More than 102 children have suffered some form of physical violence (blows and wounds) during the year 2012 in Salé.
The statistics are alarming, especially when they come from a reliable source such as the Minors' Brigade under the police district in Salé. According to the same figures presented last week by the brigade chief Rachid Nait Taleb, 52 children of the recorded cases have not yet reached the age of 12, while 31% of the cases were victims of sexual violence. Moreover, these figures are rising crescendo to reach worrying levels. According to Aicha El Kbidi, a social worker at the Moulay Abdellah hospital in Salé, the Assistance Unit for women and children victims of violence welcomes an increasing number of children victims of physical violence in Salé every month. In order to effectively fight against this phenomenon, a new project to fight against the various forms of violence against children in Salé will be put in place.
Launched last Wednesday in the presence of a range of experts, professionals, and members of the local authority and civil society actors, the said programme, christened "Strengthening civil society and support for the establishment of a child protection system in Salé", aims to contribute to the development of a care circuit for vulnerable children or victims of violence in this city.
Implemented by the Association for a Better Future for Our Children (AMANE) in partnership with the Habitàfrica Foundation and with the financial support of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation, this initiative, which is incidentally the first of its kind in Salé, also tends, according to the project manager, Saadia El Aarak, to define a systemic intervention methodology for adequate care for children victims of violence in this city. The general goal is to contribute in the long term to the improvement of the child protection system in Morocco. Note that the implementation of this project began first with the realisation of a field survey. This survey, initiated over the period from December 2012 to January 2013, had the objective of identifying associative actors in child protection and examining, based on the experiences of associations, the care circuit for children victims of violence in Salé.
The survey, which was based on the results of interviews with local actors and field visits to more than 30 associations working in the field of child protection, allowed several conclusions to be drawn. Indeed, the survey points the finger at the absence of studies and statistics allowing the exact scale of this phenomenon to be measured. The study also notes a weakness in terms of support and follow-up for children victims of violence and an almost total absence of programmes intended for the rehabilitation and reintegration of victims into society. The document also raises the issue of the slowness of judicial procedures and the difficulty of access to health services. The study finally formulates recommendations to overcome these difficulties. It is, in this case, a question of guaranteeing comprehensive and integrated care for children victims of violence through the strengthening of coordination between the various actors in this field.
It is also prescribed to strengthen the capacities of actors with the aim of guaranteeing better application of the law.
Business card
Created in May 2009, the Association for a Better Future for Our Children (AMANE) is an NGO under Moroccan law set up to fight against sexual violence against children in North Africa and the Middle East. To fulfil this mission, the association intervenes through the strengthening of the capacities of child protection actors to improve the prevention and care of vulnerable children and/or victims of sexual violence. The NGO also works for the production of reference tools on the subject intended for child protection actors as well as raising public awareness about the phenomenon. The association also develops advocacy to improve the system of protection of children against sexual violence.
-* 31% of physical violence cases recorded in Salé are rapes.
-* A programme launched on Wednesday aims to contribute to the development of a care circuit for vulnerable children or victims of violence in Salé.
