The Awareness Caravan Component of the National Awareness Campaign Prepared by the Jordan River Foundation
April 15, 2004

Why Awareness

• children as individuals have certain rights separate from adults

• Only 1 in every 22 cases of child abuse is reported

• Many occurrences of child abuse and neglect go unreported or undetected, thus official figures do not necessarily state the true incidence

• Widespread damage is being caused to children by society's denial of the child abuse problem

• Child abuse and neglect occur across all socioeconomic, religious and ethnic groups. No one single source can be identified

• physical abuse of children can be seen in the context of the prevailing values in our society, especially in child-rearing practices where physical force is condoned and in some cases encouraged as a disciplinary measure

• Problems resulting from a lack of skills and knowledge have been suggested as characteristic of some abusive adults: lack of parenting skills, inadequate knowledge of child development

• Research identified a link between child abuse, neglect and criminal behaviour.

• International research confirmed that the effects of child abuse and neglect, results of low productivity of the community.

• Stress caused by conditions such as poverty, overpopulation and inadequate social services, is associated with higher rates of reported child abuse and neglect

• Most abusers are known to the child or have some relationship to the child.

• Parents were identified as responsible for abuse or neglect in over half of the substantiated cases

Why the Awareness Caravan

• Because of the rural nature of many communities, the mobile caravan can service a larger geographic area and reach more children than traditional media.

• Remote areas have very low media outreach

• Act as an additional medium that supports media used for the National Awareness Campaign.

• There is very limited access to services such as childcare and early learning programs in rural areas.

• Caravan will be used as a tool for fact finding and help develop and implement comprehensive safety and awareness campaigns that are specific to the needs of the rural and remote areas

• Will be used as a meant to distribute printed materials on child safety

Components of Caravan

• useum/ photo display facility

• Awareness tools : large screen, TV, music, art, computer, puppet show facility (outdoor tent and carpets/chairs)

Activities

• Awareness on child abuse by exhibiting the campaign’s posters and press ads

• Showing TV program “Beit Sgheer” specific on child rearing practices

• Showing TV spots and interrupters
  Playing the puppet show that addresses prevention from child abuse

• Expression through Art (with the MOE) – exhibiting children’s drawings

• Educating parents on abusive activities and promote non-violent and non-abusive child rearing practices and ideas in the home and community

• Activities for children and their parents such as open day activities (music, drawing, story telling etc…) where messages related to children issues are addressed.

Who

• Puppet show currently designed by JRF staff

• Social workers from Child prevention program at JRF will accompany the caravan

• Young members of the youth forum of the King Hussein Fund shall be our main facilitators in the communities (after being trained)

• MOE teachers trained for the Child & Art project will handle parts of the activities.

Schedule

• 3 governorates (North, South, West) will be visited for the first three month as testing of program effectiveness

• The bus is tentatively scheduled to visit each governorate three times a month.

• Can be linked to schedule of JTC’s IT bus (to be advised)

Outcome

• Increase in public awareness of the intricacy of all of the issues connected with child abuse and neglect

• Increase number in reporting cases where children can get rehabilitation

• Aim to move the debate surrounding child abuse from disbelief that it occurs, to legal and academic discussion.

• Depending on the results and people’s interaction with the caravan, it may be transformed at the advanced stages to a counseling home, meant to meet abusive parents or abused children and help them.