Don't remain silent about child abuse

WESTERN BUREAU:

Jamaica's Prime minister and president of the People's National Party (PNP), Portia Simpson Miller, has called for the party's Women's Movement to align itself with other women's organisations in the fight against child abuse.

On a mission to tackle the burning issue of child abuse in the society, Simpson Miller said: "Our women cannot remain silent in the face of the continuing abuse of our children."

The prime minister was addressing more than 1,000 women at the PNP Women's Movement 2012 Conference held Sunday evening at the Montego Bay Convention Centre in St James.

Her call comes in the wake of government statistics which indicate that, up to April this year, there were more than 1,000 reports of sexual abuse of boys and girls since the start of 2012.

Describing the perpetrators as disgraceful, Simpson Miller said she prayed she never meets upon someone abusing a child, "as I don't know what I would do."