The Office of the Children’s Registry (OCR) will, this summer, launch a new project to reach parents, called ‘Pon the Corner Reasoning’.

“The OCR team will go into communities, identified from data we collect, to have street corner reasoning sessions with our parents, with a view to change the way we treat our children during the summer and in preparation for the new school year and onward,” said Children’s Registrar, Greig Smith.

Mr. Smith was addressing the OCR’s Child Ambassadors Programme Awards Ceremony, held at the Spanish Court Hotel on June 10.

He explained that the ‘Pon the Corner Reasoning’ programme came out of the Ministry of Youth and Culture’s ‘Reset De Ting’ project.

The Registrar also said that as part of continuing efforts to raise awareness, the OCR will be proposing to the Minister of Youth and Culture and by extension the Cabinet, for a National Day for Missing Children.

“I truly believe that once we work together and are devoted to the task at hand, we will see the kind of transformation that is required in Jamaica for the safety of our children,” Mr. Smith added.

The OCR appointed nine new Child Ambassadors at the event. They will help to raise awareness of issues surrounding child abuse and other matters affecting children across the island for two years.

By Andrea Braham