An increase of 100 reported incidents of child abuse last year is a concern, Junior Social Rehabilitation Minister Davida Morris told the Senate in yesterday’s Budget debate.

Reading a brief on the Department of Child and Family Services, Sen. Morris revealed 531 children were referred for abuse and neglect last year — an increase of about 100 on the previous year.

Of these, more than 200 are aged below ten, Sen. Morris said.

She said new legislation, increased public confidence in the service and media campaigns to protect vulnerable children had all contributed to the rise.

“Although I’m pleased more cases are being reported, I’m just as concerned about abuse,” she said.

She stressed the effects of abuse could last for life and added: “No-one deserves to be treated in this manner.”

Responding, United Bermuda Party Senator Gina Spence-Farmer said: “We have to educate and let people know there is help, there are resources and a lot of help out there for them and their children.

“We need to do more through increased services and staff. In schools, the number of children assigned to counsellors is phenomenal.”

On the debate on Social Rehabilitation, Sen. Morris said the Government was launching the Mirrors programme (see story on this page), in which youth professionals would interact with teenagers to help teach them the skills needed to be productive members of society.

“In Bermuda we have a population of young people identified as being at risk,” explained Sen. Morris.

“They are disconnected from society and alienated from their parents and schools.”

Referring to Mirrors, she said: “It’s about the transformation of personal development — helping people to find out who they are, how they got where they are, what they want to get out of life and how they get there.”

On the Department of Financial Assistance, Sen. Morris said the department was committed to protecting the integrity and dignity of individuals. She pointed out the waiting time for dealing with clients had been dramatically reduced.

Sen. Spence-Farmer raised a series of questions on what was being done to help youths.

She asked for a breakdown on cash being spent on the Mirrors programme and questioned what was being done to tackle gang violence involving youths.

Regarding recruitment of youths to the Mirrors project, she said: “I would like to see a very progressive, in-your-face, no holds barred, street recruitment.”

She also asked whether the Cross Ministry Initiative Team (CMIT) was part of the plan in assisting people living at Club Med.

UBP Senator Kim Swan said he had been hoping the Government would explain how it intends to address poverty.

He pointed to figures from 2000 showing more than 30 percent of Bermudians are poor or near poor.

He said that Social Rehabilitation Minister Dale Butler should concentrate less on his Warwick constituency, and devote more time to helping Bermudians who find themselves “engulfed by this moving monster called poverty”.

There was no time for Sen. Morris to respond to any of the questions, because the allotted two and half hours for the debate finished as Sen. Swan was still speaking.

Sen. Swan later apologised to the Senate for not concluding his speech sooner, explaining he had not realised time was running out.