Hanoi (VNA)– Girls’ safety in public areas and child marriage problems were the maintopics at a dialogue on October 7 between girl representatives and leaders of anumber of National Assembly (NA) committees, ministries, sectors and centralorganisations.

The dialogue was partof the national forum of girls 2018 which is being held in Hanoi by the NACommittee for Culture, Education, Youth, Adolescents and Children, the Ministryof Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, the Central Council of the Ho Chi MinhYoung Pioneer Organisation, and Plan International Vietnam.

Through presentationsand plays, participants delivered a message to call for efforts to protect girlsin public places and end child marriage.

They gave proposals onhow to ensure safety for girls, including the building of entertainment spacesand works designed exclusively for girls, the installation of security cameraand lighting systems in entertainment areas, as well as the printing of addressesand phone numbers of support channels on the cover of notebooks, and theorganisations of more forums for children to raise their voice.

During the dialogue, officialsfrom NA committees, ministries, sectors and organisations listened and answeredto questions raised by the girls regarding the building of safe entertainment areasfor children, especially girls, measures to protect children from sexual abuse,along with issues related to nutrition and legal status for children of childmarriage, and life skill training for children.

Chairman of theCentral Council of Ho Chi Minh Young Pioneer Organisation Nguyen Ngoc Luongsaid that the council has set a goal to build an entertainment area forchildren in each commune, ward and town.

Head of the VietnamWomen Union’s Department for Family and Society Nguyen Thi Tuyet Mai pointed tohigh numbers of child marriage in mountainous areas across the country.

She said that theunion has coordinated with relevant parties to implement communicationprogrammes and models to raise public awareness, especially among ethnicminority groups, of problems from school dropout and child marriage.

Participants held thatit is necessary to improve knowledge and self-protection skills of children, whileparents must pay more attention to their kids.

Chairman of the NACommittee for Culture, Education, Youth, Adolescents and Children Phan ThanhBinh asserted that the most important thing is getting children to understand howto react in particular situations, who to contact when they need support, andwhat are their legal rights.

Binh held that alongwith backward customs, children’s poor awareness is also a reason behind childmarriage; therefore, he stressed the need to help children improve theirknowledge on the health consequences of early marriage and child bearing for bothyoung mothers and their children.

At the forum,officials from NA committees, ministries, sectors and organisations and girlssigned a commitment to act for the rights of girls.-VNA