Thanh Hoa province acts to protect children

Children with difficult circumstance, who have outstanding academic performance, receive gifts at the launch of the action month for children in central province of Thanh Hoa. (Photo: baothanhhoa.vn)

Thanh Hoa (VNA) – The central coastal province of Thanh Hoa is intensifying activities to protect children in response to the action month for children this year.

According to the provincial Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (DOLISA), communication campaigns will be organised to promote child care and protection and social resources mobilised for the work.

Children-related issues that are of great concern to the public such as child abuse, violence, and drowning are expected to be dealt with.

Addressing the launching ceremony of the on May 31, Dau Thanh Tung, vice chairman of the provincial People’s Committee called on local administrations, organisations, schools, families and society to strictly comply with the 25 children's rights as prescribed by law as well as effectively implement policies and programmes on child protection, care and education.

They were also urged to raise ideas to improve the effectiveness of the dissemination of the laws and policies on children. Communication campaigns should be launched to raise awareness for families, schools and children on child abuse and injuries prevention and control, especially child drowning, he said.

Localities and units should mobilise resources to assist children with special circumstances, poor children and those affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, living in ethnic minority areas or remote and disadvantaged areas.

Attention should be paid to the building of more playing grounds so that children can live in a safe, healthy and friendly environment while  the enforcement of children's rights is ensured, Tung said.

On this occasion, the event’s organising board presented 135 bicycles to disadvantaged children and five social security insurance cards, each worth 20 million VND (865 USD), for students with difficult circumstances who have outstanding academic performance. Twenty scholarships, each worth 1 million VND, were also awarded to disadvantaged students in Trieu Son and Nong Cong districts.

According to DOLISA, there are 934,926 children in the province, accounting for 25.6 percent of its population. They include nearly 150,000 ethnic minority children, over 12,000 with special circumstances and over 104,000 at risk of falling into special circumstances.

Although certain achievements have been obtained in child protection and care work, yet there emerged some problems that need to be solved by agencies and the whole society, such as accidents, especially drowning at an alarming rate.

There were 25 accidents involving children in the province in the first five months of this year, 19 of which were drowning, resulting in the death of 25 children.

Earlier, the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA) announced that activities of the Action Month for Children will take place throughout June annually to enhance the sense of responsibility among the sectors and relevant organisations in child protection and to ensure a safe summer for kids.

In the framework of the action month, the People’s Committees of localities nationwide are asked to build plans for activities of the action month suitable to their conditions and to bolster communication work to raise awareness and skills in child protection.

Measures to fight sexual abuse and violence against children in family as well as locations receiving tipoffs and offering shelters for children, and helpline 111, an emergency telephone number for child protection, must be popularised.

Localities are also required to regularly check so as to detect in a timely manner high-risk locations prone to child-related accidents and to call on organisations and individuals to support victims of abuse, orphans and poor, ethnic and pandemic-hit children.

According to the MOLISA’ report, in 2021, the Ministry of Public Security detected 1,914 child abuse cases nationwide, an annual decrease of 31 cases.

A report by the helpline said children abused by their relatives accounted for the lion’s share of the total cases last year, at 72.84 percent, which represented an annual increase of 5.3 percent./.