Thursday 27 September 2007

Blog to stop abuse

Today is "blog against abuse day" for bloggers. Bloggers all over the world will blog about child abuse or other forms of abuse. If you didn't know yet, look here. Being a dad of 3 kids myself I would like to do something about child abuse.

It shouldn't hurt to be a kid....

- Child abuse is physical -- shaking, hitting, beating, burning, or biting a child.
- Child abuse is emotional -- constantly blaming or putting down a child; excessive yelling, shaming.

- Child abuse is sexual -- incest, any forced sexual activity, exposure to sexual stimulation not appropriate for the child's age.

- Child abuse is neglect -- a pattern of failure to provide for the child's physical needs, such as food, clothing, shelter, and medical care; a pattern of failure to provide for the child's emotional needs, such as affection, attention, and supervision.

What can you do if you know a child is abused?

If you suspect that a child has been abused:

- In cases of an immediate emergency, always call 911 (or police) for Law Enforcement intervention.

- Where the situation is not an emergency needing the police, reports should be made to the Child Abuse and Neglect Hotline. You can find all of that on the internet.

There is another way to help too. Childfocus is a Belgian founded organisation, but they operate all over the world. You can donate if you want.

Child Focus, the European Center for Missing and Sexually Exploited
Children, is a Belgian foundation, recognised as being of public utility.
For 7 years, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, at both national and international level, the center actively supports investigations in disappearance, abduction or
sexual exploitation of children and, secondly, tries to prevent and fight
against these phenomena. Remember our emergency number 110: if you want to
report a disappearance, an abduction or sexual exploitation.



3 comments:

Unknown said...

Great post!
BTW, I've heard saying that Child Focus's phone number would change in order to become an European number... Do you know something about it?

Nellioness said...

Yeah... the issue of abuse is very important. It's a great idea to unite bloggers against this cruelty of life. I think any kind of abuse (sexual, physical, verbal, etc) often leads to crimes. Parents abusing their children - this is exceptionally shocking.

So, let me hope, that bloggers can contribute to stop, at least, some crimes to happen. In my opinion, it's helpful to spread a word, because words sometimes work wonders.

As always, great post!

Rudi said...

Moi : I haven't heard but I'm sure it will be on their website soon then :-)

Nelli : thanks, and i hope it helps too, even if its just a little bit. Evety bit helps.