Toys help tell stories of abused Colombian children

A stuffed rabbit spoke on Tuesday on behalf of a two-year-old girl with motor and language disabilities who was sexually abused in Colombia: "She feels terror when her mother asks her uncle to take care of her because he takes baths and does inappropriate things in front of her."

Hundreds more toys were spread out in the central Plaza Veinte de Julio in Bogota in a symbolic act that for the sixth consecutive year seeks to draw the attention of citizens and the State on child sexual abuse.

"This year sexual violence has skyrocketed," said Angela Maria Rosales, national director of the non-governmental organization SOS Children's Villages Colombia, which promotes the event.

Between January and September of this year, 28,300 cases of alleged child sexual violence have been reported in the country, according to figures from the state-run Colombian Institute of Family Welfare (ICBF).

In the same period in 2021 there were 27,210 cases in which children turned to the entity for help.

The challenge, according to SOS Children's Villages Colombia, is to achieve greater efficiency in the judicial system that currently takes an average of four years to obtain a conviction against the adult abuser. Only 3% of the cases are attended and end in a conviction.

In the square a group of people held signs denouncing what they say is a "97% impunity" in cases of child sexual abuse.

In Colombia, there is already a tool that is about to come into force that could help in assisting child victims through a special investigation unit of the prosecutor's office.

What activists for children want is that it be implemented efficiently.