PM Reiterates Call for Jamaicans to Protect Children

Prime Minister the Most Hon. Portia Simpson Miller, is again imploring all Jamaicans to take responsibility for the protection of the nation’s children and to speak up against child abuse.

“The safety and protection of our nation’s children is a responsibility that every Jamaican must share. Each of us in the churches, the schools, the families and wider community – we all have a role to play,” she said.

The Prime Minister’s remarks were delivered in a speech read by Minister with responsibility for Information, Senator the Hon. Sandrea Falconer, at the Caribbean Conference of Seventh-Day Christians Prayer Breakfast at the Knutsford Court Hotel in New Kingston today (January 31).

The event was held under the theme: ‘Save Our children, Save Our Future.’

Mrs. Simpson Miller noted that the Government is strengthening measures to protect the nation’s children. These include implementing policy changes, enacting new legislation, two of which will go before the parliament shortly and improving operational procedures.

She noted however, that “these will not have the impact without the participation of everyone.”

“We can begin by returning to the days when the community nurtured and cared for the children. If you know of instances of children being abused, don’t keep silent or turn a blind eye. It is our business to speak up and act,” she implored.

Mrs. Simpson Miller commended the Caribbean Conference of Seventh-Day Christians for using the prayer breakfast to help raise awareness of and show concern for the challenges facing children.

“Today, you are joining the call that I continue to make for concerted action to protect our children. All of us share the responsibility to ensure that the nation’s children can achieve their full potential, live productive and useful lives and become proud citizens of a vibrant and strong nation,” she said.

Minister of Education, Hon. Rev. Ronald Thwaites, in his remarks,  said the school must become the first ministry of the Christian.

“The church must take the holiness of the sanctuary and apply it in the schools. We must take each of those children, especially those who are most difficult, hard to reach and draw them close to us as (Jesus did),” he said.

He advised Christians to visit the schools near their churches and homes and “be a mentor, be a presence,”

Opposition Spokesperson for Social Security, Pearnel Charles, who represented the leader of the Opposition, Andrew Holness, also praised the church for using its prayer breakfast to highlight problems facing the nation’s children.

He called on churches across the country to “to do more now than it has been doing to rescue our children”.