A. Rationale

Sexual abuse of children is the most insidious form of child abuse.  It is committed shrouded in silence that allows children to remain hidden victims. Thus, there is no accurate statistics to account for those who are victimized and subjected to such abuse. Estimates worldwide are placed in millions of children sexually abused, sexually exploited and trafficked.   Boys and girls at any age are all potential victims, and offenders can be anybody, in most cases somebody well-known to the child.

Sexual abuse is a gross violation of the rights of a child.  It impedes the healthy development of the child, and undermines the very foundation of childhood itself. Sexual abuse and exploitation are not obvious problems and therefore possible to ignore.  Considering the scope of the problem and the detrimental effects the abuse has on the victims, it is a most under addressed issue in the context of children’s rights and child development. 

There are millions of children around the world who are victims of sexual abuse, and yet very little is being done to help them and to prevent more to follow in their path of victimization.  Denial and discomfort in dealing with the issue are certain factors that keep us from massive intervention, but also a low level of awareness contributes to the insufficient response by those in positions to protect our children.

Prevention has for a good reason gained recognition as the most prudent and cost effective strategy in addressing child sexual abuse.   In reaching out to children and adults with information about the issue, we need to develop creative approaches, which will help surmount the obstacles of denial and ignorance.  One such approach is the development of animation toolkits directly confronting the crime of child sexual abuse.  The first animation toolkit developed by Stairway was "Daughter, a Story of Incest," released in its final version in 2003, with substantial support from the Embassy of Finland in the Philippines. The second film with accompanying work manual and cartoon book, was "A Good Boy, a Story of Pedophilia", which was released in the last quarter of 2005; also with substantial support from the Embassy of Finland in Manila.  Both films with supporting educational materials have been tested thoroughly in the Philippines and abroad, and we experience an overwhelming interest to use this tool by child practitioners from around the world.  Professionals in the field consider the material a break through, which should be made available for children and adults around the world. 

Based on a grounded assumption that a vast majority of social workers and teachers in the Philippines were ready to confront the issue of child sexual abuse given the necessary knowledge, skills and tools to do it properly, Stairway planned a major escalation in its CRC/CSAP program for 2005.  From appendix B.2, evaluation of workshops for approximately 500 teachers, it appears that there was indeed a need and a high level of preparedness to deal with the issue of Child Sexual Abuse and Child Sexual Exploitation.  The growing number of requests for workshops and trainings throughout the year from NGOs, Local Government Units, Universities and even the police force confirmed this further. 

C. Program Goals

With the completion of the second animation toolkit, "A Good Boy," paired with substantial financial input from DANIDA, the SFI CRC/CSAP program took on new dimensions in 2005, exploring and utilizing different kinds of networks and strategies.  The goals are to break the silence around the issue of Child Sexual Abuse, and to put the issue on the agenda of a long range of relevant institutions and groups through awareness and capacity building. Other goals are to continuously strengthen SFI's own capacity as a resource in facilitating these processes, and to gather and process experiences learned through the various interventions with different partners.

D. Scope of the Report 

This report presents the activities and accomplishments of the CSAP Program undertaken for the year 2005.  It serves as an update and documentation for all the program's stakeholders and partners. The report covers the Introduction and the four (4) main program components:  Development of Advocacy Materials, CSAP Trainings and Capability Building, Networking, and Psychological Intervention.  

The Introduction presents in brief the Program Rationale, the Background, and the Program Goals.

Development of Advocacy Materials presents the production of creative media like the animations and the theater piece as the centerpieces of Stairway's advocacy program. The processes, outputs and challenges involved in producing and distributing these materials are also discussed in this section.

Trainings and Capability Building covers the different trainings and workshops on child sexual abuse prevention provided by Stairway.  The processes in terms of conducting the trainings in the different modules, the output in terms of the number of trainings and workshops conducted with different groups as well as the challenges in program implementation and training assessment are tackled in this section.  The CSAP Pilot Project in Calapan City and the Animation on Wheels Special Project are featured considerably in this portion. 

Networking enumerates the various groups that Stairway has collaborated and partnered with in the implementation of the CSAP Program.  These consist of government agencies, non-government organizations, schools and detention centers.  The challenges and lessons learned in working with these groups are discussed in length in this section.

Psychological Interventions are depicted in terms of the approaches used in providing therapeutic counseling of victims of child sexual abuse. Stairway Foundation provided these services to two detention centers in addition to the children housed in the Stairway Learning and Resource Center.  Challenges and lessons learned in the discharge of this service were likewise pointed out.

General Lessons Learned gives an overview of conclusions based on the experiences of the year.

Planning Overview and Prospects 2006 point the direction of the program focus from here.

Stairway Foundation’s International Partners.  A few words of appreciation.

The Appendixes:

B.1. List of Workshops in collaboration with the Dep Ed and the MSWDO.

