To let children participate in building a safe, friendly and healthy living environment

On this occasion, Nghe An Newspaper interviewed Mr. Bui Van Hung - Deputy Director of the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs about the significance of the forum and the participation of the Nghe An delegation.

Reporter: Sir, listening to children and letting them express their views and the difficulties they are facing is a motto to accompany and protect children, which has long been determined by all levels, departments and branches from the central to local levels. Could you elaborate on this issue?

Mr. Bui Van Hung:Children are the future of the country, but at the same time they are also the weak and vulnerable, needing special attention, love, care and protection. Following Uncle Ho's teaching "For the benefit of ten years, plant trees, for the benefit of a hundred years, cultivate people", in order to promote children's participation in children's issues, create opportunities for children to express their opinions and wishes to agencies and organizations according to the provisions of the 2013 Constitution and the 2016 Law on Children, from the district, provincial and central levels, the 2023 Children's Forum was organized with the theme“Children participate in building a safe, friendly and healthy living environment for children.". Children's forums are places where children are provided with information, can express their opinions and wishes, so that agencies and organizations can listen, respect and respond to children's wishes.

For Nghe An province, in recent years, the work of caring for, educating and protecting children has achieved many successes, ensuring that all children are fully developed physically and mentally. However, due to subjective and objective factors, some children have to face dangers, especially violence and child abuse in the family, school and social environment. Therefore, through the Forums at all levels, children are able to express their wishes and dreams, and to express the problems they encounter in their lives.

Because adults may not fully understand or grasp the potential dangers that lurk day and night for children in environments that we think are safe. These are the risks of abuse, violence, and abuse through the online environment; or the risks of insecurity from life, training, work, and study at home, school, and in the village community...

At the recent Children's Forum at all levels in the province, we also recorded many opinions from teenagers and children about the problems they have experienced and are facing. These are the risks of violence through the online environment, the risks of abuse from factors that we think are harmless, the risks of losing traffic safety, losing food safety right at the school gate, or the risks of drowning in rivers, streams, ponds, lakes... Some children wondered about the situation where many children have to follow their parents to do heavy work that is not suitable for their age, and that is also a big concern for us, those who work with children and strive day and night to help children have a happier life.

The fact that children are involved in the process of building a safe, friendly and healthy living environment for children is very practical. In addition to children receiving information, expressing opinions and wishes, they can now proactively make proposals to ministries, branches and organizations according to their own perspectives on each issue and angle appropriate to their maturity.

Reporter: So, sir, through the district and provincial forums, have we had satisfactory answers to questions, helped children decode the problems they have encountered or are struggling with? Besides, how are children's suggestions and proposals received?

Mr. Bui Van Hung:The forums at all levels were very exciting. Through the forums, we were able to grasp the thoughts and concerns that the children had in the past as well as the present. The sector has compiled questions according to the groups of issues that the children mentioned; questions in which sector, that sector has satisfactory answers, in addition, expanding the scope, suggesting, guiding more issues that children may have to use their knowledge and skills to solve themselves. At the same time, the functional sector also shared and provided information to the children about the measures that have been taken to solve the problems that the children raised and is ready to accompany, continue to listen and solve those issues in the future.

Through the Forum at all levels, we have also recommended that we all pay more attention, focus more and be more attentive in nurturing, caring for and educating children. I was very concerned when a child expressed his opinion: “Currently, the situation of school violence is complicated, not only physical violence, but also mental violence; the forms of violence are now different from the past, not only beating but also mental violence, forming anti-groups, dividing, and bad-mouthing on Zalo and Facebook. Facing that situation, I see that the school and the victim's family have come up with solutions to end the conflict such as: meeting the perpetrator to talk, deterring, ... but I see that those measures are still not enough. Because those who cause school violence, in addition to groups and associations, also have parents defending the actions of their children, thereby making those people increasingly indifferent and domineering. That is why we hope that there will be punishments for those who cause verbal violence, school violence, not only for impulsive young people but also for the parents behind it. And I would like to ask In addition to equipping ourselves with knowledge, what else do we need to do to prevent and help our friends when they are victims of "school violence"?

Honestly, this is not only an opinion that the Education sector must have concerns and satisfactory answers, but each of us - young guardians and parents - must also have thoughts and concerns to find a solution to this problem.

Or like the opinion: "How can we, children, know how to protect ourselves when we are unfortunately abused? What should we do to overcome our fear, boldly speak up, denounce, and share with everyone and our relatives when we are abused? If we are abused and want to denounce the abuser, who should we report to and how should we do it?"

And on this issue, the police have also provided detailed advice and guidance, at the same time, provided children with laws and rights for children in each case. The police have also given children full awareness of what punishments will be imposed on perpetrators of abuse, how the whistleblower will be protected; and the fastest and most effective way to save themselves from abuse.

In general, through the responses and solutions that the sectors offer, we see that the functional sectors and those working with children are ready to stand side by side and always accompany children anytime, anywhere, in any situation, and we always listen to children to support them in the best way.

PV: Can you tell us about the National Children's Forum that just took place in Hanoi?

Mr. Bui Van Hung:Through the Central Government's directives, the results of the forum's organization and the media, we see that this is the National Children's Forum held again after the COVID-19 pandemic, and is the 7th National Children's Forum. This forum has the participation of 188 children from 43 provinces and cities, representing over 25 million children nationwide. The children proactively raised issues, opinions, aspirations, contributed solutions and initiatives on issues related to children in the spirit of children participating in building a safe, friendly and healthy living environment for children.

Children participating in the forum were voted from local children's forums. In particular, this Forum had the participation of groups of children with special circumstances from a number of units caring for and nurturing disabled children or visually impaired children voted through the Vietnam Forum for Visually Impaired Children. The innovation of this Forum compared to previous National Children's Forums is that children were directly met by leaders of the National Assembly's Committee for Culture and Education, the Ministry of Education and Training, and the Central Youth Union at their agencies and units so that they could proactively contribute issues according to the functions and tasks of the above agencies from their perspective.

The forum addressed five groups of issues, including: preventing and combating violence and child abuse; preventing and reducing injuries, drowning and traffic accidents; protecting children online; preventing and combating climate change, epidemics and natural disasters; preventing and combating child labor in violation of the law and other issues that concern children. Through this, children shared initiatives and solutions that children across the country have participated in implementing to create a safe and healthy living environment for themselves with schools, families, communities and authorities at all levels; and provided messages and recommendations on topics so that adults can support children.

The delegation of children from Nghe An province has 5 children from districts, cities and towns: Que Phong, Dien Chau, Hoang Mai town, Vinh city and SOS Children's Village. They represented nearly 900,000 children in Nghe An province to send to the National Children's Forum the opinions, questions, recommendations and messages of the Nghe An Provincial Children's Forum in 2023. Notably, Hoang Tra My was voted as the main MC of the forum, and was a typical delegate representing children across the country to read the public article at the Ceremony of reporting to Uncle Ho. The children participated actively, responsibly and completed their tasks excellently in the roles of questioner, message giver, and speaker.

We believe that, in a meaningful way, the success of the forum will be an important factor in making children's participation rights more and more practical. Thereby, equipping our young generation with a strong will and confidence in solving their own problems and participating in solving issues related to children's rights.

PV: Thank you for the conversation!

Thanh Nga