Awareness for prevention

An Unforgettable Experience

A call came to CHILDLINE from Sreejith, aged 12, saying that he was being physically abused by family at Kottoor near Nedumangad. When our team reached the place, Sreejith was the only one present. He had a swollen hand which was bandaged. Sreejith greeted our team happily. When our team enquired how Sreejith came to know of CHILDLINE, he exclaimed: “All our classrooms have beautiful posters of CHILDLINE and I am seeing it every day. I called CHILDLINE because of that”. We intervened with the family for the safety and protection of the child.

The above experience was an unforgettable one our team. Our efforts are seemingly bearing fruit. The poster campaign to all the schools in Kerala with help of the Social Justice Department has just been finished and almost all schools have put up the posters in every classroom. As the children are always seeing the posters with clear message to contact CHILDLINE when they are in distress, this incident shows that the message has gone across to children. There is a sharp increase in the number of issues being reported by children.

Don Bosco Veedu Society’s intervention to spread the message of child safety to over 12700 schools across Kerala is indeed benefitting over 38 lakhs of school going children across the state. Over the past few weeks there have been increased reporting of issues to CHILDLINE from children and this is a positive sign of child rights awareness among children. The safety of all children of our society is our aim.