Blog: Webinar on Ending Child Maltreatment with UNICEF’s Head of Campaigns and Advocacy Benjamin Perks

At a time when global attention often bypasses the quiet epidemics that affect millions, Benjamin Perks, UNICEF’s Head of Campaigns and Advocacy, delivered a compelling session that placed child maltreatment at the very centre of global public health discussions. Titled Ending Child Maltreatment, the session drew inspiration from the Child Survival Revolution of the 1980s and made a strong case for a new movement: a Child Development and Protection Revolution. 

Perks, a seasoned human rights diplomat and lifelong advocate for children’s welfare, reflected on how targeted interventions in the Child Survival Revolution – such as expanding vaccine coverage, promoting breastfeeding, preventing diarrhoea, and monitoring child growth – helped reduce global child mortality by 61%. That transformative period demonstrated that systemic global change is possible when action is collective and focused. Now, Perks argues, it’s time to use that same determination to prevent trauma and toxic stress in children, conditions just as deadly in their long-term effects. 

“We are the first generation in history to know how to end toxic stress and trauma,” Perks said during the session, “and must be the last to accept it as an inevitable and insurmountable problem.” This perspective forms the foundation of his recent book Trauma Proof, which explores how adversity can be addressed through stronger relationships, systemic change, and informed support. 

Perks discussed the updated understanding of the prevalence of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). While once believed to affect only 1-2% of the population, we now understand that nearly 50% of people have experienced some form of adversity during childhood. Around 13% have faced multiple, compounding adversities, experiences that shape not only mental and emotional health but also increase the risk of physical illness and exploitation across the lifespan (Felitti et al., 1998). 

Perks presented several avenues through which meaningful progress might be made. Among them, parenting programs emerged as a particularly effective intervention, not only for improving child development outcomes such as speech and language, but also for enhancing parental wellbeing. When parents gain insight into how their behaviour influences their children’s emotional and neurological development, they can foster environments where love becomes a powerful agent of healing. 

The role of schools was also emphasised as critical in this landscape. Perks highlighted the significance of secondary attachment figures, teachers and school staff, who may serve as consistent, caring adults in a child’s life. These relationships, often remembered well into adulthood, can provide children with a sense of stability and safety that supports both learning and healing. He stressed the importance of equipping school-based professionals with an understanding of trauma and child development to make the most of this potential. 

In addition to parenting and education, Perks advocated for trauma-informed approaches across all levels of care and support, from general services to specialised interventions. Recognising how early experiences affect development is, he argued, foundational for designing systems that respond with compassion and effectiveness. 

Perhaps one of the most important threads woven throughout the session was the idea that knowledge is key. While the impacts of trauma are vast, awareness is still uneven. Many people remain unaware of how deeply childhood adversity can shape a person’s life course.  

Benjamin Perks’ session offered more than just a presentation of challenges; it opened a space for reflection on what is known, what is possible, and how societies might better support the wellbeing of children. Informed by decades of field experience and research, his message invites a quiet but profound reconsideration of how we think about childhood, resilience, and the systems that shape them. 

References: 

Felitti, V. J., Anda, R. F., Nordenberg, D., Williamson, D. F., Spitz, A. M., Edwards, V., Koss, M. P., & Marks, J. S. (1998). Relationship of childhood abuse and household dysfunction to many of the leading causes of death in adults: The adverse childhood experiences (ACE) study. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 14(4), 245-258. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0749-3797(98)00017-8  

Written by research officer Helen Trivedi