Campaigning and promoting the awareness of abuse and cruelty

At SCYP, we aim to raise awareness, empower children, young people and adults to identify, understand and speak out about abuse.

We can empower children by listening to them, believing in them and accepting their issues.

We hear children and young people saying they do not always feel heard or listened to, and they cannot tell their families what they are feeling. Moreover, in Pakistan, we see hundreds of children on the streets, in unattended open and closed public places, working, subjected to cruelty and sometimes in vulnerable conditions. In a country where millions of people suffer from extreme living conditions due to absolute poverty and limited resources, children and young people remain at risk of abuse. Sadly, some adults become immune to seeing children in helpless and exposed situations, and the visible harm, neglect and abuse become normalised and unaddressed.

This should not be the case. Adults should be the ones taking action to protect children and young people and make them feel heard and listened to. We aim to support adults to take appropriate action if they see abuse, harm and neglect happening.

If we see a child being brutally beaten, humiliated, made fun of because of appearance, colour or social conditions, our responsibility is to stop abuse from happening by safeguarding and empowering the child. SCYP CEO

We will achieve this by embedding the speaking out, staying safe practices in every setting in Pakistan and providing support services through “SCYP centres” in Pakistan and in the ethnic communities in the UK. We intend to provide safe spaces to children, young people and their families where they feel supported, empowered and listened to. By making "Your SCYP" centres accessible, we aim to:

• create safe venues for children and young people to come forward and speak up
• challenge and break the taboos and stereotypes that have been affecting the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people in Pakistan and in the ethnic communities in the UK
• raise awareness of abuse and campaign for its prevention
• promote the need of adults and society to tackle abuse
• support and empower children and young people who have been abused to get back to life and feel safe

This struggle is challenging but we can help together as many children and young people as we can.