About 2,000 children drowned and over 1,500 children were victims of violence.

On the morning of May 25, at Tran Mai Ninh Secondary School (Thanh Hoa city, Thanh Hoa province), the National Committee for Children; Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs in coordination with the People's Committee of Thanh Hoa province organized the launching ceremony of the Month of Action for Children 2019 with the theme "Joining hands for poor children, ethnic minority children; preventing violence and sexual abuse of children".

Attending the launching ceremony were comrades: Vu Duc Dam, member of the Party Central Committee, Deputy Prime Minister, Chairman of the National Committee for Children; Dao Ngoc Dung, member of the Party Central Committee, Minister of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, Vice Chairman of the National Committee for Children.

Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam speaks at the launching ceremony (Photo: Manh Dung)

2019 is the 30th year we signed the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the 25th year we organized the Month of Action for Children. According to the Law on Children, children have 25 rights, which need to be fully disseminated to them. In addition to launching movements, it is necessary to pay attention to implementing children's rights, the responsibilities of families, all levels, sectors and society. It is necessary to make everyone in society, especially children, aware of their rights...

The Deputy Prime Minister noted two points that need special attention in the work of caring for and protecting children. Firstly, the way of educating children is often strict and disciplined from the beginning, "Love with a whip, give a spanking/ Hate with sweets, give a sweet, delicious". But as society develops, this concept must be understood correctly, in accordance with the times. We are strict with children with our hearts and love, but the way we express it is not with a whip, a spanking or words, attitudes that hurt children.

Minister of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs Dao Ngoc Dung takes a photo with students (Photo: Manh Dung)

The second thing is that we should not consider children as objects that only know how to obey and follow adults. We should respect children, listen to them to know what they want, participate and express their opinions.

The Deputy Prime Minister expressed his wish: “Let us all take practical care of the next generation of our family, our clan, our homeland, our country, and our world. First of all, we must strengthen propaganda about children's rights in accordance with the Law on Children.”

At the ceremony, Minister of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs Dao Ngoc Dung said that our country currently still has about 5.6 million poor children according to the method of calculating the lack of children's rights (accounting for about 21% of the total number of children in the country), in which the Northern midland and mountainous region has the highest rate of poor children (accounting for 41.5% of poor children).

Propaganda activities to prevent drowning; care for adolescent reproductive health; prevent violence and child abuse for nearly 9,000 teenagers across the province. Photo: Phuong Thuy

The implementation of children's rights in particularly difficult communes in ethnic minority and mountainous areas still faces many challenges (the gap between rich and poor, the gap in development opportunities and especially access to health care services, education, protection, child care, clean water and social welfare services for children between economic regions and ethnic groups are still different); each year there are still about 2,000 children drowning and over 1,500 children are victims of violence and child sexual abuse...

Minister Dao Ngoc Dung suggested that during the 2019 Action Month for Children, it is necessary to focus on organizing communication campaigns to raise awareness about preventing child drowning, preventing violence and child sexual abuse; mobilizing the whole society to join hands for poor children, ethnic minority children, etc.

On this occasion, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam, Minister of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs and Thanh Hoa province presented many gifts and scholarships to poor children in difficult circumstances in Thanh Hoa province./.