Children with difficult circumstance, who have outstanding academic performance, receive gifts at the launch of the action month for children in central province of Thanh Hoa. (Photo: baothanhhoa.vn)

ThanhHoa (VNA) – The central coastal province of Thanh Hoa is intensifyingactivities to protect children in response to the action month for children this year.

According to theprovincial Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (DOLISA),communication campaigns will be organised to promote child care and protectionand social resources mobilised for the work.

Children-relatedissues that are of great concern to the public such as child abuse, violence, anddrowning are expected to be dealt with.

Addressing the launching ceremony of the on May 31,Dau Thanh Tung, vice chairman of the provincial People’s Committee called onlocal administrations, organisations, schools, families and society to strictlycomply with the 25 children's rights as prescribed by law as well as effectivelyimplement policies and programmes on child protection, care and education.

They were also urged to raise ideas to improve the effectiveness of the dissemination of the laws and policies on children. Communication campaigns should belaunched to raise awareness for families, schools and children on child abuseand injuries prevention and control, especially child drowning, he said.

Localities and units should mobilise resources to assist children with specialcircumstances, poor children and those affected by the COVID-19 pandemic,living in ethnic minority areas or remote and disadvantaged areas.

Attention should be paid to the building of more playing grounds so thatchildren can live in a safe, healthy and friendly environment while  the enforcement of children's rights is ensured, Tung said.

On this occasion, the event’s organising board presented 135 bicycles todisadvantaged children and five social security insurance cards, each worth 20million VND (865 USD), for students with difficult circumstances who haveoutstanding academic performance. Twenty scholarships, each worth 1 millionVND, were also awarded to disadvantaged students in Trieu Son and Nong Congdistricts.

According to DOLISA, there are 934,926 children in the province, accounting for25.6 percent of its population. They include nearly 150,000 ethnic minoritychildren, over 12,000 with special circumstances and over 104,000 atrisk of falling into special circumstances.

Although certain achievements have been obtained in childprotection and care work, yet there emerged some problems that need to be solved byagencies and the wh🎀ole society, such as accidents, especially drowning at anaওlarming rate.

There were 25 accidents involving children in the province in thefirst five months of this year, 19 of which were drowning, resultingin the death of 25 children.

Earlier, the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA) announcedthat activities of the Action Month for Children will take placethroughout June annually to enhance the sense of responsibility among the sectorsand relevant organisations in child protection and to ensure a safe summer forkids.

In the framework of the action month, the People’s Committees of localitiesnationwide are asked to build plans for activities of the action month suitableto their conditions and to bolster communication work to raise awareness andskills in child protection.

Measures to fight sexual abuse and violence against children in family as wellas locations receiving tipoffs and offering shelters for children, and helpline111, an emergency telephone number for child protection, must be popularised.

Localities are also required to regularly check so as to detect in a timelymanner high-risk locations prone to child-related accidents and to call onorganisations and individuals to support victims of abuse, orphans and poor,ethnic and pandemic-hit children.

According to the MOLISA’ report, in 2021, the Ministry of Public Securitydetected 1,914 child abuse cases nationwide, an annual decrease of 31 cases.

A report by the helpline said children abused byꦦ their relatives accounted forthe lion’s share of the total cases last year, at 72.84🅺 percent, whichrepresented an annual increase of 5.3 percent./.