Fundacion Libertad, The liberal perspective on SENNIAF thepanamanews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thepanamanews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
A group of demonstrators protest outside the Ministry of Social Development headquarters in Panama City to demand jail for those allegedly involved in the cases of minor abuse that occurred in shelters of the National Secretariat for Children, Adolescents and Family (SENNIAF), in a scandal that has shocked the Central American country.
In Panama, at least 14 shelters linked to sexual abuse scandal explica.co - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from explica.co Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
(MENAFN - Newsroom Panama) The Friday tropical downpour did not deter a few hundred young protestors from their 10th day of demonstrating against sexual, physical, and psychological abuse at misnamed shelters under the umbrella of the National Secretariat for Children, Adolescents and the Family (Senniaf), which in many cases subsidized the NGOs and foundations running them.
The protests have taken place at the Senniaf offices and I have been able to observe them firsthand as my office is a stone s throw from the site and I have watched daily as truckloads of National Police arrive before 3 pm to block off surrounding streis ets and then see the arriving stream of largely young protestors carrying who leave at 7 pm followed by a convoy of police vehicles driving the wrong way up the road behind the Santo Tomas Hospital.
Youthful protestors arrived at the offices of National Secretariat for Children, Adolescents and the Family (Seniaff) on Friday February 19 in the midst of a torrential downpour to continue their 10th day of protests while scores of police sealed off the surrounding streets. The storm muffled but failed to stifle the chants of outrage at the reports of abuse of children and adolescents in shelters allegedly supervised by the institution.
For 10 days they have demanded to know the progress of the investigations, names of shelters investigated and the condition of the children, while the authorities have avoided giving details of the revelations of a report by a legislative subcommittee on physical, psychological, and sexual abuse of minors, in 50 shelters supervised by the State.