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www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Friday, March 21, 2014 | 8 CCFC works to protect children from violence by John Bkila Oakville Beaver Staff The CEO of the Christian Children's Fund of Canada (CCFC) wants to abolish child exploitation and violence so children in every international community can achieve their full potential. Mark Lukowski, of Oakville, recently spoke on the topic of aid and development in impoverished countries at a Canadian Federation of University Women's (CFUW) event at St. Joseph's Ukrainian Catholic Church. The CCFC is a Markham, Ont.-based organization working in six developing countries: Paraguay, Nicaragua, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia and India. While its work focuses on children of all faiths living in poverty, Lukowski says the CCFC became aware of the rates of child exploitation and violence, and that it is an issue that needed to be addressed. "What we're trying to do is draw awareness and advocate that we need children to be protected," he said. "From our research almost half of all children in developing countries experience some form of physical violence before age eight. We estimate 250 million are involved in child labour, and 150 million girls and 73 million boys, we believe, are subjected to sexual violence every year -- this gives us more impetus to say we have to do something about this. There is a definitely an issue here that needs to be addressed globally." Lukowski notes the CCFC's work to draw awareness to the issue is Since 1952 Mark Lukowski, chief executive officer of Christian Children's Fund of Canada (CCFC), with children supported by CCFC in Burkina Faso. | photo courtesy Christian Children's Fund of Canada Carpet Cleaning Specialists On The Spot! RESIDENTIAL & COMMERCIAL WALL TO WALL FURNITURE & UPHOLSTERY AREA RUGS PERSIAN & ORIENTAL Truck Mount In-Plant Service Water Damage Restoration See the transformation of what we can do in relation to others! done on multiple fronts, one of which is educating people on the negative effects of early-enforced marriages. An awareness program was launched in Burkina Faso with that very purpose. "We know it (early-enforced marriages) constitutes serious violations of young girls' human rights and perpetuates existing gender inequities. We also know it's an obstacle to girls' development and survival," Lukowski said. Working with the ChildFund Alliance, the CFFC is also running a campaign called Free From Violence and Exploitation (www. freefromviolence.org), which encourages Canadians to sign a global petition and alerts them of the importance in reducing the rates of violence and exploitation of children. The ChildFund Alliance is made up of 12 member countries that work in 58 countries on child development. Another area the CCFC is working on is trying to get the United Nations (UN) to add the reduction of child violence and exploitation to its next set of Millennium Development Goals. These goals are set by the UN as ways to reduce poverty and establish priorities on how to do so -- the next set will be voted on in September 2015 and when ap- proved, will run until 2030. "Our belief is reducing child exploitation and violence should be one of those goals and is a key factor in reducing poverty," said Lukowski. "We're doing it inside our own organization and also participating in this initiative to make it a key priority globally." Lukowski spoke of two surveys the CCFC recently performed with the ChildFund Alliance to help the organizations better understand the issue of child exploitation and violence from the perspective of children. The first survey involved 55 focus groups comprised of approximately 1,300 children aged 12 from 41 countries. "The key results that we found here were that children wanted world leaders to create and enforce legislation against violence, fund and run awareness campaigns at all levels on this topic, and ensure offenders are punished so that children feel safe," Lukowski said. The children went on to identify what they believed were the top three forms of violence and exploitation, which included sexual violence, child labour and humiliating punishment. "This survey clearly tells us there's a reason to be concerned," noted Lukowski. An anecdotal survey, called Small Voices, Big Dreams, which was conducted last year, for the fourth time, interviewed more than 6,000 children aged 12 in 47 developed and developing countries. After asking the children questions surrounding child exploitation and violence, the survey found an "overwhelming" concern over alcohol being a main cause of violence -- it also revealed a difference in mentality between children in developed and developing worlds, said Lukowski. "Among Canadian children, 80 per cent said they feel most safe and happy when they're with their family. More than 50 per cent of those children identified a parent or family member as their hero," he noted. "But in developing countries, children associate safety and happiness with equality and being among friends." For more on the CCFC and its initiatives, visit www.ccfcanada.ca. Y ou are invited... Please join us at our upcoming Travel Presentation. During this 1-hour session, we will share information about our long-stay programs to the south, vacations in Britain and Europe and our tour and cruise holidays in North America. Hope to see you there! 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