such
occurrences, by implementing all child protection agreements and
conventions, and even remove children from their parents’ care, if all
protection attempts fail,” He noted.
He underscored the need to
identify the causes of physical, sexual or emotional abuse against
children at nurseries, and to set up the appropriate emotional response
in order to integrate children back into society to pursue a normal
life. He stressed that “Early prevention and treatment positively impact
the emotional state of abused children and their future.”
Major
General Al Nuaimi also pointed out that the “Wadeema’s Law” will provide
the relevant entities with the authority to handle child abuse cases,
thus reinforcing the Ministry of Interior’s role, which will include
direct intervention in addition to protection and prevention. “Some
individuals still ignore the basic components of a healthy family; not
to mention the common misconceptions, that children are a means of
entertainment,” he continued.
For his part, Lieutenant Colonel Faisal
Mohammad Al Shimmari, Director of the Ministry of Interior’s Child
Protection Centre, praised the positive and significant recommendations
reached by the participants in the training program, and he said: “The
Ministry of Interior’s Child Protection Centre is ready to cooperate
with relevant authorities with regard to reporting any signs of abuse
against children the abuse in nurseries or in our society.” Moreover, he
noted that prevention is the best way to address such risks through the
theoretical and practical knowledge received by trainees at this
session under the supervision of specialists.
Al Shimmari also
praised the role of nursery supervisors in identifying the first signs
of abuse. He noted that children spend more time at the nurseries than
they do with their families. This requires furthering cooperation with
nursery supervisors, given that child protection requires concerted
efforts from all relevant entities.
He also expressed his regret to
see some conservative societies still covering up cases of sexual abuse
against children. He added: “There are still untold abuse cases against
children, despite the tireless calls from relevant authorities on the
need to identify and report such crimes to avoid their recurrence and
protect children as is the case in developed countries that made great
strides in this area.”
In the same context, Dr. Jonathan McCauley,
Strategic Advisor and Social Counselor at the Child Protection Center at
the Ministry of Interior, said that the ministry gives top priority to
child protection. He indicated that abuse is not only physical; noting
that other types of abuse include the risks caused by reckless driving,
parents’ negligence, sending children in elevators unaccompanied, and
failure to secure balconies which may cause children to fall to their
death, among other things. He also stressed the need to boost
preventive measures and efforts in this regard.
For her part, Moza
Salem Al Shoomi, Director of the Child Department at the Ministry of
Social Affairs and member of the Ministry of Interior’s Higher Committee
for Child Protection, praised the coordination, cooperation, and mutual
organization with the Ministry of Interior’s Child Protection Center to
carry out the initiative. She said: “This initiative has achieved the
desired goals within the strategic partnership with the Ministry of
Interior, and is a means to achieve the Ministry of Social Affairs’
strategic goal to guarantee social rights and empower social
integration.”
Concluding, she emphasized that the initiative is an
extension to future initiatives that aim to raise awareness among
nursery supervisors and qualify them to identify cases of abuse, notice
any behavioral change and avoid problems at the right time.
The Results
The
tactical expert, Sanjana Bhardwaj highlighted the results of the
training program which lasted 41 days. She said that the trainees took a
set of notes and results that indicated the lack of a policy for child
protection in all nurseries and schools. She also pointed out that the
majority of employees at nurseries and schools did not receive any
training in the area of child protection, and most of them are not aware
of their duties in this field. She indicated that plenty of nurseries
and schools face problems in reporting their doubts about the cases of
neglect or abuse a child might face to the competent authorities.
“Trainees
have noticed that when parents face nurseries by expressing their
doubts in what threatens the child, they move their children into
another nursery without making a real discussion about finding the best
and appropriate ways to solve the problem, with the help of social
experts or those concerned with child protection. A total of 35%
trainees have faced difficulties or problems in expressing their fears
and 9% of participants abstained from responding to this question,” she
added.
For her part, Lieutenant Wafaa Ibrahim Al Awar, from the Child
Protection Center at the Ministry of Interior, said: “The course has
achieved many results, where participants were introduced to several
types of assaults against children and the impact of abuse and violence
on children. They became able to identify the key factors that
contribute to abusing children or neglecting them. They were also
briefed on their role in reporting such cases and they have become
attuned to the importance of applying the policies and procedures
related to child protection in their workplaces.”
She added: “The
course has covered several topics namely; identifying cases of violence
against children and responding to child abuse cases and communicating
with the competent authorities such as the Ministry of Interior Child
Protection Center and police stations to report dangerous situations”.
She
also noted that the course included 14 groups over 41 training days
with a total of 615 hours of training, and targeted employees in
nurseries at the state level; pointing out that the training course
included 258 trainees divided as follows: 41 from the Abu Dhabi
Education Council (ADEC), 214 from nurseries, 3 managers from the
following entities (Early Years Educational Services Middle East (EYES),
the Arabian Child, and the Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC).
According
to the courses’ performance indicators, 98.45 of the trainees have
shown their readiness to hold educational lectures aimed at raising
awareness among employees at nurseries or schools; 86.43 of the trainees
have confirmed their willingness to hold educational lectures to raise
awareness among parents; 64% of trainees have applied the child
protection policy; and 35% of them have faced difficulties or problems
in reporting their fears.
For more information about:
The Ministry of Interior, please click HERE
Abu Dhabi Police, please click HERE
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The
Arabic-language text of this announcement is the official,
authoritative version. Translations are provided as an accommodation
only, and should be cross-referenced with the Arabic-language text,
which is the only version of the text intended to have legal effect.
Contacts
The UAE Minister of Interior's General Secretariat, Tactical Affairs and Security Media Department
Abu Dhabi Police GHQ - Security Media
Chris Cron +971-(0)-50-987-1317
E-mail: cron.media@hotmail.com
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