Save the Children Fiji CEO Shairana Ali says the rising incidence of juvenile perpetrators in sexual violence acts against children is alarming.
“There’s a big concern when it comes to violence against children in Fiji, more so sexual violence, and recent media reports have indicated that perpetrators are also getting younger and younger,” she said.
“It’s the juveniles who are performing these acts on small children and that is a very big concern for Save the Children and as part of our response we are training and building capacities of different stakeholders to address the issue.”
Ms Ali said the concept of love, care and attention governed the Parenting without Violen training course, held with key stakeholders last week.
“We have a manual which is being used that is called “Children are Precious Gifts from God” and it’s teaching parents to respect children’s rights and the rights of course comes with responsibilities.
“If you are harming children, beating them or smacking them it does have longterm psychological trauma on their mental health and wellbeing. This is trauma that they will carry for the rest of their lives and it is also an intergenerational type of issue.”
She said the five-day training was to also strengthen stakeholders in collectively working together towards achieving milestones in their line of work.
