Child of Innocence - Child Abuse

There are already 77 reported child sexual abuse cases for the first quarter of this year and this number of reported cases is expected to increase further based on the trend over previous years if nothing is done about it.

In 2008, there were 54 reported child sexual abuse cases while last year the number jumped to 116 cases.

The increase in numbers is definitely alarming and what is even more worrying is that most of the cases involve perpetrators who know the victims.

50 percent of the abuse cases involve relatives, 29 percent are committed by someone known to the victim, 14 percent are committed by friends while 7 percent are committed by strangers.

Last year, there were a total of 181 reported child abuse cases.

These cases included negligence, physical abuse and emotional abuse.

These are the hard facts and there is an urgent need for adults and community leaders to stand up and fight child abuse.

With this in mind Saint Bedes College students from Savusavu have chosen to portray this strong message through FM96 Tadra Kahani with TFL and Fijivillage in the Senior Division finals on Thursday night.

Speaking from Savusavu, Saint Bedes liaison teacher Dawn Samantha said their theme is "Child of Innocence - Child Abuse" as the students are concerned about the number of abuse cases being highlighted.