Social workers lauded for helping child abuse victims

To most children, objects like clothes hangers are just everyday household items.

But for two brothers, these were things to be feared. The boys, aged four and six, were beaten daily with such items by their parents.

The boys both have global developmental delay and their parents thought this was the appropriate way to discipline their special-needs children.

Thanks to the intervention of Big Love Child Protection Specialist Centre, the two boys are now safer. A social worker from Big Love, a programme by charity Montfort Care, stepped in for 10 months to educate the parents on positive ways of parenting by home-based coaching.

Minister for Social and Family Development Desmond Lee told the story of these two boys yesterday at an event celebrating Big Love's fifth anniversary.

Mr Lee expressed his gratitude to front-line social workers and professionals like those at Big Love.

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"Your work is not easy. You have to engage families and help them to understand why a certain situation can compromise a child's safety. You have to maintain at the same time trust of these families and reassure them that your... goal is to keep their families together," he said.

Earlier this month, Big Love said child abuse in families is on the rise in Singapore.

It has seen the number of cases of abuse by a family member climb to 367 between April last year and March this year, from 252 in the corresponding period ending in March last year, and 177 the year before that.

Big Love's child abuse statistics, while separate from those of the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF), are in line with the overall increase MSF has seen. MSF figures for intra-familial abuse involving children under 16 showed 894 cases last year, compared with 873 in 2016 and 551 in 2015.

Last month, the Penal Code review committee proposed changes to mete out tougher penalties to child abusers.

At the carnival at the Our Tampines Hub yesterday, Big Love announced the collection of more than 12,000 pledges from people to protect children against abuse and neglect.