{"id":159557,"date":"2016-04-05T13:05:23","date_gmt":"2016-04-05T17:05:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/?p=159557"},"modified":"2016-04-06T10:26:14","modified_gmt":"2016-04-06T14:26:14","slug":"voices-of-abused-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/features\/commentary\/voices-of-abused-children\/","title":{"rendered":"Voices of Abused Children"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_152528\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-152528\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-152528\" src=\"http:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/francis-joseph-300x231-300x231.jpg\" alt=\"Francis Joseph\" width=\"300\" height=\"231\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-152528\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Francis Joseph<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>As a Child Rights &amp; Protection Advocate for over 30 years and was head of a child development agency for 17 years, and in the front line with NGO partners we need to ADOPT and understand the importance of the \u201cPROTOCAL\u201d (the steps and procedures for following&#8230; pursuing a reported child abuse case),\u00a0to ensure that our children are always the priority for discussion and to be heard and protected during this unfortunate sensitive process.<\/p>\n<p>In absence of clear policies with a strong guided \u201cprotocol\u201d the process and expectation of the uninformed will be a \u201cPay as you Go\u201d adopted policy, demonstrated on the radio, the sidewalks etc. Our people need to be guided.<\/p>\n<p>Anyone who sits in any position of authority where children in particular are concerned, for example, the home (parents, guardians, uncles etc, schools (teachers, parents board), Non Governmental Organisations (Directors, field officers etc), Governments (Presidents, Prime Ministers, ministers, Opposition, heads of depts. Etc,), where anyone within these organisations listed are accused of child or any form of abuse must step aside of their roles and positions until the case is dealt with in the interest of all parties concerned.<\/p>\n<p>I compliment Ian Pinard for resigning himself from this situation very early in the accusation and today we do not have him in the news as a distraction as the child is the focus and priority to be protected and should be our principled concern to be heard and excusing oneself enables the protocol and process to proceed and conclude legally. It is irrespective he resigned by choice, was asked or forced or threatened to resign, or persuaded to resign. The protection and acting in the best interest of <strong>The Child<\/strong> must be seen to be key in these matters.<\/p>\n<p>Hon Joshua Francis is best advised to excuse himself, and should have exited from his public held position within his party (UWP) without even the leader or the executive instructing him to do so. This is the honourable thing to do. Therefore the UWP leadership\/executive is right to advise that Hon Joshua Francis resign excusing himself from the role\/position that he holds as it creates a conflict of interest in the process and in the minds of the public. Therefore this debate on the radio should not be taking place as to who said what, did what, implied this or that is utterly unnecessary as the victim, the child is out there likely to be in some level of psychological pain and likely to live with trauma for some time. I know people in their 50`s who are still suffering recalling their experience and ordeal of sexual and other forms of abuse.<\/p>\n<p>The child who is traumatised must be seen to be vulnerable and likely at risk for some time.<\/p>\n<p>This is beyond <strong>UWP<\/strong>, <strong>DLP<\/strong>. <strong>DFP<\/strong>, the <strong>Churches<\/strong> but our aim must be the <strong>Protection of the child<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>This is the protocol that has been adopted in developed countries around the world. A famous UK Disk Jockey, radio personality resigned only recently when such accusations came up. That investigation goes on. He did not wait to ask to excuse himself from this prestigious, fame position he held.<\/p>\n<p>We have to be focussed as a people in addressing child abuse as we never know when it will be closer to home affecting our families. WE therefore must not adopt a \u201cpay as we go\u201d attitude in discussing this delicate matter which seems to be dependant of the person we like or not or based on party or religious affiliations. A principle stance must be adopted irrespective of who is accused and what position they hold.<\/p>\n<p>Radio announcers and journalists and the public in general need to be well informed and talk strongly of the \u201cprotocol\u201d if they are to lead the discussion in the quest for justice and fair play and in this light I will advised announcers and journalists that they always excuse themselves from unnecessary accusations by inviting independent advocates to assist in guiding and commenting on the issues before raised by the public that they are well informed and guided.<\/p>\n<p>I am hoping with the increase in child abuse cases in Dominica there will be more urgent focus to place priority and energy on early detection and prevention.<\/p>\n<p>We must focus on <strong>\u201cThe Voices of Abused Children\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As a Child Rights &amp; Protection Advocate for over 30 years and was head of a child development agency for 17 years, and in the front line with NGO partners we need to ADOPT and understand the importance of the&#8230;","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":152528,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-159557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Voices of Abused Children - Dominica News Online<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/features\/commentary\/voices-of-abused-children\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Voices of Abused Children - Dominica News Online\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As a Child Rights &amp; Protection Advocate for over 30 years and was head of a child development agency for 17 years, and in the front line with NGO partners we need to ADOPT and understand the importance of the...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/features\/commentary\/voices-of-abused-children\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Dominica News Online\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-04-05T17:05:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-04-06T14:26:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/francis-joseph-300x231.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"231\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/homepage\\\/features\\\/commentary\\\/voices-of-abused-children\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/homepage\\\/features\\\/commentary\\\/voices-of-abused-children\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/1cf13c57fb23f5f3f17888628ce87bed\"},\"headline\":\"Voices of Abused Children\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-04-05T17:05:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-04-06T14:26:14+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/homepage\\\/features\\\/commentary\\\/voices-of-abused-children\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":735,\"commentCount\":22,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/homepage\\\/features\\\/commentary\\\/voices-of-abused-children\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/01\\\/francis-joseph-300x231.