The Min­istry of Gen­der and Child Af­fairs is kick­ing off Child Abuse Aware­ness and Pre­ven­tion Month by ask­ing every­one to act when it comes to any form of abuse against a child and not as­sume some­one else will in­ter­vene.

In a full-page ad­ver­tise­ment in the Trinidad and To­ba­go Guardian news­pa­per yes­ter­day the min­istry said, “We are re­mind­ed that the safe­ty and pro­tec­tion of our na­tion’s chil­dren should re­main the ut­most pri­or­i­ty for every cit­i­zen.”

“Child abuse re­mains a per­va­sive and heart­break­ing re­al­i­ty in our com­mu­ni­ties. Whether ne­glect, phys­i­cal, sex­u­al, or emo­tion­al abuse, the scars left on in­no­cent young lives are pro­found and last­ing. How­ev­er, amid this sober­ing re­al­i­ty, there is hope, it added.

The min­istry re­mind­ed the pub­lic that child abuse is not in­evitable, it is pre­ventable and it is about recog­nis­ing the signs, lis­ten­ing to the whis­pers of chil­dren and in­ter­ven­ing be­fore it is too late.

“It is not enough for us to as­sume that some­one else will in­ter­vene. We must act. Each and every one of us has a role to play in cre­at­ing a pro­tec­tive en­vi­ron­ment for our chil­dren. Whether you’re a par­ent, teacher, a neigh­bour, or a friend, we all have a re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to be vig­i­lant and proac­tive,” the min­istry said.

It said it is up to us to break the cy­cle of abuse and pro­vide the nur­tur­ing re­la­tion­ships and safe en­vi­ron­ments that every child de­serves.

“So let us pledge to­day to build a so­ci­ety where every child is cher­ished, loved un­con­di­tion­al­ly, pro­tect­ed, giv­en the op­por­tu­ni­ty to thrive and have their rights re­spect­ed,” it said.

As part of the state­ment, the Min­istry of Gen­der and Child Af­fairs point­ed out that types of abuse in­clude ne­glect, phys­i­cal abuse, sex­u­al abuse and emo­tion­al abuse.

It said to re­spond to a child shar­ing an al­le­ga­tion the re­ceiv­ing adult should, “ stay calm and in con­trol of your feel­ings, be­lieve the child, let him/her tell you what has hap­pened, tell the child that you be­lieve him/her, tell the child it is not his/her fault and that he/she is not re­spon­si­ble for the abuse, tell the child that he/she did the right thing by telling you, let the child know what will hap­pen next.”

Any­one seek­ing help can call the Chil­dren’s Au­thor­i­ty hot­line 996 or 800-2014, Child­line 131 or 800-4321, the TTPS - 999, or the Na­tion­al Fam­i­ly Ser­vices Di­vi­sion 623-2608 ext 6701-6711.

The com­mence­ment of Child Abuse Aware­ness and Pre­ven­tion Month comes days af­ter a woman was cap­tured on video kick­ing a child.

She was sub­se­quent­ly ar­rest­ed by po­lice and the child is now said to be safe.

Signs of abuse in chil­dren

Act­ing out in an in­ap­pro­pri­ate sex­u­al way with toys or ob­jects,

Night­mares, sleep­ing prob­lems,

Be­com­ing with­drawn or very clingy,

Per­son­al­i­ty changes,

Seem­ing in­se­cure, re­gress­ing to younger be­hav­iours, e.g bed­wet­ting,

Un­ac­count­able fear of places or peo­ple,

Out­bursts of anger,

Changes in eat­ing habits,

Phys­i­cal signs, such as un­ex­plained sore­ness or bruis­es around gen­i­tals, sex­u­al­ly trans­mit­ted dis­eases or be­com­ing se­cre­tive.