Tell children what ‘bad touching’ is
by mahmood on 08/05/06 at 10:09 am · email · print
A call has gone out to break the wall of silence surrounding child abuse in Bahrain.
Health officials say child abuse is common, but the extent of the problem is still unknown because most households still consider it a taboo subject.
The cycle of silence must be broken, said Health Ministry Primary Health Care Child Protection Committee chairwoman Dr Somaya Al Jowder.
This could be achieved by opening dialogue with children at an early age, she said. “At two years old, we teach children how to say eyes, nose, and mouth, but we don’t mention sexual parts. We should, so they will be aware,” Dr Al Jowder told a Press conference held at the Rufaida Building in Salmaniya yesterday.
“We must get parents to give their children sex education from the beginning and answer all of their questions.
“The problem is they feel they are too shy to discuss it with their children.
“They must build trust with their children so they will go to their father, or mother if something bad happens.”
The Health Ministry Primary Health Care Child Protection Committee, established in 1992, aims to protect children and prevent abuse through education and by raising awareness.
Last month it launched a child abuse website dedicated to supporting families and health care professionals and it has already received more than 2,300 hits.
The website, developed by Hassan Ali from the Health Information Directorate, can be found at http://sayno.health.gov.bh/, or can be accessed by visiting www.moh.gov.bh.
Dr Al Jowder said the committee was also raising awareness about child abuse though lectures and workshops for parents and children at health centres and schools.
“It is hard for the family to be around the child 24 hours a day, so it is better to provide them with the knowledge to protect himself,” Dr Al Jowder.
“We teach parents how they can show their child what is normal and bad touch and mothers should teach this using dolls.
“We want the child to be empowered to say ‘no’.”
Health Ministry maternal and child health care programme chief Dr Mona Al Mahmood said child abuse could be physical, sexual, mental, or emotional.
Physical abuse includes slapping, pushing, punching, kicking, shaking and burning, where sexual abuse would be rape, incest, fondling and indecent exposure. Emotional abuse would include insults, constant criticism, harsh demands, threats, and yelling.
Dr Al Mahmood said most abusers were close male relatives, but could also be teachers, relatives, or parents and the most common abuse was emotional neglect.
“We should be alert to all these types of abuse and each person is responsible to pick up cases and try to find out ways to protect the child,” Dr Al Mahmood told the GDN.
“Child abuse cases usually come to us when the child has broken bones, bites, or burns.
“If it’s sexual abuse the parent might want to check to see if the daughter’s hymen is still intact and if the child has any sexually transmitted diseases.”
Dr Al Mahmood said that some parents felt they had a right to physically and emotionally abuse their children.
However, she said, child abuse was multi-factorial and wasn’t just the responsibility of parents. She said school nurses had a big role to play in picking up child abuse cases and encouraged them to work with social workers and family physicians.
“Our aim is to register cases because without registration we don’t know the level of the problem,” she said.
“We want to make a study to test how many are abused.”
GDN :: Rebecca Torr :: 8 May ’06
