Previous Story
Campaign seeks to prevent child abuse
|
Posted on Mar 31 2008
Lt. Gov. Tim Villagomez endorsed yesterday the month of April as Child Abuse Awareness Month—an annual awareness campaign in the Commonwealth against child abuse in all its forms.
The proclamation signaled the month-long campaign that seeks to increase community involvement in preventing child abuse cases in the CNMI. April 2008 would feature parenting and community activities geared toward an enhanced educational campaign on how to detect, prevent, and report child abuse incidents in the community.
Grace Christian Academy’s Peter Camacho shared that, despite the annual campaign against child abuse, there are still many cases of this in the community.
“Abused children believe that they have no value, believe that they cannot affect the world around them with good behavior, and are often angry and depressed,” Camacho said.
Abusive parents and caretakers often vent their frustrations on children under their care in response to their own anger and unhappiness.
San Vicente Elementary School student Jodi Reyes read aloud the proclamation before Villagomez signed it.
The lieutenant governor emphasized the need for the community to take part in learning more about child abuse and how it affects families and community.
“It is our job as adults to love, nourish, protect them [children] and not harm them. With the stresses in today’s parenting, let us redirect our stress toward other directions and not to our children. Abuse is not part of the local culture; it goes against our tradition,” Villagomez told the audience in yesterday’s signing ceremony at the Governor’s Office.
“It is important that we come together as a community to educate our people about the bad effects of child abuse and neglect. It is also important to teach proper parenting skills that would help eliminate cases of abuse,” Camacho said.
