HÀ NỘI – More than 7,000 children and teenagers will receive training on skills of self-protection, prevention against abuse, trafficking and exploitation.

That is the target of the project “Ending Violence Against Children” (EVAC), which was launched on Friday in Hà Nội by World Vision Việt Nam.

The project began in the beginning of October last year and will continue until the end of September 2020 in Lục Yên and Văn Chấn districts in the northern mountainous province of Yên Bái, and Mường Chà and Tuần Giáo districts in the northern mountainous province of Điện Biên.

The four-year project has a budget worth US$1.4 million funded by World Vision United States.

In addition, under the project, nearly 300 households with about 1,500 parents will access proper services to take care and protect children.

As many as 30,000 people in the community will be given knowledge on safe migration, on how to protect children from being abused, to report to the authorities’ cases of child abuse.

The work will be implemented via clubs, forums, policies advocacy events and conferences, as well as education campaigns and training courses.

Trần Thu Huyền, head representative of World Vision Việt Nam, said preventing child abuse was difficult and hard work which needed participation of the entire political system.

“The project is aimed at creating the safest atmosphere for the children’s development,” she said.

Thân Thị Hà, Programme Managing Director under World Vision Việt Nam, said abuse and violence against children had been increasing with as many as 3,000-4,000 cases having been reported annually, of which some 100 children are killed and 1,000 are sexually abused, according to World Vision Việt Nam.

Some 5,600 cases of child sexual abuse were discovered in the 2006-11 period while during 2011-15, a total of 5,300 cases were reported. The average age of the victims was nine.

Nearly 24 per cent of married women with children under 15 said their husbands had displayed violence against their children. – VNS