ANS with DBFC - 11.15.2009. In 2000 the Women’s World Summit Foundation created the World Day for the Prevention of Child Abuse. They established the 19 of November, a previous day to the anniversary of the approval of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Universal Children’s Day. The WWSF is a coalition of 786 associations from 127 countries.
The celebration is especial to Cambodia, a country that is generally pointed as critical in child abuse and other forms of violence like corporal punishments. Although the government of Cambodia launched in 2003 an anti-pedophilia campaign trying to shake off its reputation as a haven for sex predators and several humanitarian organizations have worked to enforce law and prevention, the problem still on discussion around the country.
According with official numbers, about 40 million children are victims of sexual abuse in the world; 1.2 millions of children are trafficker each year and many of them ended as slaves or prostitution, while 275 million children suffer domestic violence. 50,000 children are killed every year in the planet.
Among the member organizations of WWSF, is the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians – or the Salesian sisters – through the International Institute of Mary Help of Christians (IIMA) in Geneva and the VIDES International of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians. ‘The challenge for VIS and for the Salesians is focusing on prevention, on the promotion of human rights and in this way breaking the vicious circle in which ignorance leads directly to violence and to abuse,” says Carola Carazzone, the one in charge of the Human Rights Office of VIS. “Outside the offices of lawyers and philosophers, awareness and knowledge of one’s own human rights leads to educating the young to become participants, to a personal and social commitment to human development, to becoming responsible citizens of the world. Much can and must be done against abuse and violence not only in terms of repression, but also and especially in terms of prevention.’ In Cambodia, the Don Bosco Foundation of Cambodia has different programs for children, women and young people from communities at risk or poverty. The Salesian Sisters have three technical schools for girls in Phnom Penh and Battambang, while the Don Bosco Children Fund works in getting children back to school while empowering their families.