Safe Child Research Articles

Local narratives of sexual and other violence against children and young people in Zanzibar

Understandings of violence, and especially sexual violence against children, must be situated within the local context. The 2009 Violence against Children Survey in Zanzibar indicated that 6% of girls and 9% of boys reported having experienced sexual violence before the age of 18 years. This paper reports on an in-depth qualitative study conducted in Zanzibar to provide further insights to these findings by examining the circumstances for sexual and other violence against children in Zanzibar. Twenty-four in-depth interviews with young people and 18 focus-group discussions with young people and adults were conducted in rural and urban Zanzibar. A further 8 interviews were conducted with parents and key stakeholders in government and NGO offices that provide services for children. The findings revealed that religious and cultural practices, which form the foundation of Swahili culture in Zanzibar, provide a moral frame for childhood development, but structural factors make children vulnerable to sexual violence. Both boys and girls are vulnerable to sexual violence in the home, neighbourhood, at school and, in particular, at madrasa or Qur’anic schools. As religion and culture are strong influences on childhood, preventing sexual violence at madrasa schools would strengthen the positive aspects of religious teachings for ensuring a safe childhood.

Birth Preparedness and Complications Readiness for Safe Birth, Safe Womanhood and Safe Childhood

Birth Preparedness and Complications Readiness for Safe Birth, Safe Womanhood and Safe Childhood

A Study To Assess Immunization Status In 12 -23 Months Old Children Coming To Pediatrics Opd Of Gmch

Aims and Objectives:Assess the immunization status of children age group between 12-23 months from Kamrup Metro district. To identify and explore the factors affecting immunization status in children of Kamrup Metro and reasons for drop out from vaccinations. Design:It is hospital based study conducted in OPD, Guwahati medical college &hospital, Guwahati for 1year from 1 st June 2012 to 31 st May 2013. Participants:Children between 12-23 months of age belonging to Kamrup Metro district of Assam,who do not have immunosuppressive diseases & not on steroids are included in the study. Results:64.17% of children were fully immunized, 30.12% and 5.70% were partially and unimmunized respectively.BCG has maximum coverage (93.93%) & minimum for measles (64.88%). Hindus were better immunized 70.18% compared to other religions. Parenteral age and education also significantly proportional to immunization status. Immunization increases with increase in socioeconomic status (91.66% for class 1). Increase in birth order decreases chances of immunization. Practices like hospital deliveries and health care workers visits promote vaccination. Reasons for dropout were sickness, fear of side effects and family problems. Conclusion:Immunization coverage for children is still lagging behind significantly mainly because of social and economic reasons. Literacy has positive effect on immunization. Hence there is a lot of scope of improvement by spreading awareness and improving the living standards and providing better healthcare facilities which will in turn lead to complete immunization coverage and safe childhood.

Aligarh Model for Strengthening Comprehensive Child Survival Programme through Supportive Supervision (S-CCSP-SS)

On 10 May 2002, the United Nations General Assembly urged all governments of the world to ‘put children first’, to leave no child behind and to ensure for every child a nurturing and safe environment that enables their physical health, mental alertness and emotional security. Every child has the right to be known, to be respected, to be safeguarded against suffering or fear and to be confident of a safe, peaceful and happy childhood, with caring attention an assurance, not a despairing doubt. India is among the countries that have declared their commitment to these rights. Unfortunately, the reality for millions of Indian children is neither safe nor peaceful nor happy. In this background, the Aligarh Model for child survival may be considered by different agencies for ensuring children's right to life.

Young adults’ personal views on child abuse

This is a qualitative study based on reports from young adults, both exposed and not exposed to child abuse. The aim of the present study has been to analyse young adults' thoughts and feelings about child abuse. The data consisted of 358 responses to an open-ended question included in a national postal questionnaire study carried out by the Swedish Committee Against Child Abuse (Kommittén mot barnmisshandel). The analysis of data involved qualitative content analysis. Four main categories emerged: children's rights, consequences of child abuse, the role of the society, and causes of child abuse. The respondents who were abused as children wrote about the experience and the psychological long-term consequences of the abuse. The psychological abuse was particularly detrimental. The sexually abused expressed feelings of shame and guilt, in particular the young men. The non-abused respondents reported primarily on more general issues. They expressed children's right to a safe childhood and they strongly believed in stricter penalties for child abusers.

