Safe and happy: UNICEF Indonesia encourages all Indonesians to visit its anti-child abuse campaign website, www
span class="caption">Safe and happy: UNICEF Indonesia encourages all Indonesians to visit its anti-child abuse campaign website, www.pelindunganak.org, after its launch on Nov. 20. Visitors can sign up as Child Protectors and commit themselves to assisting their local communities to prevent violence against children. (Courtesy of UNICEF Indonesia)
UNICEF Indonesia is set to officially launch an anti-child abuse campaign website, www.pelindunganak.org, on Nov. 20, following the launch of its Pelindung Anak (Child Protector) campaign in August.
As well as the website, the campaign aimed at ending violence against children includes television and radio announcements, billboards and social media campaigning.
Prior to the official launch, UNICEF Indonesia says it has rolled out the website and a series of anti-child abuse campaign activities across a number of platforms supported and developed by Ogilvy and Mather Indonesia.
Jointly built by UNICEF Indonesia and the Women's Empowerment and Child Protection Ministry, the Pelindung Anak campaign calls on every Indonesian ' no matter what their age, location or profession ' to join the national efforts to prevent child abuse.
UNICEF Indonesia's chief of child protection Lauren Rumble noted that 40 percent of children aged 13-15 years reported that they had been physically attacked at least once in a given year and 50 percent of children reported having been bullied at school.
'Violence against children has never been talked about and less than 10 percent of victims are able to come forward,' said Rumble at a Pelindung Anak campaign luncheon in Jakarta on Thursday.
UNICEF Indonesia representative Gunilla Olsson said most people would feel personally distant from the issue of violence against children.
'Most people tend to think that victims of this violence are not their family members and not their children,' she said.
'Still,' Olsson continued, 'the gotong royong (mutual help) spirit of communities in Indonesia can serve as a gateway to ending violence against children in the country.'
'If it takes a village to raise a child, it also takes a village to protect a child,' she added.
UNICEF Indonesia's child protection specialist Ali Aulia said that the development of the Pelindung Anak website was important as it could serve as a main information source about child abuse and related topics in Indonesia.
'For its official launch in November, it is expected that the website will already have its own forum, enabling members to discuss various topics around the prevention and eradication of child abuse right across Indonesia,' Ali said.
He said it was urgent for inter-generational cycles of violence to be interrupted as soon as possible because child victims of violence were twice as likely to perpetrate violence as adults.
'Providing information and raising people's awareness of the issue is the first step toward ending violence against children,' Ali said. (ebf)
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