MINISTER of Youth and Culture Lisa Hanna has reiterated the call for Jamaicans to break the silence on abuse of the nation’s children on the heels of a report of a 26 per cent spike in the number of cases of sexual abuse reported last year.

According to the 2013 statistics compiled by the Office of the Children’s Registry, 11,018 reports of child abuse were received, and of that figure 8,679 were cases being reported for the first time. Some 57 per cent of the reports were abuse of girls and 41 per cent were boys.

“The data suggest that neglect is the number one form of abuse and accounts for 48 per cent of all reports,” Hanna pointed out. “Children who were sexually abused accounted for 31 per cent, and this category is growing, as we saw an increase of 26 per cent in the reporting of sexual abuse over the corresponding period in 2012. Rape also went up by 19 per cent.”

She also explained that the increase was mainly due to an increase in carnal abuse cases.

“Whether or not we want to accept it, we have had several interventions and sessions, and mothers have come to me and said ‘well, how is it that my daughter can have sexual relationships when they’re over 16 but they are considered an adult at 18?”‘ Hanna said.

“The truth is that the law says if the child is having sexual relations under 16, the person can be reported, and we are still trying to assimilate whether or not in many of the cases the mothers knew about it or if the children were held against their will.”

Consequently, the minister, who was speaking at the opening session of a child sexual abuse workshop hosted by the Women’s Leadership Initiative (WLI) at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel in Kingston recently, called on Jamaicans to report cases of abuse and refrain from silencing the abused children.

“We tend to have a problem with being honest with each other, and we tend to have a problem telling the truth because we don’t want anyone to know what we are going through; and if we continue, the statistics that we are seeing are going to rise exponentially,” Hanna warned.

She also cited incest as one form of abuse that Jamaicans have failed to speak up about.

“Incest is something that doesn’t just happen at the bottom, it happens at the top, and it is something that we are going to have a conversation about,” she said.

Added Hanna: “I think the worst reality we have in Jamaica is where these children are told that if they say anything they are going to bring down shame and scandal on the family. And worse a mother who says too her daughter ‘me did guh through it to and nutten neva happen to me’, and this is what is happening.”

However, she said Government has played its part by strengthening the Sexual Offences Act so that both the perpetrators and those who fail to report the cases of abuse can face stiffer penalties. But that means nothing if the cases are not reported and people continue to withhold information, she explained.

The minister congratulated the WLI for hosting the workshop for basic school teachers and principals under its Darkness to Light, Stewards of Children Programme in Jamaica and commended the group for assisting government in dealing with issues concerning children.

Meanwhile, she implored the participants to learn the telltale signs of abuse and to look for this among their students so that they can help and also educate them to speak up about child abuse.

Darkness to Light is a United States-based non-profit organisation which seeks to reduce the incidence and impact of child sexual abuse though training workshops.

According to Lezanne Azan, of the WLI Advocacy Committee, said since the entity initiated and launched the Darkness to Light programme in May 2010, it has trained facilitators from over 30 key stakeholder organisations to effectively deliver and implement the ‘Seven Steps to Preventing Child Sexual Abuse’ and how to assist youth-serving organisations in creating and implementing organisational policies that protect children.

“For this our third training we have invited persons who are in direct contact with children on a daily basis. We believe that educators are an important group in the prevention and recognition of child sexual abuse,” she said.