Skopje, 17 February 2023 (MIA) - The First Children's Embassy Megjashi's 070 390 632 helpline for children and young people has registered reports of several problems including peer violence, emotional distress, violated rights under the category of family relations, inaccessibility to education and health care, as well as inability to get necessary medical help and necessary health care. 

Megjashi representatives told a press conference on Friday that the helpline has recorded cases related to mental health, injury, family relations and accessibility. 

In terms of mental health, most calls involve reports of emotional distress - anger management, fear and anxiety, as well as mood swings, as a result of other problems reported to the helpline. 

A number of calls also included problems in the category of mental/emotional violence, physical violence and neglect.

Megjashi President Dragi Zmijanac noted that peer violence has been present to such a large extent that some parents even considered moving abroad. 

As regards family relations, calls were related to problems and violations of rights related to family relations. 

Regarding accessibility, several categories of problems have been covered, namely: access to education, basic (essential) needs that are not available to children and problems with access to health care, inability to get necessary medical assistance and necessary health care protection.

According to Zmijanac, reaching out to the helpline for support is good because it shows increased encouragement to report, but also indicates that some things are happening repeatedly, which is why increased education and counseling are needed. 

Megjashi noted that during 2022, until December 27, a total of 357 reports were received, based on which 619 conversations were additionally conducted. The total number of children and young people who reached out to the helpline was 450.