There’s an urgent need to educate parents on how best they can empower their child to identify violence.

NGO Lifeline Fiji Services and Training Manager, Timaima Rokotagane says parents also need to spend more time with their children to enable them to share whatever experience they’ve gone through.

”It can be a three minute conversation or a two minute conversation with a 5-year old and a 20 minutes conversation with a 15-year old child so it’s very important for us parents to spend quality time with our children to be able to empower them to be able to come up with their situation or to detect violence if it’s around the corner from where they are.”

Rokotagane says in an effort to help reduce violence against children, abuse and neglect of children, parents should address every little issue they come up with.

She adds Lifeline Fiji will continue to work with relevant stake holders to help all children who call up for advice using the Lifeline services.

Lifeline received more than 200 calls from those below the age of 20 last year.