Social Welfare Director Rupeni Fatiaki.

The Social Welfare Department is working with various stakeholders to address child cases which includes sexual and physical abuse and neglect.

One, in particular, is the Save the Children Fiji, where the two organizations have been working in partnership to address issues at the grassroots level.

Social Welfare Director Rupeni Fatiaki says these cases are predominant within families which needs to be addressed.

According to the Child Welfare National database, 122 cases were reported in February, 97 cases in March and 90 cases in April.

Fatiaki says the rise in cases is a concern.

“One of the issues that have frequently been reported to us is child abuse and you will notice that abuse as a reported case is the perpetrators are most often from within the family and so what we’re doing is were working with save the children”

Between February and April this year, there were 95 child neglect cases, p 75 physical abuse reports and 37 incidents of sexual abuse.

Most victims were aged 16 or 17.