There is a great need for knowledge and awareness-raising about child abuse in Poland, the participants at the conference stated. Parents often abuse their children because of lack of knowledge, explained Irena Kornatowska, president of Nobody´s Children Foundation. The organisation has been fighting against child abuse and maltreatment for 17 years.

– Our experience and research shows that about 50 percent of the cases when children are harmed stand not from intention, but from lack of knowledge. Parents are not ready to be parents, she said.

Insecure parents can for example start shaking their screaming babies as they don´t know how to handle it. An action that can lead to serious injuries, explained Andrzej Marciński, professor at the Medical University of Warsaw.

– It affects the head and the central nervous system and can result in different, very severe, injuries. The brain can be damaged forever, he said.

To prevent young children from harm The Nobody´s Children Foundation has initiated the project Good Parent – Good Start. The goal is to develop a system of cooperation between health- and social care services with the aim to identify families in risk groups at an early stage – preferably even before something happens. The parents are thereafter offered workshops in parenting skills and psychological consultation at the Child and Family centre run by Nobody´s Children. Doctors, nurses, midwives and social workers also receive training in early prevention to be able to discover risk factors early on.

The conference in Warsaw was the start of the pilot project, which initially is concentrated in the Warsaw district of Praga. The project is carried out in close cooperation with local authorities, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Social Policy in Poland. The plan is for the project to replicate and spread not only in the whole city of Warsaw, but also in all of Poland.

– There are many projects of this kind in other countries, and research shows them to be very effective. It is important to step in early, even before the child is born or before three years of age. That makes it possible to break the negative circle when anti-social parents bring up anti-social children, said Agnieszka Izdebska, psychologist at Nobody´s Children Foundation.