Children as young as seven and eight are contemplating suicide due to traumatic incidents in their lives.
This according to Mary Moonan, programme coordinator of Childline who spoke to members of the media after the opening ceremony of the Judicial Reform and Institutional Strengthening (Jurist) Project launched at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Port-of-Spain yesterday.
Childline is a free, confidential telephone helpline and listening service for children in trouble or danger.
“What we are seeing are emerging trends of children who are quite traumatised at an early age by things that they ought not to be concerned with. So they are thinking of suicide.
“It is a very heart rendering situation and you ask yourself what has happened in the family that someone so young would think about those things,” Moonan said.
On what may lead to suicidal thoughts in young children, she said the core issue was a lack of support within the home.
“If you don’t have a father present...you have a mother who sometimes would hold down two jobs just to keep things going so the children are quite often neglected emotionally...they don’t have that emotional support.
“When they go home the mother is not there. They come home to an empty house and sometimes they have very little self worth. They don’t know why they are in this world,” Moonan said.
Moonan said more children have been reaching out to Childline for help but this was not just for sexual offences alone.
Asked to provide sexual offences statistics involving children she referred to the Police Service saying the statistics compiled by Childline would not be a representation of the national trend.
On its website the Police Service reported 388 cases of rape, incest and sexual offences for the year to date.
She also expressed concern that the family unit was “fast disappearing,” adding that the extended family was also in jeopardy as in some cases grandmothers were working resulting in children not having anyone to turn to.
“So these children really feel very alone and it is a sad situation,” Moonan said.
Saying this was not in the country’s best interest she asked, “When these children grow up you ask yourself how functional will they be? Can they operate as normal? They are traumatised and need help?”
She said when a troubled call came to Childline, counselling was provided by trained personnel and in serious situations the caller was referred to other agencies for help.
Moonan said while yesterday’s launch was welcomed what was also needed was the implementation of laws and a change in culture to properly tackle the problem of violence, including sexual offences against women and children.
Canadian High Commissioner Carla Hogan Rufelds said there have been daily reports of sexual violence against women, an indication that this remained a serious problem, both in terms of numbers and the difficulties in bringing the perpetrator to justice.
The Jurist Project is a five-year regional Caribbean judicial reform initiative funded under an arrangement with the Canadian government. It is being implemented in at least six countries on behalf of Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs Trade and Development (DFATD) and the heads of judiciary of Caricom. The project works with judiciaries in the region to support their own efforts to improve court administration and strengthen the ability of the courts and the judiciary to resolve cases efficiently and fairly.