Thatu Savimath Samanal Viyak on July 10 to focus on:

Powering the wings of teenagers

By Ranil Wijayapala

You may be a father, mother or guardian of a teenager but are you aware what their activities are at this moment?

The society and technology have given them many an option to enjoy life.

It is true that they are in a transitional period of their life and also in a society rocketing towards a techno based world and they also want to move with it irrespective of the rank their parents hold. But parents must ensure that their teenager in the threshold of becoming a responsible youth is on the correct path.

Responsibility

Recent incidents prove that teenagers are more vulnerable to sexual abuse and other forms of harassment compared to other groups of children. There is a strong responsibility on the part of society to make them aware what is happening around them and empower them to face challenges effectively as educated children, without becoming victims of that vicious circle in society.

Sri Lanka as a country having a strong administrative and legal framework to protect the rights of children and protect them from abuse is strongly committed in this endeavour and spearheading many programs to make the parents and teenagers aware of what is happening around them and how they should get protected themselves from the ills of the society.

The Probation and Childcare Services Department under the Ministry of Child Development and Women Affairs Ministry is ready to address the most sensitive group of the society through the program that is to be held on July 10 covering 311 Divisional Secretariat Divisions of the country targeting to address the teenage groups in the country.

"There should be an effective way of addressing this most sensitive group who are vulnerable for sexual and other forms of abuse and the program Thatu Savimath Samanal Viyak (Making the Teenager strong), is focused on that. Director, Probation and Childcare Services Department, Yamuna Perera said.

"Although we cannot give exact figures about abuse of children in their teenage years, the reporting of such incidents are on the increase. Through our Probation Officers and Child Rights Promotion Officers we find many teenagers getting sexually abused as they are not aware of the seriousness of their activities since sometimes they are run through their emotions as they don't have proper education about biological changes in their bodies", she said.

Rehabilitation

"The most dangerous is that many of these teenagers get abused with their consent and most of them are under 14 years of age. We can initiate legal action against those child abusers as the law of the country considers them as underage children. Otherwise many of these teenagers will get caught in the trap of these abusers", she said.

The Probation and Childcare Services Department as one government Department taking care of children has two approaches to the problem. One is to rehabilitate the children who have been directed for rehabilitation after they get abused. This rehabilitation is done by the Provincial Probation Department.

"We are coordinating the activities and provide required facilities for them",Yamuna Perera said.

"If we do not have a proper rehabilitation program there is a danger that these abused children will turn abusers in the society. Unfortunately we do not have a strong rehabilitation program for these children due to various reasons. We are focusing more on prevention of child abuse by conducting awareness programs", she said.

"As the Probation and Childcare Service Department we have Child Rights Promotion Officers. Their main role is to conduct programs to avoid child abuse incidents through awareness campaigns targeting various targeted groups", she said.

"We are mainly targeting teenage groups as they are the most vulnerable group for sexual abuse. The other group is the adults of these teenage groups as they are the ones who should take care of the teenage groups", she said.

Communicate

By conducting awareness campaigns among the teenage groups, the Department is trying to empower them to be protected from sexual abuses.

"We are creating peer groups among the teenagers as that is the best way to educate them. They can communicate with each other easily on this subject once they are well educated about society, and how to understand their biological changes and needs", she said.

"Last year too we targeted these peer groups when we conducted the awareness campaign under the theme Thatusavimath Samanalviyak . We conducted this program covering all the Divisional Secretariat areas, drawing 27,000 teenagers on the same date on different areas", she said.

Through this program they were educated on the biological changes in their teenage years without using the term 'sex education' to which the society is having a phobia.

"To open this topic more for teenagers we got medical doctors for discussion as they can do it more freely", she said.

Whilst educating the teenagers about their biological changes and their feelings, and how their feeling are exploited by the abusers, the adults groups that take care of these teenagers were educated on the latest technology to communicate with each other and networking themselves.

"One big challenge at present is that we have the latest technology. We should educate the teenagers how to make use of this technology for their benefit without misusing it. Both these topics were discussed among the adults at district level so that they could understand what new technology is and how children can make use of it", she said.

Since the background of the child abuse cases differs from area to area, incidents unique to the areas were also discussed separately.

"Based on the progress we achieved last year we are conducting this program this year too, on July 10, targeting the teenagers in 311 Divisional Secretariat areas by allocating funds for each Divisional Secretariat to conduct this program", Yamuna Perera said.

Child Rights Promotion Officer Thushara Wickremasinghe said when they are in the field they come to know how teenagers get abused in the coastal belt.

"It is unfortunate to see teenagers in their school uniforms nabbed by the Police in cabanas with their lovers. But they are not aware of being abused not only by their 'lovers' but also by dozens of other sex maniacs who get the opportunity to peep into these cabanas and video them", she said.

"Many of these children go to such places as there are no adults to take care of them in their homes. Therefore children in dysfunctional families are subjected to abuse in the society as there is no one to take care of them", she said.

Child Rights Promotions Officers are working hard to settle family issues through discussions with the family members before such family disputes are sent for courts for settlement.

"We have a mechanism in place to settle family disputes with the help of the police without allowing the children to become victim of these family disputes. Many police stations refer the cases to us for settlement to ensure that parents would live with their children. That is the best way of securing them from getting abused", she said.

"We are also trying to make adults aware about the importance of keeping their families together to ensure their children are living in a better environment. We also encourage the parents to become their closest friend since that is the best way to guide them", she said.

"We are trying our best to empower these teenagers to face the challenges in society more effectively without falling victims to child abuse. That is why we are making their wings stronger to face such situations through Thatu Savimath Samanal Viyak ", she said.