Listening to better care for and protect children

Over the years, the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs has coordinated with the provincial Youth Union, other departments, branches and local authorities to build many programs and solutions to best take care of children in the area. This year, with the theme of "Joining hands to reduce harm to children", authorities at all levels continue to propose many groups of solutions, listening to children's opinions and aspirations, innovating the propaganda, and paying attention to the arrangement of suitable living spaces.

Various quality questions were asked by the children at the 9^th Binh Duong Children's Forum in 2023.

Listening to understanding

Typically, at the 9^th Binh Duong Children's Forum 2023 with the theme of "Joining hands to reduce child harm", 180 children representing children in 9 districts, towns and cities participated excitedly and enthusiastically in questioning many outstanding issues in the past years that the children and their parents were very interested in. It is the situations about students fighting outside of school, bad and toxic information appeared on social networks, young people participating in social networks also established virtual groups to isolate and divide friends, children drowning in rivers, streams, ponds and lakes, problem of e-cigarettes in many schools etc.

Immediately after the questions asked by the children, the leaders of relevant departments and agencies had analyzed and answered so that they could grasp the necessary knowledge and skills. At the same time, children were oriented to soon recognize bad and toxic temptations outside of society to firmly get over. After the answers, the representative of the authorities also gave sincere and profound advices. The children are of school age, and need to focus on learning. When entertaining by phones, they should not arbitrarily share, comment, post news, articles, photos on social networks, but need to consult adults to avoid bad consequences in real life. Representatives of the authorities also informed the children about many healthy playgrounds such as mini football fields, swimming pools, cultural and sports centers, unions and teams etc. so that they could choose to participate in order to be physically and mentally healthy.

In addition to lively conversations around the living environment they face, the forum also gives them a lot of useful information about children's rights, helping them gain more skills to avoid many pitfalls, minimizing harm, and helping children have a healthy, joyful, rewarding and comprehensive living environment.

Many activities to take care of children

In 2022, the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs continue to coordinate with authorities at all levels to well implement many solutions to take care of children in the area, especially those with extremely difficult circumstances. The Department also thoughtfully visits and gives gifts to thousands of children on holidays and Tet, consider granting scholarships to students from poor, nearly-poor, and disadvantaged households, and organize specialized training on prevention and combat of violence and child abuse for thousands of parents in localities. At the same time, the Department implements a program to prevent and reduce illegal child labor in accordance with the law for 2021-2025 while maintaining the operation of the Child Protection Fund in association with many practical child care programs.

The provincial Youth Union cooperates with schools, parents and localities to implement many great programs to best take care of children. For example, “Training program on skills to prevent drowning and injuries for children” and "campaign to train the Joint Commanding Committee and improve the capacity to exercise children's rights for the team leaders and key children in Binh Duong province in the school year of 2022-2023" have been animated. In addition, all levels of the Youth Union and Teams organized activities to develop safety skills, self-protection and escape skills in case of emergencies, skills to prevent drowning, child accidents and injuries through the organization of summer skills camps for children.

Tran Thi Diem Trinh, Secretary of the provincial Youth Union, said that the Standing Committee of the provincial Youth Union would continue to coordinate with relevant agencies to strictly comply with the provisions of the law on children, innovate methods of propaganda, suitable for each target group, step up the implementation of measures to prevent and combat child accidents and injuries, reduce the number of children dying from drowning, child abuse prevention and control, and regularly inspect and examine the responsibility for the implementation of children's rights, policies and laws on prevention and combat of child abuse.

The provincial Youth Union would also implement policies and solutions to reduce the number of children dropping out of school, especially children of young workers who come to Binh Duong to live and work, pay attention to the arrangement of appropriate team living space in schools and in residential areas, promote the construction of playgrounds for children and schools for children to study especially in areas with a large number of children of youth workers to ensure that all children living in the province enjoy learning, playing and entertainment activities.

Reported by Quang Tam – Translated by Vi Bao