UNITED Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, Mr. Nils Kastberg, has said Guyanese girls need to be better protected against sexual abuse.

He said so, last Friday, while speaking to media operatives about the purpose of his visit to Guyana, after the commissioning of the Child Art Mural spanning 420 metres, on the seawall between Sheriff Street and Conversation Tree along Rupert Craig Highway in Greater Georgetown.

“There are too many girls being violated and I think we need to make sure that it does not continue happening,” Kastberg exhorted.

He said it is very important that every single girl must know to say ‘no’ to such acts.

“We have to protect the Guyanese girls better…,” the diplomat insisted.

He posited that the issue can be dealt with by people talking about it and parents educating their children more.

“A girl of four-years-old who has been told, by her mother, if somebody wants to touch you ‘you have to say no’ will be ten times better protected than a girl who was not told that. We need to make sure that they all know about this,” Kastberg reiterated.

“I also call on all the men to behave better because it is men who mainly commit these crimes throughout the region, throughout Latin America and the Caribbean and I think men should change their attitude and instead protect their girls and boys much better,” he declared.

Kastberg said he was at a forum which reviewed progress, when it comes to children, since 2000 here in Guyana.

“We now have, compared to the year 2000, 500 less children who die every year of different types of diseases, because a number of measures have been taken,” Kastberg reported.

He said far more children are now under treatment for HIV and attending schools.

“But, at the same time, we need to work on the issue of violence. There is a lot of violence that children face not in the streets - where they also face violence –but, above all, in the families,” Kastberg remarked.

“We need to make sure that the family is a place where the children are protected and also in the schools that they do not face violence but they are protected,” he appealed.