Young adults’ personal views on child abuse

This is a qualitative study based on reports from young adults, both exposed and not exposed to child abuse. The aim of the present study has been to analyse young adults' thoughts and feelings about child abuse. The data consisted of 358 responses to an open-ended question included in a national postal questionnaire study carried out by the Swedish Committee Against Child Abuse (Kommittén mot barnmisshandel). The analysis of data involved qualitative content analysis. Four main categories emerged: children's rights, consequences of child abuse, the role of the society, and causes of child abuse. The respondents who were abused as children wrote about the experience and the psychological long-term consequences of the abuse. The psychological abuse was particularly detrimental. The sexually abused expressed feelings of shame and guilt, in particular the young men. The non-abused respondents reported primarily on more general issues. They expressed children's right to a safe childhood and they strongly believed in stricter penalties for child abusers.

Building Resilience to Trauma: Creating a Safe and Supportive Early Childhood Classroom

On Monday morning, a collective shock was felt throughout the school as news spread of a student's death. John, a playful 5-year-old, had died in a car accident. One child in the class had witnessed the accident, but others had also heard of the tragedy from their parents or television news reports. Even children who were not classmates of the deceased student were affected by the emotionally charged environment as the caregivers around them became distracted and often overwhelmed by the compelling events that resulted in the child's death. Few of the early childhood teachers had specific training or experience in responding to traumatic events, and many struggled to address the emotions associated with the loss. Fear, shock, and anger filled many hearts on this dark day and in the ensuing weeks. The event attacked the sense of safety and security among the teachers and students. The day of this tragedy, the day after, and the following weeks and months all brought new transformations of the children's responses to such trauma and new opportunities for recovery.

Shared Action: Stronger communities, safer children

This article explores the effectiveness of an innovative and exciting project called ‘Shared Action’, a community development approach to child protection in Bendigo, Victoria. Shared Action was a three-year project which started in January 1997. It began by encouraging a sense of community ownership. A shared vision was developed with key goals leading to a wide range of community activities. A sense of hope and cooperation grew along with social networks, the capacity to resolve conflict constructively and a shared sense of community responsibility.

Book Review: Proud Child, Safer Child. A Handbook for Parents and Carers of Disabled Children

Book Review: Proud Child, Safer Child. A Handbook for Parents and Carers of Disabled Children

Book reviews

Book reviewed in this article:Proud Child, Safer Child: A Handbook for Parents and Carers of Disabled Children By Merry CrossPediatric Adapted Motor Development and Exercise By Jo H Cowden, L Kristi Sayers, Carol, C TorreyJohn Hughlings Jackson — Father of English Neurology By Macdonald Critchley, Eileen Critchley

Safe feeding practices for infants and young children.

To review local and overseas experience of food asphyxia in children and to examine aspects of safe childhood eating practices. Inpatient separation information data for childhood hospital admissions in South Australia were searched for episodes of food-induced airway obstruction and case records of the Department of Histopathology at the Women's and Children's Hospital were searched for cases of fatal food asphxia. While other forms of injury to young children appear to be declining in numbers, episodes caused by choking on food have remained relatively constant. The increase in average length of hospital stay (from 2.8 days in 1989-90 to 5.2 days in 1993-94) also suggests that the episodes have been more severe. Two fatal cases were also found. Choking due to food inhalation is a problem with potentially fatal consequences. Young children are particularly at risk as they have immature dentition and control of swallowing, and lack experience of food. Although young children should avoid potentially dangerous foods such as raw carrot sticks and raw apples, certain currently available information packages for parents recommend these foods.

Literature Tells Our Family Secrets

This passage touches me in an emotional way because it reminds me of summer nights in Spokane, where I grew up. I can smell the grass, the nylon and flannel of a sleeping bag, and I can feel the cool, air. I say moist air, but I don't mean humidity as we think about it-as it was when I lived in Rio de Janeiro, or Greenville, North Carolina, or as it is in Mankato, Minnesota, where I live now There's not an oppressive molecule in this air. The air on a summer night in Spokane is more like a pure liquid. It's substantial, but it's weightless. It's like being underwater. It's the only thing I feel accurate using the word ethereal to describe. If I were to be preserved in a medium, I'd like it to be the summer night air in Spokane, Washington. Maybe James Agee felt a similiar way about the night air in Knoxville. Maybe the weightless quality of that air is the weightlessness of a safe childhood where our tether to the earth is infinitely elastic and we go wherever we want in the transport of our dreams. I'll be forty-seven years old in a few days; I have a life so free of the horrors visited upon some of us that I'm moved to think of it as blessed. But I'm in the middle of that life, and like all of us I've accumulated things for which I'm responsible. My parents are getting old, and my children are growing up. It's the love and the responsibility I feel for these people more than anything else that has me grounded on this short leash. I do remember though what it felt like to lie on the grass, in a summer evening, among the sounds of night in defiance of the emotional gravity that holds me now, and I'm grateful to James Agee for having written about his time and place because it takes me back to mine. I'm grateful also for Agee's invocation: