Top row (from left): Soraya Agard (St. Maarten), Yvonne Bermudes (Aruba), Sacha Geerman (Aruba), Miosotis Yearwood (Curaçao), Peggy Grootens (Curaçao) and Shermina Powell-Richardson (St. Maarten). Bottom row (from left): Job Tanis (Dutch Ministry of Public Health, Welfare and Sport), Dirkje de Jong (St. Eustatius), Christopher Frans (Bonaire), Rachel Crowe (Dutch Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations) and Krijn Pons (Saba).
PHILIPSBURG--The Kingdom Children’s Rights Taskforce recently held what it called a “successful conference” themed “Ready, Set, Protect.”
The countries and public entities in the Dutch Kingdom participated in the conference and were able to interact, plan and agree on important matters that will lead to tangible results when it comes to child protection, it was stated in a press release on Wednesday.
The Kingdom Children’s Rights Taskforce was established during the 2014 Kingdom conference in Aruba to promote collaboration and capacity building on children’s rights within the Kingdom, among other assignments. “Ready, Set, Protect” was the fourth Taskforce conference.
The conference included several “insightful” addresses and hands-on workshops. Professionals from all the islands in the Caribbean part of the Dutch Kingdom who attended the conference were “impressed.”
“Whereas there is undoubtedly more to be accomplished, all the islands are working diligently to build a strong child-protection network. The opportunity to further strengthen collaboration between the islands and the Netherlands was a key takeaway, considering that collaboration has proven to be a catalyst to achieve lasting results,” it was stated in the release.
Curaçao and St. Maarten will collaborate to prepare and introduce their respective reporting codes (meldcode in Dutch).
Aruba is executing a social crisis plan that focuses on prevention, amongst other things.
Bonaire has been implementing safety nets to ensure that children have the option to attend extracurricular activities after school. “This concept is proven to be quite effective.”
Saba has introduced the HighScope method, in an effort to improve early childhood education.
St. Eustatius is preparing for the launch of a child line and is also setting up a reporting centre for child abuse and domestic violence.
“These are just a few examples of the initiatives that the islands are undertaking to offer our children a brighter future,” according to the release.
“It is a common misconception to think that children are only abused when they are hit, yelled at or sexually harassed. The truth is that the most common form of abuse is neglect, both physical and emotional, which often times goes unnoticed because it is abuse in its passive form.
“This is the reason why the Taskforce emphasises prevention. Prevention is one of the focal areas of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) which the countries and public entities in the Dutch Kingdom signed as part of last year’s commemoration of the International Children’s Day in November.”
