UNICEF partners NASFAT to establish child protection networks

The United Nations Children Emergency Fund in partnership with Nasrul-Lahi-L-Fatih Society, a faith-based Organisation, has urged communities in Cross River State to establish Child Protection Networks to miminise the impact of violence on children.
Malam Abdusalam Abdulateef, the Project Coordinator: “End Violence Against Children,” revealed this at a town hall meeting jointly organised by NASFAT and UNICEF on Tuesday in Calabar.
Abdulateef said the campaign to end violence against children in the society was a serious fight.
He said children were no longer safe at home, their schools and even in places of worship, adding: “We have to proffer solutions on ways to end child violence in the society.”
He said UNICEF decided to partner with religious organizations because it knew the benefits such partnerships would bring in view of the huge population religious leaders commanded.
Abdulateef said: “If you are a religious leader, use your pulpit to preach the gospel that we need to end child violence.
“Use your society as a case study of how perpetrators of this evil should be treated.
“The Cross River State Government and other bodies can also set up Child Protection Networks that would ensure that victims are not stigmatized.
“In your homes as parents, don’t keep quiet when a child comes up with what is happening to him or her in school or places of worship, the battle should not be left to the government or a section of the society alone.
“God will not come down to solve the problem of child violence, we have to do it ourselves. If you see something say something.”
Similarly, the Chief Imam of Ahmadiyya Mosque in Calabar, Alhaji Kabir Olowolayemo, blamed the mothers more for the violence against the children in the society.
Olowolayemo called on the mothers to properly watch over their homes and not to continually act as if they were the husbands who was hardly at home.
He said most mothers had neglected their primary responsibility of being there for the children and ensuring that the child was groomed morally.
He explained further that for the society to be safe, the home needed to be safe first, adding that it was the responsibility of both parents to see to the safety of their children and wards.
Alhaji Shaaban Abdulahi, a member of Child Protection Network in Calabar South Local Government Area, said they were always around to bring perpetrators of child violence in the area to justice.
Abdulahi said they worked with the Ministry of Women Affairs and police to rehabilitate victims, ensure arrests and make sure that cases were promptly charged to the family court.