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Commentary\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/homepage\\\/features\\\/commentary\\\/voices-of-abused-children\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/homepage\\\/features\\\/commentary\\\/voices-of-abused-children\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/homepage\\\/features\\\/commentary\\\/voices-of-abused-children\\\/\",\"name\":\"Voices of Abused Children - Dominica News Online\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/homepage\\\/features\\\/commentary\\\/voices-of-abused-children\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/homepage\\\/features\\\/commentary\\\/voices-of-abused-children\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/01\\\/francis-joseph-300x231.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-04-05T17:05:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-04-06T14:26:14+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/1cf13c57fb23f5f3f17888628ce87bed\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/homepage\\\/features\\\/commentary\\\/voices-of-abused-children\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/homepage\\\/features\\\/commentary\\\/voices-of-abused-children\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/homepage\\\/features\\\/commentary\\\/voices-of-abused-children\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/01\\\/francis-joseph-300x231.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/01\\\/francis-joseph-300x231.jpg\",\"width\":300,\"height\":231,\"caption\":\"Francis Joseph\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/homepage\\\/features\\\/commentary\\\/voices-of-abused-children\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Voices of Abused Children\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/\",\"name\":\"Dominica News Online\",\"description\":\"The most popular news site in the Commonwealth of Dominica\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/1cf13c57fb23f5f3f17888628ce87bed\",\"name\":\"Admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/42ebaab81cf135a4ac3c52a6b343fa681417839645e8852f990f1e435612b089?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/42ebaab81cf135a4ac3c52a6b343fa681417839645e8852f990f1e435612b089?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/42ebaab81cf135a4ac3c52a6b343fa681417839645e8852f990f1e435612b089?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Admin\"},\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/author\\\/tdurand\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Voices of Abused Children - Dominica News Online","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/features\/commentary\/voices-of-abused-children\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Voices of Abused Children - Dominica News Online","og_description":"As a Child Rights &amp; Protection Advocate for over 30 years and was head of a child development agency for 17 years, and in the front line with NGO partners we need to ADOPT and understand the importance of the...","og_url":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/features\/commentary\/voices-of-abused-children\/","og_site_name":"Dominica News Online","article_published_time":"2016-04-05T17:05:23+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-04-06T14:26:14+00:00","og_image":[{"width":300,"height":231,"url":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/francis-joseph-300x231.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Admin","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Admin","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/features\/commentary\/voices-of-abused-children\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/features\/commentary\/voices-of-abused-children\/"},"author":{"name":"Admin","@id":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/1cf13c57fb23f5f3f17888628ce87bed"},"headline":"Voices of Abused Children","datePublished":"2016-04-05T17:05:23+00:00","dateModified":"2016-04-06T14:26:14+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/features\/commentary\/voices-of-abused-children\/"},"wordCount":735,"commentCount":22,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/features\/commentary\/voices-of-abused-children\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/francis-joseph-300x231.jpg","articleSection":["Commentary"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/features\/commentary\/voices-of-abused-children\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/features\/commentary\/voices-of-abused-children\/","url":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/features\/commentary\/voices-of-abused-children\/","name":"Voices of Abused Children - Dominica News Online","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/features\/commentary\/voices-of-abused-children\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/features\/commentary\/voices-of-abused-children\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/francis-joseph-300x231.jpg","datePublished":"2016-04-05T17:05:23+00:00","dateModified":"2016-04-06T14:26:14+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/1cf13c57fb23f5f3f17888628ce87bed"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/features\/commentary\/voices-of-abused-children\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/features\/commentary\/voices-of-abused-children\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/features\/commentary\/voices-of-abused-children\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/francis-joseph-300x231.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/francis-joseph-300x231.jpg","width":300,"height":231,"caption":"Francis Joseph"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/features\/commentary\/voices-of-abused-children\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Voices of Abused Children"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/","name":"Dominica News Online","description":"The most popular news site in the Commonwealth of Dominica","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/1cf13c57fb23f5f3f17888628ce87bed","name":"Admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/42ebaab81cf135a4ac3c52a6b343fa681417839645e8852f990f1e435612b089?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/42ebaab81cf135a4ac3c52a6b343fa681417839645e8852f990f1e435612b089?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/42ebaab81cf135a4ac3c52a6b343fa681417839645e8852f990f1e435612b089?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Admin"},"url":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/author\/tdurand\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/francis-joseph-300x231.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159557"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":159625,"href":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159557\/revisions\/159625"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}