By Jennifer Ruppelt | Project Assistant
“Uruguay against child sexual exploitation” is a campaign which seeks to raise public awareness of child sexual exploitation by creating a “network of protection” for children and adolescents within the Uruguayan society.
Over one hundred trained youth promoters helped impulse this campaign by informing tourists and local community members in how to detect and report cases of child sexual exploitation.
The campaign was in full swing during the summer months of January and February, the height of the tourist season. In order to catch tourist’s attention, youth promoters from Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay staged public interventions in Maldonado, the area most frequented by tourists. The volunteers who took to the streets and seaside resorts with music, dance, posters and brochures, to raise public awareness.
By distributing informational material, these volunteers reached over 8.000 tourists and contacted over 350 businesses, such as restaurants and hotels. 70% of the tourism businesses agreed to join with the campaign by placing a sticker with the number of the Child Abuse Hotline, “Linea Azul”, in their storefront window. These efforts have helped increase awareness and have incremented the reports of child sexual exploitation. In the month of January alone, the reports of suspected abuse increased fivefold (5 cases were reported in January in Maldonado, while only 12 were reported in all of 2014).
Further interventions are planned for the months of March and April in different tourist areas, in order to keep promoting the message and pursuing the goal to guarantee a safe and normal childhood for Uruguay’s youngest generation.
The campaign is organized by Claves, a program of JPC Uruguay, in cooperation with the Uruguayan Ministry of Tourism and Recreation, CONAPEES (National Committee for the Eradication of Sexual Commercial and Non-Commercial Exploitation of Children and Adolescents), INAU (Institute for Children and Adolescents of Uruguay), Canada Fund for Local Initiatives, and the Department of Maldonado.
You can also be part of this network to protect children and adolescents in Uruguay from commercial sexual exploitation!
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