site.btaSevere Forms of Violence among Children on the Rise

Severe Forms of Violence among Children on the Rise

Sofia, February 22 (BTA) - The severe forms of violence among children have increased in recent years, head of the Animus Association Foundation Nadejda Stoytcheva told BTA in an interview on the occasion of the international anti-bullying Pink Shirt Day.

According to Stoytcheva, cruelty in children can be dealt with easily, however, the problems have become more serious recently, for which adults are responsible.

The Bulgarian National Helpline for Children 116 111, which is run by Stoytcheva's NGO, has received a total of 263 calls from children, who reported violence. The callers include 205 parents, 298 adults, one teacher, 64 institutions. Of the 831 violence consultations, 390 were about physical violence, 116 about psychological, 191 were about negligence, 39 about sexual violence, 25 about other kinds of violence, there was one case of incest, while 69 called to report having witnessed violence.

A total of 604 children reported a parent as the abuser, 78 said it was another relative, eight - a teacher, 43 - an acquaintance, 55 - another child, 13 - a stranger and 30 - someone else.

The place where violence takes place is most often at home - 666 reported cases. Thirty of the cases were in school, 77 - on the street, 15 - in a specialized institution, two - in adoptive families, eleven - with relatives, and 30 in a public area.

The forms of school bullying can range from verbal insults, physical abuse, online bullying to a number of other acts with which one child can humiliate another. Many extreme forms of violence were also reported, including cases in which children have suffered brain damage.

According to Stoytcheva, Bulgaria lacks sustainable practices for dealing with school bullying. The most common way of addressing such problems is to transfer the violent child to another school, which not only fails to address their issues, but even exacerbates them. In many cases children of parents working abroad have become aggressive due to lack of parental control.

Teachers recognize the different forms of violence, but sometimes find it hard to deal with them because the relationship between children and adults in Bulgarian culture follows the rule that adults scold, tell and punish, Stoytcheva says. Children, on the other hand, must be taught not to tolerate violence and be supportive and compassionate.

Animus have developed a programme for preventing school bullying. The Foundation's so called "School without Fear" teaches children about some of the myths about violence.

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The International Anti-Bullying Day is a day when people generally wear pink to symbolize a stand against bullying, an idea that originated in Canada. It is celebrated on various dates around the world, including the last Wednesday of February. The initiative started back in 2007 when two Canadian students, David Shepherd and Travis Price of Nova Scotia, decided to stand up for a fellow student who was bullied for wearing a pink shirt on the first day of school. Shepherd and Price bought 50 pink shirts and distributed them in the school the following day. The event was not unnoticed and became an international phenomenon.