Early Childhood Development

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Stop the Silence: Talk Around the Clock - Help End Child Sexual Abuse

Region

Global

Programme Summary

This collaborative annual initiative, launched in 2008 and kicking off on November 19 2008 (World Day for Prevention of Child Abuse), is an effort to help catalyse global action on child sexual abuse (CSA) prevention and treatment during a 24-hour information and awareness raising marathon. (Please click here for further information, and see additional information, below). Several organisations have come together for the effort, which is a response to the Nairobi Conference Against Child Sexual Abuse in 2007 and the Global Call for Action; they include Stop the Silence: Stop Child Sexual Abuse, Inc., Art for Humanity of the Durbin University of Technology, The Global Lesson Foundation, and Ellen Bass and Laura Davis, the authors of the book "The Courage to Heal". They hope to reach:

  • Worldwide media (with a focus on release of relevant scientific and actionable information);
  • Policymakers worldwide (with a focus on increased attention and funding for CSA prevention);
  • Community-based organisations (with a focus on collaboratively addressing needs of children/survivors); and
  • Worldwide public (with a focus on increased protection and healing of children and adults).

Communication Strategies

"Stop the Silence: Talk Around the Clock" uses web-based media to reach a worldwide audience with information, messages, and artistic expression to increase awareness, restore hope and integrity, and increase concrete action. Each year (for instance, on November 19 2008), organisers will begin talking and presenting art and information through the internet from people around the world who have responded to an invitation to add their work and thoughts to this movement by the specified deadline each year. During a 24-hour period, organisers present the work that the public and others have contributed (via an online process) - for instance, they can air a clip of poetry - or people may present it live through a special web programme that will allow others throughout the world to see and/or hear the contributor.

One strategy involves encouraging and incorporating diverse voices and types of expression. Survivors, bystanders, and supporters of the prevention of CSA are called upon each year to help celebrate the courageous efforts of past victims, survivors, and those who have supported them - as well as to voice the conviction that no child (regardless of geography, culture or heritage, or economic status, etc.) should have to endure any form of sexual abuse. By visiting the collaborators' websites (see contact information section, below) and/or accessing a dedicated website, people may upload submissions - art stills (e.g., paintings, drawings, sculpture) or art to donate (with proceeds going to further education about and prevention of CSA), formal presentations (e.g., speaking live from one's computer and/or PowerPoint slides), and poetry, dance, or theatre (uploaded as a video or audio clip, or presented live during the marathon). Celebrities are invited to offer their voices and opinions by uploading video clips or monologues about a CSA-related story, history, experience, or perspective. These clips will be aired throughout the marathon.

Development Issues

Children, Rights, Health.

Key Points

According to Stop the Silence, CSA constitutes a broad range of behaviours occurring along a continuum from voyeurism to rape, and usually happens over an extended period of time. CSA is possible due to differences in power and control between the offender and the victim. The organisation reports that "CSA is occurring in pandemic proportions and causes grave physical and psychological trauma, along with social havoc....It is difficult to know the true extent of CSA; most CSA is never reported (due to shame, fear, stigma, and other factors). The information that does get reported can look quite different depending on who is reporting it....Also, authorities often minimize or dismiss the abuse reported, blame the victim, and/or protect the abuser."

Partners

Stop the Silence: Stop Child Sexual Abuse, Inc., Art for Humanity, The Global Lesson Foundation, Survivors Healing Center, and the Spiritual Alliance to Stop Intimate Violence.

Contact

Pamela Pine, PhD, MPH
Founder and CEO
Stop the Silence: Stop Child Sexual Abuse, Inc.

P.O. Box 127

Glenn Dale MD
20769
United States
Tel: 301 464 4791


Jan Jordaan
Art for Humanity

Fine Art Department
Durban University of Technology
DUT City Campus, Cnr Smith Str & Williams Rd
Room 107, 1st Floor

Durban KwaZulu-Natal
4001
South Africa
Tel: 031 373 6689
Fax: 031 373 6644


Tim Larose
Founder
The Global Lesson Foundation

Help the World, Help the World Foundation
158 George St.
P.O. Box 22174

Belleville ON
Canada
Tel: 613 962 3987
Fax: 613 961 0897

Source

Art for Humanity News - October 2008 [PDF]; Stop the Silence website; and Stop the Silence: Talk Around the Clock website; and emails from Pamela Pine to The Communication Initiative on October 21 2008 and October 22 2008.


Placed on the Communication Initiative site October 20 2008
Last Updated October 22 2008



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