A program on the prevention of child abuse and neglect, funded by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), was inaugurated simultaneously in three Chinese provinces on Monday.

At the launch ceremony in Hangzhou capital city of east China's Zhejiang Province, Wang Daming, a UNICEF project officer, announced that the "Protect Children from Violence Project" was launched in Zhejiang, Guangdong and Shaanxi.

He said that the project, a cooperation between UNICEF and All-China Women's Federation, calls for coordination with local sanitary, civil affairs, public security authorities and procuratorate and judicial departments in the three provinces to protect the rights of children in their families, communities and schools.

Wang said UNICEF's three key objectives are prevention, intervention and rescue.

Jin Lei, Director of the Zhejiang Women and Children Center, said the project there will focus on violence against children in schools. The Guangdong program is expected to focus on monitoring child abuse in families, and Shaanxi's program will look into child abuse in medical institutions.

According to UNICEF, millions of children are exposed to various forms of abuse and neglect in China, especially in outlying rural areas in central and western regions of the country.

(Xinhua News Agency June 13, 2006)