Children from poor families at risk of abuse

By OGIA MIAMEL
Children who do not attend school and come from poor families are more vulnerable and subjected to abuse, a Unicef official says.
Lawyer and child protection officer Ana Singut said Unicef in Papua New Guinea not only worked to protect children but also conducted awareness to promote the rights of children.
“We don’t just work in responding to violence against children or responding when a child commits a crime.
“We also work in prevention. We want to make sure that help is available to a vulnerable child. A child who comes from a very poor family, or child who is vulnerable because the child doesn’t have a family or lives in faraway place where there are no services available, a child that doesn’t go to school. These children are vulnerable to coming into contact with the law, these children are the ones targeted by adults to be abused because they are vulnerable so we try to prevent this through our awareness on children’s rights,” Singut said.
She explained that any actions by a person to cause harm to a child’s social, physical and mental development was regarded as violence against children.