Child Protection Committee at King Abdulaziz Hospital - Al-Ahsa, Ministry of National Guard - Health Affairs, held the "Together towards a safe childhood" campaign aimed for child protection against abuse and neglect. Dr. Ahmad Al Arfaj, the Regional Executive Director of the Ministry of National Guard -Health Affairs in the Eastern Region pointed out that such event was held for the first time, covering specialized awareness lectures targeting the community.
"This activity comes after a continuous series of events seeking to correct any public misconceptions, where the prevalent idea in our society and similar ones is that the child must be physically disciplined to get the proper upbringing and discipline”, Dr. Ahmad added.
On the other hand, the head of the organizing committee, Dr. Manal Al-Saif explained that "the event was commenced with specialized lectures in the main hall, which local statistics on child abuse were reviewed, in addition to the cases submitted to MNG-HA hospitals, along with methods of reporting such cases s through official channels, which are not known to many".
She added,: "There isn’t a database that can confirm these statistics, due to the large number of un-reported cases; therefore we need to increase the community’s awareness in this regard". Moreover, an awareness exhibition was held on the sidelines of event covering all aspects child protection, by consultants, specialists, psychologists, social workers and even pediatric consultants to professionally answer any questions raised by the event’s visitors.
In addition, the Safety Department at King Abdulaziz Hospital, showcased the optimal ways to protect children from any accident, which sometimes leads to the death and or injury of many children, including fires, ingesting hazardous substances or medications, playing with sharp materials, or electric sockets.
Dr. Manal Al-Saif also pointed out that they have noticed there was a lack of awareness among children, about all forms of physical assault or abuse, which should be covered more at homes, schools and the media; they should all contribute to spreading this awareness to reduce the phenomenon of child abuse or molestation, especially when the child may believe that acts like touching or kissing from relatives or strangers is normal and spontaneous, and that's what we try to focus on.
Moreover, mothers of admitted children in the children's ward at the hospital also participated in this event, through an awareness program which focuses dealing with drugs and medications with caution at home. Students from the Department of Pharmacology at King Faisal University, reviewed the most prominent accidents and errors that parents may commit at home, which expose their children to danger and harm. Additionally, the more prominent incidents received by the emergency department are of those children who accidently eat pills and drugs as candies, which leads to drug poisoning.