Greifswald (dpa / mv) – If parents or parents-to-be have difficulties enabling their child to grow up well, early help is required. In order to identify problems and organize support, a network “Early Help and Child Protection” was founded almost ten years ago in Germany’s largest district, Mecklenburg Lake District. On Friday it was awarded the state prevention prize, as announced by the Ministry of the Interior in Schwerin.
The association unites regional networks in which people who have to do with children exchange ideas: youth welfare office, daycare providers, advice centers, courts, police. The aim is to know what the others are doing and to start helping as early as possible, before a child has fallen “into the well”, said Anja Zörner, head of the youth welfare office. The reports in the district about possible child welfare risks have increased and this shows that people have become more attentive. The number of reports has leveled out at 500 to 600 a year and they affect around 1,000 children.
The motto of the State Prevention Day in Greifswald, where the award was presented, was “Don’t leave a child alone – child protection concerns us all”. Interior Minister Torsten Renz (CDU) pointed out the increasing number of child pornography cases in MV. At the symposium, the experts exchanged ideas on how sexual abuse can be recognized and how it should be dealt with.
According to the Ministry of the Interior, 20 applications were received for the state prevention award. The second prize went to the child protection clinic at the Institute for Forensic Medicine at Greifswald University Hospital, which has been assessing and documenting injuries in children since the beginning of 2020. The third prize went to the Vorpommern-Greifswald district association of the German Child Protection Association.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210604-99-860631 / 2
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