By: Thaimu Bai Sesay
The Youth And Child Advocacy Network has on Thursday 13th October 2022, launched the 2022 Index Report on Child Sexual Exploitation Abuse in Sierra Leone with a theme “Out Of the Shadows Report Index 2022” at the New Brookfield’s Hotel.
Hassan Faud Kanu, the Executive Director of Youth and Child Advocacy Network expressed that they were very fortunate to be amongst the countries whose report would be launched by the Global Report Card to see which strategies work better in the area of Policy and Legal tools to better Protect, Prevent and Respond effectively on Child Sexual Exploitation Abuse in different countries around the world.
“For the first time we would have the opportunity to join the international community that assesses government all over the world to know how they respond to children in their country be it boy or girl. Remarkably Sierra Leone is opportune to be among countries which will learn from the 60 countries who are ranked in this report by the 2022 OOSI”, Kanu said.
Rute Caldeira, Senior Strategic Adviser Out Of the Shadows, who virtually joined the meeting, commended Sierra Leone for recognizing the importance of Child Sexual Exploitation Abuse.
Caldeira explained with pictorial details the indicators of Child Sexual Exploitation Abuse and how Sierra Leone as a country could properly manage it. She made a clarion call on the government to put in place long and short term support that will prevent the occurrence of new offences. She emphasized the need to create more initiatives that would go into the communities and raise awareness on the issue of Child Sexual Exploitation Abuse.
Mohamed Haji Kella, Deputy Minister of Social Welfare officially launched the Index report. He spoke on the different ways children could be abused ranging from the family circle to mobile and international trafficking. The Deputy Minister revealed that the untimely involvement of children into petty trading had been the vehicle for the exploitation of children in Sierra Leone.
