Manama: Qatar Foundation for Child and Woman Protection (QFCWP) has sheltered 1,638 children from domestic violence between 2004 and 2010, Qatari media reported.
According to QFCWP statistics, 434 children were the victims of domestic violence in 2010. However, the highest number in the seven-year span was 459 children in 2005.
The figures could be higher with many people not reporting their cases mainly for social reasons.
However, several psychologists and sociologists say that Qatar has become aware that domestic violence cases against children are no longer a taboo, Qatari daily The Peninsula reported on Tuesday.
The cases received by QFCWP differ according to the type of violence. Social violence victims top the cases with 461 of children receiving treatment for physical, mental and sexual abuses, negligence, family rift and marital conflicts.
About 308 of children sought judicial assistance and legal protection and advice while 204 children resorted to QFCWP seeking economic protection from poor living conditions, housing, work discrimination and arbitrary dismissal problems.
Fifteen children sought health follow-up for mental problems, personality disorders, behavioural deviations, medical errors, addiction and harmful unhealthy practices while nine cases sought educational protection for school violence, educational denial, and school dropout and punishment and 91 children received mental and social treatment and rehabilitation.
QFCWP plans to host disabled children and women victim of violence and provide a specialised staff to deal with future cases.
According to Farida Al Obeidly, Chairperson of QFCWP, said, society refrains to report the cases of children and women victims of violence "due to the dominant traditions, ignorance, domestic conflicts and the ‘shame culture' or family privacy."
Mariam Al Maliki, General Secretary of the Supreme Council of Family Affairs, said that Qatari bloggers played a key role in raising social awareness of violence cases against children and women.
