At a press conference held at the ministry, deputy to the health minister Fathmath Afiya said that from January of this year up to now, 600 cases involving children had been submitted to the gender department from Male and that several more cases had been submitted to family centres in the atolls. Afiya revealed that among the cases submitted in Male 129 cases are regarding sexual abuse, 118 cases involving neglect (psychological abuse), 90 cases are issues faced by children from the family, 47 cases of physical abuse and 18 cases of mental abuse and 14 cases of not registration or vaccination. The deputy minister noted that physical abuse cases are increasing year by year. Speaking of other work done by the department, Afiya revealed that the department is currently working on providing legal guardianship of four children now living in the state run Children’s House in Villimale to families who are willing to accept them. She highlighted that currently there are 55 children living in the house and that families of the older children are refusing to take them back. She revealed that from 2004 onwards, legal guardianship of nine children had been given to adoptive families. “Most families want the legal guardianship of children under the age of one, and there are several older children at the house and there is the issue of no one wanting them,” she said of the house, which was initially to accommodate children below nine years. She stressed that the state will take up guardianship of a child only under last resort and that before that the state will try to find a family member to care for the child, but that when that doesn’t happen the state looks after these children.