A symposium held on World Children’s Day, hosted by FELM, the World Council of Churches, and other partners, gave an overview of the Churches’ Commitments to Children programme, an initiative of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Churches and UNICEF.
The National Child Helpline Aids Tanzanian Children Experiencing Violence
CHANHASSEN, Minnesota According to Global Citizen, police filed more than 6,000 reports of child abuse in Tanzania in the first half of 2018. Nine out of 10 of these cases included some form of sexual violence. In response, the Tanzanian government has developed more thorough child security protocols. In 2017, the government established the Five-year National Plan of Action to End Violence Against Women and Children. However, the goals of this program have yet to be achieved. Despite the initiatives, issues in enforcement, cultural attitudes and provision of resources for victims have prevented this legislation from completely eliminating violence perpetuated against children. In hopes to give these children the aid they deserve, The National Child Helpline has been working nonstop to fight the ongoing violence against children in Tanzania.
Tanzanian helpline reaching thousands of at-risk women and girls every day
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Dar es Salaam, Tanzania – It was 3 o’clock on a Friday afternoon when Grace, a counsellor at the National Child Helpline in Tanzania, received a call from a concerned teacher in Msalala, Shinyanga Region. One of the teacher’s brightest students, 13-year-old Eliza , had not turned up for school that day, and she had heard worrying rumours that Eliza’s parents intended to marry her off. The parents had purportedly accepted a dowry payment from the family of the groom – who was a 35-year-old man.
“I was very scared on behalf of the poor child. I felt her pain,” Grace told UNFPA. “But I told myself I should be strong for that child, and I made several calls just to make sure that someone with authority would step up and stop the marriage.”
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