More safeguards for kids needed

KUALA LUMPUR: Children make great stories for the media.

Unfortunately the attention, especially for child abuse and abandonment cases, seldom lasts long enough to ensure they will remain safe after the fuss has died down.

In the rescue of abused children from a private welfare home in December last year, it was found that reports about the alleged abuses were made six years ago but for various reasons, no action was taken.

It was not until a volunteer, who said she had witnessed the abuse, took some of the children to a police station to make a report that action was taken.

The Welfare Department, police and an NGO closed down the home in December and had some of the children placed in safety houses.

Child advocate Madeleine Yong, a director of non-profit organisation P.S. The Children which seeks to uphold the rights of children, described the experience of the children from that home as being out of the “frying pan into the fire”.

They were first sent to the welfare home to escape poverty and abuse from their own homes.

Police have confirmed that reports were lodged against the home and more than five months since the closure of the home, police are still investigating the case with the owner still at large.

A warrant of arrest has been issued.

“There have been allegations of child abuse in the home for six years. And six years is a long time for a home to continue running if there is abuse. They (the authorities) shouldn’t wait six years, that’s really appalling,” said Yong.

Apparently, the people in the community also knew about it but did not do anything.

Some community members from around this home had expressed fear of the owner.

“The people who ran the home were very noisy. Nobody dared to approach them because they were afraid of getting beaten up,” said an old man who lives down the road from the home.

For six years, the home continued to receive funding from the public and the children continued to put up a show for visitors with their cookie making, singing and dancing.

“The kids who were injured would be kept in their room, away from visitors, or made to wear long sleeves. If they spoke to the visitors, they would be beaten up soon as the visitors leave,” said the volunteer who, fearing for her safety, refused to be identified.

She claimed the abuse took place right before her eyes.

One of the children was so badly beaten up that he had cuts on his face that required stitches, she alleged.

“They didn’t take him to the hospital and sewed the wound up by themselves! I have also witnessed children being thrown across the room,” she claimed.

She has since lodged three police reports for her own safety as she believes she is being trailed and watched.

Until the police investigation is completed or when the offender is brought to court, there will still be a doubt as to whether all that she has alleged actually happened.

Provisions under The Child Act 2001 allowed the volunteer to get the children and their parents to make police reports and to pursue the matter with the Welfare Department until the home was closed in December.

However, the home was shut down for not having a licence and not for the alleged abuse.