Minister of Human Services and Social Security, Dr Vindhya Persaud, has revealed that a staggering 275 child abuse cases have been recorded thus far in 2025 and are being addressed.
This follows a total of 4,038 child abuse cases reported in 2024. The categories of abuse range from physical, emotional, sexual, verbal and neglect, among others.
A regional breakdown of child sexual abuse cases last year shows that Region Four recorded the highest number of cases at 466, followed by Region Two with 181 cases.
Additionally, Region One recorded 51 cases, Region Three 145 cases, Region Five 83 cases, Region Six 147 cases, Region Seven 10 cases, Region Eight 21 cases, Region Nine 50 cases and Region 10 recorded 48 cases.
During a press conference today (Saturday, February 15, 2025), Minister Persaud disclosed that works are ongoing to enhance child protection including parenting programmes, training initiatives, and collaborations with various stakeholders.
“To have that [enhanced child protection] happen the way we want it to happen requires education, requires information, and requires capacity building within the Child Care and Protection Agency (CCPA), and also requires us to interface with stakeholders, parents, and caregivers of children. Over time, we would have delivered a number of programmes, and a few of those programmes involve our parenting programme,” she explained.
The Child Advocacy Centres, managed in partnership with ChildLink and Blossom Incorporated, play a crucial role in handling sexual abuse cases.
Dr Persaud told media operatives during the press conference that government funding for these agencies has exceeded $130 million to support forensic interviews and child protection services in all regions.
“So, in dealing with our rapid response team, this was realized when we started two years ago – the Street Light programme, removing children from the streets. This programme is an ongoing programme, and we have continually removed children from the streets. And not only removed them but worked with their family [on] things like employment of their family members… counseling, and also working with the children not to have recurrence. But it was felt that we need to move beyond the hours of work at the Child Care and Protection Agency.”
“Currently we have officers in all of the regions. We have a total of 48 officers in our regions across the country. And when there are cases that are peculiar to sexual abuse, we have the child advocacy centres. This is in partnership with ChildLink and Blossom Inc., and they have been heavily subsidized by government,” she noted.
Meanwhile, Dr Persaud has also issued a direct appeal to the media and the general public, urging them to report cases of child abuse directly to the Child Care and Protection Agency.
She emphasized that the law mandates the protection of children and warned against sharing children’s images on social media, which can cause psychological harm.
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