Helping a child needs team work, says Shahrizat

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PETALING JAYA: Community-based initiatives via an integration between local authorities, state assemblies and MP service centres can help children in vulnerable situations especially if they are being abused. Community leaders can help too, says Tan Sri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil.

The Umno Women and Family Affairs Council (Hawa) chairman said such approaches were useful and important, but they required proper planning before they could be rolled out.

“I believe community-based initiatives are already underway by some local organisations. So instead of reinventing the wheel, collaborate with them and learn to strengthen the approach,” Shahrizat suggested.

“If social or community-based models are to work, integration between the relevant stakeholders, including educational and religious centres, must be mainstreamed with child protection standards and steps,” she said.

“We also need to ensure potential perpetrators do not get access to these vulnerable children; as such, it is important to have a screening system in place to identify the good ones to be the community contact person,” she told The Star recently.

Shahrizat said in most cases, children would only inform trusted individuals of their abuse, but adults were usually ill-prepared to deal with the situation.

“As such, public awareness on how to file a report and the laws should be intensified and introduced to encourage people to speak up,” she added.

In 2007, during Shahrizat’s tenure as Women Family Community Development Minister, the Talian Kasih hotline (previously Talian Nur) was launched as an early intervention for victims of abuse, domestic violence and natural disasters.

She offered a few suggestions that could be incorporated presently, including connecting the hotline to other essential services, having properly trained frontliners with the ability to deal with the issue at hand, and having clear standard operating procedures (SOP) from the point of call receipt.

“If a caller lodges a complaint or seeks help, there should be clear and transparent SOPs in place so that they are not confused about the next steps,” said Shahrizat.

“That requires seamless inter-agency collaboration and mechanisms to hold these agencies accountable for the cases that come to them,” she added.

“To ensure the hotline works, the immediate and long-term response systems must work. Improvements must also be made to the entire child protection system, especially outside of Klang Valley,” she said.

However, Shahrizat acknowledged that for something to work, there should be sufficient budget, policy framework and legislation to support the efforts.

In the current context, she said the Social Workers Bill, which will allow recognition of the social work profession through registration and certification of practice, must be passed in Parliament.

“The new Bill would be an important step towards this and strengthening our country’s child protection framework,” she added.

Shahrizat said the shortage of trained social workers and overburdened staff pose a hindrance to case management, resulting in inadequate follow-ups, which may expose a child to more repercussions.

“Children must be seen as complete human beings – with the right to be safe, respected and treated with dignity. Our perception of the child influences them.”