The fight
against child sexual exploitation has been taken to a new dimension with the
launch of an App ‘Stop CSE’ on IOS Apple and Google Play Store to report abuses
o
n victims.
The whistle
blowing App was the brain child of a Nigerian Child Rights group, Jose
Foundation in collaboration with its United Kingdom partners and can be
downloaded on Android and IOS devices.
In a chat
with the media in Lagos, President, Jose Foundation, Prince Martins Abhulimhen,
said the App has become imperative in view of the high prevalence of child
sexual molestations reported in several parts of the world and Nigeria in
particular.
He said the
use of the App has become necessarily to overcome the culture of silence and
shame that is taken away attention from the heinous crime against innocent
children, some of which are victims of their parents, relatives, religious
leaders and others.
According to
him, children and parents can download and use it as a weapon of defence and
seeking justice for any sexual exploitation by simply reporting the matter
through the App to the Foundation and ‘the Police and other relevant authority
will be informed’.
“The idea is
that it will serve as a whistle blower guide to support in interventions,
whilst preserving the confidentiality of the victims. It will also been a data
gathering tool that will help us have a more accurate database on abuses, rate
of occurrence, severity and to disaggregate data on the different forms of
abuse. With that we can keep track of those with infections including HIV/AIDS.
“The App is
to help children and parents understand Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) and our
workshop coming up will be to train social care givers on how to handle victims
of CSE”, Abhulimhen said.
He also
urged the federal government to pave the way for the Foundation to extend the
campaign to all corners of the country and take away abuse and exploited
children to a proper social care handlers.
The App is
to be translated into the three major languages in Nigeria-Hausa, Yoruba and
Igbo for easy access and usage for millions of Nigerians.While demonstrating
the App to newsmen, Stop CSE App after downloading from IOS Apple and Google
Play Store, a user is lead to about seven icons including ‘Action Against CSE’
which provides a phone number, website, email address including other social
communication platforms as WhatsApp, SMS, Facebook, BBM, Messenger and others.
The App,
Abhulimhen said will be formally unveiled to the Nigerian users in a short time
as the App is already running in the UK on IOS and Google.He urged parents,
social workers, school principals and people in authority to guide children to
learn how to use the App to fight sexual abuses in the country.
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