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Last Updated: Feb 13, 2017 - 1:45:37 AM |
Left to right:
National Child Protection Council Deputy Chairman, Dr. Novia Carter, and Chairman, Pastor Gil Maycock. (BIS Photos/Letisha Henderson)
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GOVERNMENT HOUSE, Mount FitzWilliam – Child Protection officials in The Bahamas Tuesday launched the new symbol for child protection with the planting of a Pinwheel Garden at Government House, Mount FitzWillam.
Meanwhile, National Child Protection Council Chairman, Pastor Gil Maycock, has called for a “united front” in the fight against child abuse in The Bahamas saying that child abuse can have far-reaching negative effects on the country’s future landscape.
Governor-General, Her Excellency, Dame Marguerite Pindling, planted the first pinwheel and was joined by Minister of Social Services and Community Development, the Hon. Melanie Sharon Griffin; Pastor Gil Maycock, Chairman of the National Child Protection Council (NCPC); Dr. Novia Carter, Senior Child Psychologist (Ministry of Education, Science and Technology) and the Deputy Chairman of the National Child Protection Council.
Senior officials from the Department of Social Services, Ministry of Social Services, including Director Mellany Zonicle, members of the Suspected Child Abuse and Neglect Unit (SCAN) of the Department of Public Health, Ministry of Health; members of the Child Protection Committee and Social Workers and Case Aides with the Department of Social Services and Urban Renewal, all assisted in completing the garden.
“Today is an exciting day for us because this is the first time that we have introduced the pinwheels here to The Bahamas,” Dr. Carter said. “The pinwheel simply shows that we are looking at prevention; that we are looking at how we are going to stop child abuse before it happens and it denotes a happy picture; the pleasures, the joy of childhood.”
Dr. Carter said the NCPC and its partners are “stepping up our efforts” with regards to prevention through a massive education and awareness campaign.
“We have a new campaign that we have launched for this child protection month and that’s the ‘Stop N Think Campaign.’ What ‘Stop N Think’ is saying is that we are going to look at more positive ways to prevent violence against children and undertake mammoth efforts to ensure that every child throughout the Commonwealth realize their worth, their importance, while ensuring that they are not abused or harmed.”
NCPC Chairman Pastor Gil Maycock called on Bahamians everywhere to unite in the fight against child abuse in The Bahamas.
“We want everyone to unite and come together on child protection as a family and as a team. We cannot do it alone. We need everyone to participate in the protection of our children: they are our future and if we have a dysfunctional set of young persons or children, we are going to have a dysfunctional future and we don’t want that. We want a functioning nation, we want a functional nation and we all have to come together to ensure that we are protecting our children.”
Pastor Maycock said the planting of the Pinwheel Garden at Government House “will help people to know that together we can continue to ensure that we have children who are happy, who are carefree and that there is hope and that is what the pinwheel signifies.”
Child abuse, he said, is a scourge that can have serious ramifications on any country if left unchecked.
“A lot of times you see it when persons become adults and you see how dysfunctional they are in their marriages, on the job; they have a hard time maintaining relationships -- the only thing they know how to do -- is to respond through abuse or through hitting and so we see an increase in violence.”
Child abuse is particularly debilitating because children generally learn their life lessons from their experiences.
“We always have to remember that our children’s minds are like sponges and that they absorb and learn a lot more through experiences and so if they are experiencing hurt and pain and abuse in whatever form, whether its verbal abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, neglect, spiritual abuse, all of these various forms, if they are learning that as children more than likely they are going to exhibit more of those types of tendencies when they become adults.
“That is why we are saying we do not want a dysfunctional nation, but rather a functional nation. So we have to make sure that our children are made to realize that they have value, that they are loved, that they are going to be respected, that their bodies are precious and that nobody should manipulate or harm those bodies. It is extremely important that we are making sure that we are providing the right type of atmosphere and environment for our children as they continue to develop so that we can have a better future, a better tomorrow here in The Bahamas,” Pastor Maycock added.
The NCPC will ratchet up its education and awareness efforts with even more visits to schools, communities and the Family Islands.
Established through the Ministry of Social Services with Cabinet approval, the Council’s mandate is to assist in ensuring that persons understand what child abuse is and what can and should be done to protect children.
“We have been involved for the past 15 years in ensuring that we are getting into the schools, that we are traveling throughout the Family Islands spreading this message through town hall meetings while also utilizing the media.
“There have been various programmes that we have utilized to get the message across when we go into the various places, and so it has been a wonderful effort.”
NCPC officials, in conjunction with their partners at the Department of Social Services and the Ministry of Social Services and Community Development, will take their message on the road to ensure full coverage throughout The Bahamas.
“We are going to be traveling to Bimini and to Exuma and we are going to be talking about our ‘Stop N Think’ and ‘Say No Then Go’ campaigns. We are going to have town hall meetings, go door-to-door, walk the streets and utilize whatever media we have in these islands to ensure this message continues to get out,” Pastor Maycock added.
© Copyright 2016 by thebahamasweekly.com
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