Editorial: Taking a Buddy along with us

It's Buddy Day Tomorrow.

There will be a new addition to the Bay of Plenty Times newsroom tomorrow - someone younger, brighter (in colour) and less vocal than your average journalist, but with a strong message to spread all the same.

Tomorrow Tauranga is one of four cities taking part in Buddy Day - an initiative aimed at raising the awareness of New Zealand's appalling rate of child abuse. The idea is that cardboard cut-outs of 6-year-olds, being cared for by community leaders, celebs and members of the public, will start the conversations needed to bring child abuse out of the shadows and keep our kids safe.

Maybe I'm naive, but I was shocked and disappointed when I heard the 162 "buddies" heading out and about in Tauranga tomorrow will represent only 20 per cent of the substantiated cases of child abuse in the city last year.

In 2012 there were 813 cases in Tauranga where children were not treated with the respect, love and support they deserved. Most locals would be disappointed if 162 cases was the total, rather than a fifth of it.

So in a bid to do our bit, tomorrow I plan to encourage reporters to take our buddy out and about in the community. After all, it takes a community to raise a child - someone to ask questions when things don't seem right and teach children that they need and deserve to be safe, happy and healthy.

The brightly coloured buddies, decorated by local school children, will probably attract plenty of attention - it's not every day the mayor carries a cardboard cut-out with him to council meetings and appointments.

I hope the message gets through and the same attention is transferred to the "real" children in our community. As much as we would like to think that our beautiful city is a great place for children to grow up, the figures show that for some that simply isn't the case.

With 813 child abuse cases - and that's only the ones that were reported - the chances of all of you knowing a victim are high, but so are the chances your intervention could make a real difference.