Every child has a right live in a healthy environment safe from harm. In keeping with our Free from Violence campaign, ChildFund Ireland wants to see an end to all forms of aggression against children, including Gender Based Violence (GBV) across the globe. The consequences of violence on children can be devastating, resulting in lifelong and trans-generational trauma, and creating a cycle of disadvantage.
Violence can also be a trigger for economic disadvantage, with disability and reduced quality of life serving to reduce the productive potential in fragile economies that need children to mature and assume their rightful place in building the future. Nevertheless, for millions of children, physical, psychological and sexual abuse is a daily reality, combined with neglect and exploitation. It afflicts them in places where they should feel most secure – at home, at school, in care institutions, and in the wider community. It is estimated that some 150 million girls and 73 million boys worldwide are raped or subject to sexual violence alone each year (WHO 2006).
It is our challenge, indeed our obligation, to change this cycle of hardship blighting the lives of millions of children worldwide, denying them their basic rights.
We need you to speak up on behalf of those that can’t, and to help us work towards establishing basic human rights and protection for children. Join our #FreeFromViolence campaign today and use your voice to create a better, safer world for children. Help them to reach their full potential as equal citizens of our global society.
For more information and to sign our petition, please log on to; http://www.freefromviolence.org
