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SOME 820 CHILDREN contacted Childline between 23 and 25 December this year, according to figures from the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (ISPCC).
The charity, who runs the only 24-hour children’s helpline, said that there is a noticeable trend whereby children who engage with its volunteers are at a serious high-risk of harm.
Volunteers received calls on topics such as suicide, abuse, neglect, bereavement and loneliness from children this Christmas, ISPCC said.
Childline coordinator Elizabeth Donlon Fox said it is likely the helpline will receive calls from more than 250 children today, discussing something that happened to them over the Christmas period.
The time that children have spent speaking with a volunteer has doubled over the last year. The team has also received more than 1,300 suicide-related contacts in the last twelve months.
CEO of ISPCC John Church said that Christmas simply does not happen for too many children and young people and must turn to Childline for support.
He thanked staff and volunteers who have worked 24/7 over Christmas.
“We depend on donations for up to 90% of the funding which keeps us listening 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days of the year. Without this help, we would not be able to be here for every child who needs us,” he said.
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So so awful for these children and seems even worse when it’s at Christmas time
This is deeply saddening… what about the children who don’t have access to a phone, the knowledge that there are resources to turn to for help, the opportunity to be alone in a safe place to make contact even if they had the ability to do so. I’ve no children myself but I’ve been that child. You need a licence to own a dog but not a child. It’s sickening. Shame on those excuse for ‘parents’.
@Donna Fallon: a licence to “own” a child?
@Veronica Waastrumpet: Of course, own. If someone ever did asked your mother, who owns her. What would her answer be, the state, herself? Your mother would surly claim you as hers.
@Veronica Waastrumpet: Don’t be so pedantic Veronica… you know what I meant
Were any of these kids living in Gaza ? Not too many left there after all the Israeli massacres
@Blue Moon: we need to look after our own.. Irish people are not responsible for any other country…
@Blue Moon: You do know who reports these “massacres” to the Western media? Hamas…you know….the group that killed 2000 Israelis in one day. The group that subjugate and torture their own people. Don’t believe a word that these animals say.
Doesn’t say a lot about the services out there to protect the children or the the government shame on the lot of them
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