The protection of Aboriginal children will be the subject of a Statewide community education campaign.
Community Services Minister Eric Ripper today launched an education and information kit aimed at preventing child abuse and neglect in Western Australian Aboriginal communities.
Mr Ripper said the campaign, which co-incided with National Child Protection Week, was based on the theme `Take Care of Our Kids'. It used strong positive images of Aboriginal children being valued and well cared for by their families and community.
The campaign worked against child abuse in all its forms - neglect, physical, sexual and emotional mistreatment of children - and involved a series of six posters and a booklet.
The Minister said Department for Community Services statistics for the last financial year showed there were a total of 3,746 allegations of child abuse. Aboriginal children were involved in 15 per cent of those allegations which were substantiated or where children were found to be at risk.
The information kit was produced by the Advisory and Co-ordinating Committee on Child Abuse (ACCCA) in conjunction with the Perth Medical Service. The campaign was devised after consultation with a range of Aboriginal groups in the city and country.
"Public awareness is vital in reducing child abuse and campaigns must be made relevant to different groups in our diverse community," Mr Ripper said.
"A wide-ranging community information and education campaign to highlight the needs, rights and value of children in the Western Australian community, will be launched later this year."
The Aboriginal education and information kit would be distributed throughout the state by ACCCA and the Aboriginal Medical Service, to a wide range of agencies, community groups and schools. The posters focussed on preventing sexual abuse, encouraging proper care and supervision of children, meeting the nutritional needs of children, providing them with proper medical care, and encouraging children to regularly attend school.
Mr Ripper said the booklet examined sexual abuse, what the community could do to teach children about protecting themselves, and ways community members could work together to stop abusers.
