On June 27th a conference on child abuse will be held on Bonaire. This conference is conducted by the Dutch Youth Institute on behalf of Youth and Family Guardianship Caribbean Netherlands.
Child abuse is a societal problem of all times and all societies. This applies to the Netherlands but also for the Dutch Caribbean.
Child abuse is explicitly visible in recent years. It is therefore also prominent on the agenda of politicians, professionals in health care and education and judicial framework.
Research Data for Dutch Caribbean are not available. But when the figures of the Netherlands would be taken as a starting point and would be translated to each of the Caribbean islands of the Netherlands in order to get an idea of what we are speaking of, it would look as follows:
12 abused children on Saba, 26 abused children on St. Eustatius and 113 abused children on Bonaire. We’re talking about the number of abused children per year. If this number for the islands is correct or not, it may be less, it may be more, the fact is that every child that gains experience of child abuse is one too many.
This is the reason to organize a first (working) conference on each island with the theme of a comprehensive approach to child abuse in which doing nothing is not an option.
This first (working) conference on Bonaire is focused on a few key individuals and parties which have to do with parenting and growing to exchange views on the subject of child abuse.
The purpose of the (working) conference is to put the topic child abuse on the agenda, coupled with a jointly supported sense of urgency. It is a first step towards a comprehensive approach to child abuse.
The results of this first (working) conference will be included in an outline plan. This outline plan will guide the next steps to ultimately achieve a comprehensive approach to child abuse.