LIHU‘E — Dave Sharma of the state Department of Health Kaua‘i District Health Office Family Health Services Program said that, despite COVID-19, people should not forget the tradition of planting blue pinwheels that has become an accepted symbol in the fight against child abuse.
Sharma was among the group of staffers from the ‘Umi Street office who decorated the building’s front yard with the twirling blue wheels that twinkled in the sun.
He said the state Department of Education joined the crusade for this year’s April being observed as National Child Abuse Prevention Month, and the pockets of pinwheels grew in the novel coronavirus atmosphere to include the State Building, the YWCA of Kaua‘i along Hardy Street, the offices of American Medical Response, and Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School, where art teacher Leslie Frasier wondered who put them up.
“I just learned about this, and wanted to join the effort,” said Edie Ignaco-Neumiller, a member of the Zonta Club of Kaua‘i and a Kaua‘i representative to the Hawai‘i State Commission on the Status of Women. “This isn’t a club or organization thing. I just wanted to do this.”
She was joined by a pair of Girl Scouts who, during last year’s observance, were shut out of doing pinwheel plantings because of the coronavirus shutdowns.
Other YWCA of Kaua‘i community partners included the Kaua‘i Police Department, Office of the Prosecuting Attorney and Children’s Justice Center in decorating the yard fronting Hardy Street with the symbols for innocence and a bright future that all children deserve.
A report on child abuse and neglect in Hawai‘i done by the state Department of Human Services in 2019 indicated there were 4,417 total children reported as “unique,” or being counted only once during the reporting period, regardless of how many times the child was reported as being abused or neglected. Of that total, Kaua‘i reported 255 unconfirmed cases and 86 confirmed cases.
A child is counted as confirmed each time he or she is confirmed as a victim in a report.
Kaua‘i also reported 380 cases of duplicated count, or a child counted each time that he or she was indicated to be a victim. A child may be found to be an alleged victim in more than one report during the year and therefore counted more than once.
Stefani Iwami, clinical director of Sexual Assault Services at the YWCA of Kaua‘i, said research shows that there are increases in sexual abuse and other types of child abuse occurrences during states of emergencies like natural disasters and health crises, including the current COVID-19 pandemic.
“This can be attributed to higher vulnerability for people to be victimized, and increased levels of stress, and other risk factors for perpetration of violence, among other factors,” she said.
“Since the beginning of this year, 37 members of our community have started YWCA therapy services specifically to heal from sexual violence. This is a 65% increase when compared to the same time frame in 2020.”
Iwami said that, to date in 2021, the YWCA hotline advocates have provided support to survivors and family members in 86 separate incidents of sexual violence.
“In more than half of those incidents, the survivor was a child,” she said.
Sharma, whose department deals in intervention and prevention, said the key to child-abuse prevention is to build stronger families and communities.
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or
dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
