ISLAMABAD: The Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), the custodian of 5.6 million families across the country and having a countrywide outreach through 450 offices and a vast network of 60,000 beneficiary committees, offers its platform to all celebrities, organisations and institutions to work for the cause of child protection, said, BISP Chairperson Marvi Memon during the countrywide launch of ‘BISP Child Protection Campaign’ at BISP Headquarters, Islamabad, on Saturday. The campaign was simultaneously launched in 40 districts across the country by BISP officials and parliamentarians who would advance the campaign in their constituencies. Interior Minister, Ahsan Iqbal in Narowal, Ch Muhammad Ashraf in Sahiwal, Tahira Aurangzeb in Rawalpindi, Nighat Parveen in Jhelum, Asyia Naz Tanoli in Wah Cantonmnet, Farhana[A1] Qamar and Zahra Wadood Fatemi in Islamabad, Dr Shezra Mansib Ali Khan in Nankana Sahib, Rana Muhammad Qasim Noon in Multan, Ch Mahmood Bashir Virk in Gujranwala, Rasheed Ahmed Khan in Kasur, Naeema Kishwar Khan in Mardan, Begum Tahira Bukhari in Peshawar, Babar Nawaz in Haripur and Sorath Thebo in Dadu launched BISP the campaign. BISP Secretary Omar Hamid Khan, Faisal Qureshi, Hassan Soomro and Sabahat Riaz also spoke on the event in Islamabad. Video messages of Nadia Jamil and Dahim Din were also run. BISP beneficiary mothers, children, members of parliament, academia, civil society, media, various INGOs and NGOs working on child protection like Sahil, UNICEF, UN Women, Oxfam International and others participated in the campaign. During the event, BISP beneficiary women and children were sensitised through training to issues of child protection, children’s rights and ways to ensure security of children through video documentaries, Information, Education and Communication(IEC) material and animated and illustrative messaging. Different aspects of child protection, role of parents, teachers, leaders, government, responsible members of society, legal procedures regarding child protection were discussed. The campaign also highlighted different methods to inform children about the issue. Children were also trained to undertake the strategy of “shout, run and inform the parents” in the situation of any kind of abuse. In his opening remarks, the BISP Secretary stated that among various initiatives for the welfare of beneficiaries, BISP had launched the campaign to sensitise parents and children to the issue of child protection. He explained in detail the precautions parents should take for the safety of their children. Faisal Qureshi said that saving children from any abuse was the prime responsibility of parents. “Besides seeking assistance from government and law enforcement agencies, mothers in every community can make committees and take up matters of child abuse with the elders of the community to overcome this problem,” he suggested. Hassan Soomro said that awareness of children about body parts is very necessary and in schools there must be a compulsory subject on this issue. He said that this subject would be made compulsory in Sindh from April 2018 and same should be done in the rest of the country. Sabahat Riaz said that laws relating to child protection were present in the country but there was a need to create awareness about these laws and procedures. She explained the legal procedures, which should be adopted by parents to get help in case of child abuse. In her concluding remarks, the BISP chairperson said that BISP on behalf of the federal government had initiated the campaign for the safety of the children and as a next step these trainings would be imparted to 60,000 BISP beneficiary committees across the country, which would create mass level awareness on the subject. She added that BISP had set up a hotline 0800-26477 as part of the campaign to receiving complaints of abuse against children and report to relevant agencies for action. Published in Daily Times, January 28th 2018.