Church gets serious about child protection

 By CARMELLA GWARE

THE Catholic Church is serious about the protection of children and has begun drafting a child protection policy.

“Efforts have begun with awareness talks and child protection programmes aimed at helping individuals, families and communities reflect on the problem of child abuse,” Archbishop John Ribat said.

“This along with domestic violence in general has become an increasingly serious concern in Papua New Guinea in recent years.”

Ribat urged members of the church and people who cared about children to familiarise themselves with the Lukautim Pikinini Act 2009.

“We strongly urge law enforcement agencies and the courts to diligently enforce the Act. The most evil form of child abuse is abortion – the deliberate killing of the unborn.

“We suspect that abortion is already routinely practised by some health professionals and we earnestly pray that our political leaders will have the wisdom and strength to resist the temptation to make it legal.”

Advocate of child protection Sister Mary Claude believes that the key to preventing any form of child abuse is to educate the public.

“These awareness programmes aim to make people agents of change,” she said.

“Many people see children as little adults but that is a very wrong. They are little human beings that have yet to grow and mature to adulthood.”

“They are surprised to know that kids are human and have rights too. Our goal is to create a child-safe Papua New Guinea and I wish that we can bring PNG up to be at least among the top ten nations in the world who know how to take care of their kids.”