Latvia

Dzimba Safety Programme is a new child-focused child abuse prevention initiative for young children, their parents and teachers run by the Center Against Abuse „Dardedze" in Riga. An unique character Dzimba have been developed to serve as a mediator between children and adults and to provide children with skills enabling to recognize dangerous situations, dangerous people, safe and unsafe touch, different types of secrets and to say „no".

In the beginning of 2009 a campaign Put Your Belt Away has been started by Center Dardedze together with partners - a campaign against corporal punishment of children. The aim of this campaign is to change the stereotype in Latvia that corporal punishment (belting, spanking, shaking etc.) is an appropriate and acceptable way of raising a child which doesn't affect the relationships among children and parents. The necessity had roused from the study made in 2005 which was made in co-operation with the study's of public opinion center SKDS.

See it, Hear it, Say it campaign in Latvia was launched during the national conference for child protection professionals and media representatives, that took place on 5th December 2008, in Riga. The conference was opened by the vice Mayor of the Riga City Council, who gave his patronage to the campaign.

The report by Working Group for Cooperation on Children at Risk of Council of the Baltic States describes situation of children leaving institutions in the Baltic Sea Region. It refers to unequal access to support and the lack of sensitivity regarding the rights of each young person leaving care to receive assistance according to her or his specific needs.