9-year-old child is the youngest person to call the Child Helpline

The youngest caller to the National Child Helpline during this COVID-19 situation was a 9-year old.

This has been highlighted by the Country Director of Medical Services Pacific, Ashna Shaleen.

Shaleen says the types of calls they receiving now from children and questions that they are asking is when will the COVID-19 situation normalize as they are not at school, they are bored and they are at home.

The Minister for Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation is urging parents to spend more time with children at home and talk to them about COVID-19 and school, rather than being thankful for the lifting of curfew from 8pm to 10pm to spend more hours with buddies drinking grog.

Mereseini Vuniwaqa says that parental responsibility is very important at this point in time as children are missing school and their friends.

Vuniwaqa says it is when parental responsibility is lacking that we see an increase in issues dealing with children.

She says this has led to juveniles getting arrested.

Vuniwaqa says children need more support than even before in these trying times as COVID-19 is a new thing even for us adults.