EDITORIAL: Protecting our children

His Excellency, the Governor Mr. Martyn Roper, toured the M.A.S.H offices at Anderson Square, George Town recently.

During his inaugural visit to the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub the Governor was briefed on the sensitive nature of MASH work. The unit’s remit encompasses not only child safeguarding referrals but also extends into investigating and prosecuting domestic violence, including elder abuse. MASH employees who met with the Governor included the Health Services Authority (HSA) child psychologist, and members of the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service (RCIPS) and Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) teams.

The centralization of staff from three critical Government agencies may be one of the best decisions made in recent years and we applaud all stakeholders, staff and leaders for working tirelessly to achieve this result.

In the words of one of the team members, the job of protecting children requires support from the community as vulnerable children can be found in our midst.

We are sure the RCIPS will use all of its powers to ensure that guilty perpetrators who abuse children are dealt with accordingly and the message will be sent that no stone will be left unturned until justice is served.

As a newspaper, we will do our part and use our pages to educate the community on ways to identify, prevent and report incidents of child abuse.

Time is of essence in these cases and in the words of Governor Mr. Roper said: “It was great to visit the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Unit to meet staff who do essential and challenging work. Our multi-agency approach is leading the way regionally but there are still significant issues to address. More success can be achieved by working co-operatively across agencies in order to protect the children of our islands. I was impressed by the commitment and dedication of the staff.”

We can now sleep a little better at night knowing that the fate of our children and the future are in better hands.