87. At the same time, it develops partnerships with youth associations, offices set up in some government structures, especially in the Ministry of Home Affairs, through its Women and Children Affairs Office and the Directorate-General of Judiciary Police through the Children's Office and adolescents. 88. Despite the efforts made to promote children's rights, there are still major shortcomings in this area, although adoption of national policy on children is ongoing. 89. With regard to the decentralization of child protection measures, the Ministry for Family Social Solidarity and the Fight against Poverty, established the DirectorateGeneral for Social Solidarity and Family, whose activities are aimed at the social protection of vulnerable groups. This Division is divided into two services: The Social Solidarity service that assists elderly people, disabled and orphaned children; the Family Protection Service that assists the poorest and single parent families. 90. Further to the promotion of decentralization championed by the Government, the MSSFP goes further, establishing, as mentioned above, the Women and Children's Institute (IMC), whose objectives are especially confined to women and children. However, the lack of regional representations of MSSFLP and IMC, limits their effectiveness, due to their services that are inaccessible to a high percentage of the population. 91. Another manifestation of the decentralization for protection measures at the governmental level, relates to the Ministry of Interior, through the establishment of an office dedicated only to the problems of children and women, and also to the Regional Police Headquarters, which has a service that is concerned only with protection. 92. Decentralization of measures concerning the protection of children, is not limited to state organizations, but also to non-governmental and multilateral organizations. For instance, AMIC has extended its activities to all regions of the country, through its regional offices, it means that, representatives of this organization outside of its headquarters, are in charge of pursuing its objectives of advocating the rights of children and promoting training actions aimed at children about their rights. 93. The study carried out by UNICEF and IMC in 2006 on the sexual abuse and exploitation of children, reveals that many cases of violence against children, are reported by officials of their regional offices. 94. In the Gabu region, this organization has a temporary shelter for talibés children returning to Guinea Bissau from the countries of the sub - region. They remain in this center while trying to identify the parents. 95. The IPHD school canteens program that the AMIC structure hosted, covers around 300 schools, finding some of these schools in the regions. The REJE such as AMIC also have representation in the Regions. 96. The National Technical Secretariat for the Fight Against AIDS (SNTLS), also has 20

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