I would like to call upon like minded people who can contribute in whatever form possible to an effort under the label of "CAWM" (Child Abuse Watch Maldives) as a collective contribution to society; to inform and deal with child abuse in the Maldives and to advocate for its elimination. Contributions can be in the form of resouces, expetise, technical know how, financial assistance, or just moral support. This will be a national-community effort.
The purpose of CAWM shall be to research, study and report child abuse in the country and to lobby for action on multiple fronts to make Maldives a society that understands and responds to child abuse appropriately.
Your ideas, suggestions and contributions are welcome!
Smile and Let Smile 
ASHI
February 15, 2010 at 12:42 pm
i hate it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ASHI
February 15, 2010 at 12:42 pm
what !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ameer
August 18, 2007 at 7:32 pm
Siyah,I agree with your view that the maldivian internet community has a long way to go before it can be possible to make an online community or movement dedicated to a cause. But I have this idea that we can MAKE A DIFFERENCE.Yasir,The idea of a child-help-line is very useful. But the points mentioned by Siyah needs to be considered.Shihab,Thanks to your initial idea of CAWM. Lets get it going, guys.
Siyah
August 18, 2007 at 10:54 am
Ameer,I see that you are putting an effort into your blog. But wouldn’t it be more useful and productive if you concentrated more on providing information for abused children (or children and individuals in general), on how to handle being abused, how to counsel others who are being abused, on the tell tale signs that a child is being abused, about possible steps to take if you feel or know that a child is being abused? I just think this kind of dissemination of information and raising of awareness would be better than limiting the blog to making a list of the cases of child abuse reported in the country.BTW you did not leave an email address to contact you at. I can be
reached via admin<<at>>siyah.ws. If you can let me know
your plans maybe I might be able to join in.Ameer and Shihab,From personal experience I have to say that the Maldivian Internet Community has a long way to go before it can be possible to make an online community or movement dedicated to a cause. I have my own theories on why this is not possible at this point of time, but that is a long story. Basically, I don’t think making a forum or something similar will catch much wind at the moment. But perhaps you can think up some ingenious plan to make it work after all. Don’t let my point of view hold you back at all. There is nothing to lose and everything to gain from trying.Yasir,A confidential child-help-line is an absolute necessity when fighting against child abuse. But there are many obstacles to this, one of the most obvious being convincing the public that the helpline and the associated personal do indeed maintain confidentiality. In a small place like the Maldives, the fear of public ridicule is exactly why so many cases go unreported. People will obviously know that all phone calls come through Dhiraagu and that there are ways to track the calls. Bottom line is that the campaign to gain the trust of the public and the affected children will have to be very vigorous. This again will need some amount of funding and organisation.It would be premature to talk about how the CAWM can influence the law making bodies in the country at this stage. But I think the public will need to see some tangible results by the network before we see significant success. For example, if CAWM can accuse, prove and get a child molester punished then the public will see that CAWM is indeed effective and worth contacting. As you know, another reason why so many child abuse cases go unreported in the country is the general feeling that justice will not be served. CAWM will have to prove that it is more potent.Looking forward to the progress of CAWM.
Yasir
August 17, 2007 at 9:49 am
Siyah, your idea about student Counselors in schools are an excellent mechanism to raising awareness. Among many things in raising awareness and providing help, introduction of a confidential child-help-line will also be important and yes, as you suggest, it should ideally be an active official body but with people that are ready to be seriously involved.
Yasir
Mohamed
August 16, 2007 at 6:52 pm
Dear Siyah, I think what Ameer has said is something more like what I had in mind. And initially, my idea was to have like minded people to come together and decide the form of the effort. And as for contributions, I think it should be ideas, and contributions other than financial that would be needed. A formal setup such as an NGO would have to be set up to engage financial contributions.
I am willing to contribute to a person who will do an independent study on Combating Child Abuse in Maldives: A Way Forward or something like that. I would also look for a person who will fund a full-time person to keep the CAWM network going. That would take a little while.
Ofcourse the details would have to be worked out with your ideas. I am glad to have already found two people who are doing so much for the community. Great thanks,
Siyah
August 16, 2007 at 2:13 am
Are you proposing to start an NGO with those aims? I think an official body would be more effective in this fight to bring about some favourable change as opposed to a single or a group of individuals with no label. This is especially true if we are to ‘lobby for action on multiple fronts’.When you say ‘contributions’, where do interested people make this contribution? Who do we contact?My point is that I think you have an excellent idea here but it needs to be developed further and clear guidelines set down for interested parties to contribute.I feel one of the points to be lobbied for should be for the introduction of Student Counselors in schools and the raising of awareness among the Maldivian students that they can safely approach their counselors about their problems, be it regarding their studies, teachers, friends, family, health etc etc. There are many Maldivians who have done degrees in basic Psychology in recent years. This way the students can have a comforting avenue to confide in an authoritative figure if they are being molested sexually.