Child agency secures more safe spaces for trafficking victims
Published:Saturday | December 16, 2023 | 12:08 AMAsha Wilks/Gleaner Writer
The Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA) on Friday installed two more child-friendly spaces (CFSs) for victims of child trafficking under its Jamaica-US Child Protection Compact (CPC) Programme.
These spaces are located at the National Children’s Registry (NCR) and the Glenhope Childcare Facility.
The purpose of the spaces, which are funded by the Warnath Group, is for the interviewing of suspected and confirmed child victims of trafficking and other children who may need care and protection.
Marsha Smith, state minister in the Ministry of Education and Youth, who gave the keynote address, noted that many of the youngsters “live in uncertainty and fear and deprivation, crime all around and abuse at home.
“Oftentimes,” she continued, “with all of that comes silence and the inability to express what is going on. So, that space that has been created ... and the others that are in operation right now. It gives a voice to ... a section of our society that is voiceless.”
Laurette Adams-Thomas, chief executive officer of the CPFSA, said that the importance of the child-friendly spaces “deeply” resonated with the agency.
The spaces, she said, were “not just mere physical spaces”, but that they also represent the agency’s “dedication to ensuring that every child in Jamaica feels safe, heard and protected.
“They embody our pledge to stand as guardians for those who need it most – our children,” said Adams-Thomas.
She further stated that in embracing these child-friendly spaces, it is expected that “lives will be transformed, hope will be restored, and futures will be safeguarded”.
The objective of the establishment of these spaces is to assist the relevant government agencies to effectively respond to victims of child trafficking and to assist vulnerable children in feeling safe, calm and comfortable when interacting with childcare and healthcare professionals, social workers and enforcement officers.
Although the four-year CPC programme ends this month, country programme director of the Warnath Group, Aylair Livingstone, said that to ensure the sustainability of the initiative, the group has established a website – childfriendlyspaces.com – where persons can view the progress work of the various CFSs, which are located across six parishes, to see how they function and how they are being used.
“We also developed a handbook, in partnership with other GOJ stakeholders, on best practices of interviewing and interacting with children and how to do that positively with child victims,” she said.
Under the CPC, the Warnath Group has set up a number of child-friendly spaces, including those at the Ministry of Justice’s Victims Services Division offices in Portland and Mandeville; the Centre for Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse’s Trelawny office; the Kingston office of the Independent Commission of Investigations; and at the Ewarton Health Centre in St Catherine.
The CFSs are also accessible to the Jamaica Constabulary Force, and other child-protection organisations.
The final CFS will be opened at the Counter-Terrorism and Organised Crime Investigations Division in Kingston.