As the nation gears up to recognize Child Month in May, Lauri-Ann Samuels, Executive Director, National Baking Company Foundation sternly reiterates the call on the nation to report all cases of child abuse.    

With the 2023 Violence Against Children and Youth Survey revealing alarming trends concerning sexual, physical and emotional violence, Samuels believes more crimes are happening in society which are not been reported. 

Based on the Survey, for sexual violence, nearly one in four females (23.7 per cent) and over one in ten males (11.7 per cent) experienced sexual violence during childhood, while for physical violence, approximately one in three children endured physical violence, often at the hands of those entrusted with their care; and for emotional violence, this form of abuse was widespread, affecting 37.8 per cent of females and 31 per cent of male. 

“Protecting children is not just a job for professionals. It is a duty for all of us… We all have to know the signs of abuse. We all have to understand what we can do to help. And how do we get there? We keep talking. We keep sharing the message—with our friends, our families, in our communities, online and offline, because awareness is a form of action—and silence is not neutral,” Samuels said at the launch of Child Month on Thursday, April 10, which was held at the GraceKennedy headquarters in downtown Kingston. 

“I’ll be honest, every year, we host talks and seminars like this one. We sit and discuss the problem at length. And some days, it feels like just that, another speech, another year of saying the same thing. It’s easy to feel like these conversations aren’t enough, but if we want to effect real and lasting change, we have to keep talking. The rights of children must become topical. It must be something we care enough about to speak about it every day,” she said. 

Samuels noted that her team at the National Baking Company Foundation believe that every child deserves to grow in a safe and nurturing environment, no matter their address, their background or their circumstance.

She alluded to the fact that each May, we pause as a nation to reflect on our children—their potential, their joys, and too often, their pain. With this year’s theme being Act Now! Stand Against Child Abuse and Exploitation, she said it is not just a call—it is a warning, because silence is costing our children their safety, and worse, it is costing them their trust in us.

Nicole Patrick Shaw, Chairman, National Child Month Committee shared alarming statistics on, and the one-year-old infant, Aliyah Michael, that was murdered in Golden Grove, St Ann, and 36-year-old Adain Joseph, a farmer of the same community, was charged on Tuesday for her murder. 

Patrick Shaw said, “This theme addresses a pressing and heartbreaking reality that violence and abuse against children remains a critical public health and human rights issue in Jamaica. The Child Protection and Family Services reporting 43,312 cases of child abuse [were reported] between January 2019 and December 2020; averaging 60 reports per day. On a global scale, the CDC estimates that one billion children experience violence each year”. 

She also noted that based on recent statistics from the Jamaica Constabulary Force for the crimes committed against children for the years 2020 to 2024, 168 children between the ages of 0 to 17 years were murdered; 1,439 were victims of rape and 2,576 were sexually offences, and this is enough for all persons to be alarmed and ready to act and report all cases of child abuse in Jamaica.