Educate to Protect

Mar 27 2014.

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“You think your child is safe with the servant, the driver or the uncle.  Well, the sad news is that the child is most often abused by those you think won’t do such a disgraceful act.” said Mrs. Jessie Mueller, adding, “I have worked in the villages and towns and I have found that abuse cases are everywhere."

Jessie is a women and child’s rights activist through her role as a Member of Inner Wheel Club of Colombo West (District 322) for whom she was also Past-President during years (2004-2005).  Now she is acting as Program Coordinator for “Educate to Protect” which is a joint partnership educational and child rights awareness program between “The Flemingo Foundation”(The CSR arm of ‘Flemingo Group’) which is the Funding Party for this program, and Inner Wheel Club of Colombo West (District 322) as the Coordinating Party and the Local Community Representatives.  “It is an interactive rising action serving the local community all over the Sri Lankan island against child silent abuse found among children aged 8-17 years old.”  Jessi explained.

It is not just against sexual abuse, as it is also against verbally abusing a child, unnecessarily teasing of a child, exposing a child to pornography, touching a child where she or he doesn’t want to be touched, forcing a child to touch another person especially adults, breaking down the self-confidence of a child through bullying, physically abusing by hitting or hurting a child, manipulating a child, keeping a child unclean, unclothed or unfed, using a child as a servant (child labor) thus depriving them from their rightful time for leisure or education, not listening to a child, neglecting the emotional needs of a child, the bullying, hitting or ridiculing a child at our schools, neglecting a child’s medical or educational needs and leaving a child without supervision and exposing them to risk rather than offering them a safe environment to grow and flourish in.

Jessi added that with Flemingo Foundation’s funds that ensured the sustainability of this program,  and the valuable support of Flemingo’s Global Director and Board Member Mr. Paul Topping, “Educate to Protect” was able to continue its work closely in association with the Ministry of Education of Sri Lanka, the Sri Lanka Police Department and The National Child Protection Authority (NCPA).  She also said that “Flemingo Foundation” and Inner Wheel’s ‘Educate to Protect’ program came as a support and humanitarian intervention; like a breath of fresh air to these children, with the strong slogan of “NO MORE SILENT ABUSE”, providing children with education and knowledge on how to recognize what form of behavior against them is identified as a violation of their rights as children and their safe and secure existence.  The program provides essential protective knowledge of an EMERGENCY TOLL FREE NUMBER, ‘1929’ directly connected to the Sri Lanka Police Department to help assist them whenever a child or even a parent feels that a child is at risk of any of the types of abuse and immediately alarming The National Child Protection Authority of their individual situation.

“There are alarming child abuse and child suicide incidents from this silent abuse, especially in rural underprivileged communities where around 1.5 million women (mothers and wives) leave our homeland to earn a living in the Middle East, Cyprus, Gulf regions. They leave their little ones for years behind in the supposedly safe custody and care of their fathers, relatives, elderly grandparents, uncles, aunts and even neighbors  who will never be able to substitute the tender loving care of a mother.” she observed, adding, “the crisis is worsened by the consumption of arrack leading to parental negligence and abuse.  The hard-earned money sent by the women is squandered as well”.  Today, and with “Educate to Protect” successful outreach to more than 10,000 Sri Lankan children and 2,000 Sri Lankan parents since the program inception 6 months ago, the Emergency Call Number has been receiving an increasing number of calls for reported help against child abuse crimes bringing our nation out of its silence against these terrible offenses against our children; the future of Sri Lanka.

Equip your child…

Here are some tips from THE WEEK  on how to equip your child to prevent child abuse-
*Teach them to say No to any contact they are uncomfortable with, even if they know the person.
*Teach them the ‘underwear rule’- the parts of their body covered by their underwear is not to be touched by anyone. As kids, they may not always be able to identify what is ‘inappropriate’. Tell them that no one can phtotgrpah them without their clothes on, and that no one should be able to touch their private parts.
*Teach them the difference between good secrets and bad secrets. Any secret that scares them is not a good secret and needs to be shared with a trusted adult.
* Encourage them to talk at home and teach them the safety network- trusted adults they can talk to.

By Sirohmi Gunesekera



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