We want to wish a Happy 50th Anniversary to a wonderful organization, ChildhelpÒ.
Two ladies, Sara O’Meara and Yvonne Fedderson, founded this group in 1959, with a goal of meeting the physical, emotional, educational, and spiritual needs of neglected, abused and as-risk children.  As we often see on the nightly news, there is some innocent little child missing, injured, or killed, with results later being disclosed that they fell victim to a family member.  From 2006, statistics show that four children die every day, from child abuse, and three out of four of them are under the age of four years.  Reports of child abuse are called in to authorities every 10 seconds.

In children under the age of 12, 90% of them knew their perpetrator.  They come from every socio-economic background, and chances are that 1/3 of abused/neglected children will later abuse their own children, keeping the horrible circle of child abuse unbroken.

Signs of child abuse are:

• Anti-social behavior, problems in school

• Unexplained marks, burns, cut, bruises

• Bite marks

• Fear of adults

• Eating disorders

• Fear of particular person or family member

• Drastic appetite changes

• Apathy, depression

• Hostility

• Unsuitable clothing

• Unkempt, dirty

• Extreme hunger

• Lack of supervision

Evidently, in this world, it does take a village to raise a child!  We need to be responsible enough to report things that we suspect as child abuse to the proper authorities.  Neighbors are often reluctant to get involved until it is too late.  Calls are anonymous, and toll-free.

Call 1-800-4-A-Child (1-800-422-4453) it the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline.

This is a very disturbing topic, and we salute this group and all the others that focus on child safety.  We also acknowledge all the dedicated parents and grandparents that do everything in their power to protect their little ones.  However, there’s no better safety message than to ask you to watch out for all of our young people, and future generations.