Children need care, not violence; Syria's experience
Syria, Culture, 1/31/2004

There is a growing concern about increase in violence against children in the schools, at home and in the community. This problem is faced by the many countries whether developed or developing, and Syria is not an exception to this.

In a statement to ArabicNews.com, UNICEF Damascus program coordinator and officer in charge, Narinder Sharma, said that to understand the situation of children violence against them at various levels, UNICEF in cooperation with the Damascus University and Ministry of Education conducted a study. The first results of a baseline study on violence against children, reveals that violence is commonly practised both within families and at schools. The preliminary results indicate that almost all (91.6%) interviewed children claimed that they at occasions are verbally abused by their parents, 79% say that they are physically punished by their parents, 67.4% are taken away savours, 55.3% are threatened, 53.5% are punished through timeouts (social isolation), and 47.1% are made fun of.

He continued that at schools both teachers and the students were asked about the treatment of the children, among teachers, 87% admitted threatening students to deduct their marks, more than 68% admitted beating with sticks/rulers or by slapping. At the same time amount, 79% of students confirmed that they are abused verbally and 72% complained of being beaten with a ruler or stick.

Sharma questioned: can any society afford to have the violent generation to follow in future? And the answer is certainly no, noting that hence there is need to create an environment which can provide the young children the required care and support whether in schools, families or community at large, to enable them to grow perfectly and to be better pillars of society to have stronger nation which has strong cultural heritage and values.

He indicated that to understand the problems and issues related to children and young people, there is a scarcity of data, although since about last five years more research has been initiated at various institutions and organisations level. I must say that in Syria, there is will to address children's problems and to give them a better and healthy living environment. Sharma explained that this willingness and commitment is demonstrated both at the government and community level, not in words but also in deeds.

In this context Sharma reminds of the last words of late President Hafez Al Assad that "Our destiny is to build for our children a reassuring future and our duty is to give them a better heritage than we had...." Under the leadership of President Bashar Al Assad, Syria has been working very closely with the International Community and there is plan to draw "National strategy to follow up on the outcome of United Nations General Assembly declaration of World Fit For Children."

Under the Chairmanship of Syria's First Lady. Asmaa Al Assad, the National High Committee for Childhood will be holding a "National Conference on Children" on February 8 to 10 in Aleppo to address the issues and come up with a workable plan to achieve the UN summit goals.

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