Dialogue held to facilitate welfare of children

CHITRAL: A community-based stakeholders dialogue was organized here on Wednesday under the Child Protection Project Sarhad Rural Support Program (SRSP) with the financial support of UNICEF to establish a link between the representatives of the institutions and the civil society related to the welfare of children and other related issues.Social Welfare Department, NADRA, Benazir Income Support Programme, Local Government Department, Police, Education and Health Department besides Ulema, representatives of media, bar association, civil society highlighted their respective roles in the referral pathway to solve the children issues.

District Officer of Social Welfare Nusrat Jabeen, Assistant District Education Officer Ayesha, Deputy Director Nadra Mukhtar Azam Khan, Deputy Director of Benazir Income Support Program, chairman and village secretaries of village councils of the flood-affected areas of 2022 and others participated in the dialogue. Child Protection Officer Salahuddin said Child Protection Committees have been formed in areas which were hit by floods last year, while places for children’s activities have been established in the affected areas under the name of safe space, where children’s interests are met.

Toys were kept there while awareness-raising sessions were held in these areas about the rights of children, ending violence against children and protecting them, in which hundreds of people participated.He said that under the same project, individual psychological counseling of children in flood-affected areas is also being arranged by hiring psychologists.