The island’s churches are being urged to give more focus to protecting and prioritising the nation’s children as cases of child abuse continue to plague the country.
Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA) CEO Laurette Adams-Thomas made the call in an address to members of the Adventist uniformed group Pathfinders, in Mount Salem on Saturday, January 13, 2024.
While Adams-Thomas’s revelation that each month the CPFSA receives just over 1,000 reports of child abuse was not new data, the scale of the problem startled the more than 600 youth leaders and Pathfinders at the Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) Conference Centre.
“Every month we receive approximately 1,200 reports of child abuse, highlighting what I would say is the harsh reality that many of our children are currently facing. This issue is not just a statistic, it’s a call to action. It’s a call that echoes throughout our communities that we need to act,” Adams-Thomas said, adding “Globally, violence against our children remains a challenge and, unfortunately, Jamaica is not exempt.”