STOP Child Sexual Abuse in India through Education

It's not only parents and teachers who need to know about child sexual abuse, right?

When we were given the opportunity to give awareness classes in a medium-large company in our local Infopark, we grabbed it. Not only were we able to reach a new group of people, but I realised it was also an opportunity to change our way of giving classes...something more interactive, more "training from the back of the room". It should no longer be about just talking to the groups with a slideshow but it should be more about them discussing things. Understandably, the information stays longer with "more moving less sitting", "more talking less listening", the whole class is livelier, more attentive and more fun. Even with such a difficult topic we are able to make it lighter.

Last Friday, I was able to attend a Rotary Club meeting as the guest speaker. Here also, the club members are used to sitting in rows and listening to a talk. I asked them to move around into groups, listen to a story of abuse, talk together and put the characters in order of most offensive to least offensive. Not easy to come to a collective decision when people come from different backgrounds, with differents religions and beliefs but it kicked the evening off well! We continued the discussion for nearly two hours instead of the given 40 minutes. There were questions, worries, suggestions, opinions and true thought about what can be done to stop child sexual abuse.

It is the responsibility of all adults, not just parents and teachers, to educate and protect our children as members of society working together and caring for each other.

We look forward to many more such possibilities!