With child abuse cases emerging one after another, the Kaohsiung City Social Affairs Bureau and the North Kaohsiung Family Service Center joined hands on the 23rd to hold a “Big Hands Holding Small Hands” children’s protection parent-child hiking event at the Chengcing Lake Scenic Area. 1,200 parent-child pairs braved the wind and rain to experience a lakeside challenge game, showing their support for child protection through action. The domestic violence experience zone was almost lifelike, with screams heard from both adults and children, helping families better empathize with the wrongs of child abuse.

Recently, a case in Kaohsiung City where a 2-year-old child reportedly died from alleged abuse by their mother deeply saddened the child protection community. Yesterday (the 22nd), the Family Service Center launched a children’s protection awareness campaign that resonated widely. Chen, a parent with one child, said that a 2-year-old is just beginning to explore the world but didn’t get the chance to grow up—hearing the news was heartbreaking.

Wei Zongyin, director of the North Kaohsiung Family Service Center, pointed out that over the past 30 years, they have assisted in 2,586 cases of child abuse, finding that most involved parents taking a child’s life through improper discipline, with abusers mainly characterized by emotional instability and lack of parenting knowledge.

To this end, they designed a “Children’s Protection Fun Network,” setting up a domestic violence experience zone, a zone for children who have witnessed domestic violence, a children’s protection good neighbor zone, as well as popular game zones such as board games and parent-child reading challenges, guiding everyone to learn about child protection and reduce abuse through play.

Wei Zongyin said that according to data from the Ministry of Health and Welfare, one in every four abused children is under the age of 6—a very high proportion. He called for more adults to actively notice and care, remembering the slogan “Protecting children is simple, just call 113,” to prevent such tragedies from happening again.

(China Times)