Jamaicans are being challenged to declare 2024 – a year for the nation’s children  and to take decisive steps to make child safety a reality. 

In issuing the challenge, Founder of Advocacy Group, Hear the Children’s Cry, Betty Ann Blaine, noted the atrocities meted out to Jamaican children over the past 12 months. 

She lamented that children have been abused physically and sexually, have died by stray bullets from adult warfare, were chopped to death in family feuds, perished in house fires and were killed by careless or drunken drivers. 

She added that in many cases, children have been neglected or abused at home. 

Ms. Blaine said, in other cases, they have been lured away from safety and were violated, with most of their attackers still walking the land with impunity.

She said, this cannot be tolerated in 2024 and beyond.