MAY PEN, Clarendon — Several young Clarendonians have joined forces in an effort to stem what is perceived to be high levels of child abuse/neglect in this central Jamaica parish.

Led by chairman Dei Rasi Freckleton, the group of young professionals has revamped the Clarendon Youth and Child Protection Committee — an umbrella organisation of the Parish Development Committee — with the aim of offering holistic protection of the “neglected” youth population.

The committee, which includes Kemisha Anderson-Thomas (vice-chair), Cleopatra Thompson (secretary), Janoi Edwards (public relations officer), and Jacinth Wiltshire (assistant PRO), has identified a reduction in child labour as its main priority.

“The committee was put in place to tackle the issue of child labour seeing that we have such high levels of (it) here,” said Freckleton. “We want to bring together all the stakeholders who show an interest in child care and youth development in the parish.”

“Clarendon is seen as having too many disenfranchised youth, so as young people, we decided to come together and put some programmes in place that will not just stop a gap, but will actually curtail the issues that have escalated over the years,” added Freckleton, a 24-year-old teacher from Bucknor in central Clarendon.

Recent statistics from the Office of the Children’s Registry (OCR) list Clarendon as the parish with the third highest reported cases of child labour (17), behind St Catherine (24) and Kingston and St Andrew (20).

The OCR figures, which covered the period January to June 2012 and which were released in September, also list Clarendon as having the fourth highest reported cases of child abuse (374).

“The issue of child labour is one of the main reasons why this committee was formed, but we are also taking other issues into consideration. Child care is one of them. We want to use child care/protection and youth development to help build a better Clarendon,” he added.

Freckleton, who lists Dr Walter Leavell and Eureka Douglas as the committee’s advisors, said one of the first major outreach projects centres on the renovation of a house in Treadlight.

“It involves two young girls and their parents who live in a very run-down house, so we have taken it on as our responsibility to get them proper housing facilities,” he said.