Rudolph Brown/Chief Photographer
Tania Chambers (right), legal adviser to the Jamaica Coalition on the Rights of the Child, chats with Michael Fraser (left), deputy CEO, Life of Jamaica (LOJ), and Mark Chisholm, vice-president sales, during LOJ's High Flyers appreciation luncheon held yesterday at the Hilton Kingston hotel.
Keisha Hill, Gleaner Reporter
Persons who know and fail to report the abuse of children are now held reposnsible under the Child Care and Protection Act of 2004.
The reminder was given by Tania Chambers, attorney-at-law and independent member of the Jamaica Coalition on the Rights of the child.
Ms. Chambers was guest speaker at the second quarterly luncheon of the Life of Jamaica (LOJ) High Flyers Club appreciation luncheon, held yesterday at the Hilton Kingston hotel.
She noted that today's children are at greater risk as immunisation rates fall and HIV/AIDS among children increases.
Baffled
Ms. Chambers said her organisation was baffled by the failure rates of children, especially at the primary school level. She stated that in 2003, only 60 per cent of students at the grade four level could be considered literate.
"Direct crime on children has increased significantly and our 19th-century laws that should protect our children are now outdated for our present society," the attorney-at-law asserted.
She challenged the private sector to become more involved in taking care of the nation's children.
She said: "We need to collaborate to achieve success in taking care of the nation's children. We should try to do better for our children ... we should leave an inheritance for our children and our children's children.
