We completed the 12minutes animation for advocacy, treatment and prevention of child sexual abuse. The animation is based on the short story "Daughter", written by Monica D. Ray. "Daughter" is a harsh and unfortunately also a very authentic story about a 12 year old girl victim of incest. The animation characters and the storyboard were crafted by a Danish animator, Paw Ravn, who volunteered at Stairway for 3 months during Summer 2002.

The objective of the story and the animation is to break the taboo around the issue of child sexual abuse in the interest of prevention, as well as to give sexually abused children and youth a basis for identification and thus encourage them to disclose and get help to overcome past or even present traumatic experiences.

We find that animation is an appropriate medium because of its appeal towards children and youth and because it makes it possible to illustrate a problem and situations that would be almost impossible to present in real film.

The animation is part of an educational package, or a toolkit, with a specific and detailed instructors’ manual. It is of uttermost importance that the material is used with care and by qualified facilitators, which is also the reason that we facilitate a long line of trainings for the teachers, social workers and councilors using the toolkit. Though part of the training is specifically oriented towards the use of the animation, it also covers the issue of children’s rights and child sexual abuse in a much broader respect.

Background

The background for developing a tool, which can effectively address the problem of sexual abuse, stems from more than ten years of experience in working with street children in the Philippines. Sexual abuse of children is not an obvious problem and can therefore easily be ignored, despite its detrimental effects on the victims. We have experienced repeatedly that children who have suffered sexual abuse are not likely to show any substantial development, until the often most significant single reason for their pain, anger and confusion has been addressed properly.

Sexuality in general and child sexual abuse in particular are delicate issues to touch. However, to play safe and not address the problem will be for the benefit of the offenders only, so we find it timely to creatively contribute to bring more light on to the issue.

We wish to effectively work on the aspects of treatment, prevention and advocacy, and to do so we need special tools. The animation toolkit will be able to serve all purposes.

Partners and supporters in the project are: Embassy of Finland in Manila, Kindernothilfe, Leger Foundation, Rødkilde Gymnasium, Solidarite Cistercienne and Heidelberg Philippines


Stairway Completes Animation Toolkit
(by: May Panganiban, Editor, Child Protection Unit Website)

It was a long trip from Manila (or Quezon City to some) to South Forbes Park especially on a “Baclaran day” (Wednesday) but several friends in the NGO community and DSWD courageously cruised through EDSA upon the invitation of the Finnish Ambassador Raimo Anttola and his wife Madame Piiju. Dressed casually as we are, familiar faces greeted each other; representatives from ChildHope, Kaibigan Ermita Outreach, Lunduyan, DSWD, DepED, CPU-Net, Web Kubo and CPTCSA. Each of us was welcomed by the friendly ambassador to his home, shaking our manicure-free hands, for the premiere showing of “Daughter”.

After the successful national and European tour of the musical “Goldtooth”, Lars Jorgensen and Monica D. Ray of Stairway Foundation completed another brilliant project, this time, an animated advocacy video focusing on the issue of incest. The first time I had a glimpse of the project was last March of this year. When I say glimpse, there were just sketches. I remember Monica reading the script for the audience composed of teachers from different schools nationwide as Lars patiently shift each slide on queue. That was not a long while at all for me. But on the night of September 17, the video with the accompanying manual was in its final form.

The story was written by Monica D. Ray, who is “mothering” a number of street children in Stairway’s residential center located in Puerto Galera. Culling the lines directly from the children’s sharing, the draft was finalized through consultations with CPTCSA and several volunteers including the storyboard artist, Paw Ravn.

“Daughter” is about a girl who was molested several times by her own father. Her mother works as a domestic helper overseas and leaves her with the father. Being the eldest, she was expected to be in charge of her other four siblings. She tried telling about the abuse to several people including her aunt, the parish priest and her teacher. No one paid attention. She told her mother but the mother did not believe and castigated her. Later she also found out that her father is also molesting her younger sister. The final scene was the girl dialing the number of the Child Protection Unit.

The animation, dubbing, and scoring did justice to the script. The Philippine Animation Studio did a fine job. Running time is less than 30 minutes.

“It is not [the kind of cartoon film] that you would leave your children to watch [while you do the dishes]” as Lars remarked to the audience to open the forum. With the accompanying manual, they call it the Animation Toolkit for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse. Users will be trained how to conduct the session with the children to ensure proper handling of any impromptu disclosure. CPTCSA was involved in writing the manual and will be helping out disseminate the toolkit to the schools nationwide.

The audience came up with suggestions like the use of a real male voice, using a tune familiar to the children, and several more seemingly sound suggestions. But I think I am most hopeful with the idea brought up by one diplomat guest that the toolkit can be shared with other countries. Everyone can use the same story and animation if translated into different languages. That will be cool.

One guest wondered why in the film, the responsibility of reporting the abuse was left to the child. Lars responded, “That’s exactly the point. Children approached adults who would not listen to them. This toolkit should be able to encourage the kids to end the silence and assert their rights.”