B.2.Teachers’ Evaluation in Calapan

B.3.Focus Group Discussion in Calapan

B.4.Metro West Network Evaluation

B.5.Planning Output, SFI CRC/CSAP Program 2006

B.6.Standard Operational Procedures, SFI CRC/CSAP Program 2006

 

A decade of experience working with children at risks has convinced Stairway that the use of animation is a great medium in baring delicate issues of young people. There is no comparison to its effects when it comes to reach out to children with limited educational background and rather short attention span, and through animation it is possible to illustrate problems and situations that would be almost impossible to communicate through any other medium.

2005 saw the finalization in the production of Stairway's second animation film, A Good Boy, a Story of Pedophilia, which like the first animation Daughter, a Story of Incest, came with an instructor's manual.  Both animations were dubbed into Filipino, English, Spanish and French, all through volunteer efforts stemming from SFI’s network with the International School in Manila and the European International School. Through international network both films have been translated to Khmer and "Daughter" into Nepali, and negotiations are going on with translations into Thai.  The international partners dubbing the films will also facilitate distribution in their respective countries.

To better reach children at high risk on the streets and in squatter areas, SFI also made a cartoon version of "A Good Boy" in both English and Filipino. 

The animations are the platform in all the workshops and trainings facilitated by Stairway.  Another medium, which has also proven very effective in sensitizing adult audiences and communicating the issue of child sexual abuse and exploitation, is the theater piece "Cracked Mirrors", which was also launched in 2005. 

"Cracked Mirrors" has earned overwhelming acclaim. It has taken a key position in Stairway's advocacy efforts being a significant element of the CSAP trainings as it offers a holistic view into the realm of child sexual abuse. The Foundation has experienced the most engaged discussions among the viewers at the discussion rounds held after each performance.  The creative experience once again proved to be a potent tool to engage audiences into an issue.

The play was premiered at the Republic of Malate Theatre in Manila last September 1, 2005, along with the official premier of the animation, "A Good Boy". The show was graced by heads and leaders of prominent child care institutions like the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Country Representative Dr. Nicholas Alipui, who delivered the closing remarks, the Philippine Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) through Undersecretary Lourdes Balanon, who gave the opening speech, and former DSWD Secretary Lina Laigo.  Non-government organizations working for children’s welfare like the Children Protection Unit and Consuelo Foundation were represented among the 400 invited guests.

As a follow up to the rather formal September 1 premier, another one was held at the Remedios Circle the following night, attended by approximately 150 street children of Child Hope Asia. The Remedios Circle is a favorite watering hole for locals and foreigners alike, as many establishments for entertainment are located here. It is also a favorite destination for street children from Manila. The said activity provided us a glimpse of the potentials of the animation "A Good Boy", what it could achieve in settings such as these with street children. As the street children watched in awe, they verbalized, after the processing by the street educators of child hope, that what they saw from the animation, was a reflection of their lives on the streets. What we saw from that night gave us the satisfaction that the animation and the cartoon books can work in such settings.  

Resident Artistic Director, Monica D. Ray, is the script writer and the director of "A Good Boy" as well as "Cracked Mirrors."

Though both Daughter and A Good Boy have been taken as a tool for a long range of  child care groups and this way have reached large children audiences, a more effective means of distribution remains a challenge for the coming years.  Stairway hopes to be able to link up with large international organizations for the big scale distribution of the animations. Negotiations are in the process with 3 different international partners, UNICEF, World Vision, and the VIVA Network. 

Lessons Learned

The initial step in the production of "A Good Boy" was to find a group or an agency, which would act as production managers in order to secure that the production happened in accordance with the initial agreements.  The group Intra Media took on this assignment, which was supposed to simplify the whole production for the producer, SFI.  Unfortunately, about a month into the process, internal problems within Intra Media erupted, and the quality of their service went down below acceptable.  The result was that in the interest of a good result we ended up taking on the tasks that Intra Media had been commissioned to perform. 

Stairway Foundation provides trainings and workshops on children's rights and on the prevention of child sexual abuse.  These trainings vary in terms of duration, the age levels of participants, and the tools used.  The table that follows illustrates the classifications of said trainings

CLASSIFICATION OF TRAININGS ON CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE PREVENTION

The training modules for children contain topics on the Convention of the Rights of the Child encompassing its Four Core Principles, the Ten Rights of the Child and the corresponding responsibilities.  Self image and body parts are discussed through workshops, and Learning Assertiveness is stressed in the Ways of Saying No.  Screening the animations Daughter and A Good Boy cap the children’s workshop.

The training modules for adults basically contain topics on the Introduction to Child Sexual Abuse, the Sex Offender, and Victim and How to Handle Disclosures. The film animations are usually shown prior the presentation of the last topic.  Supplementary topics on counseling and therapy are provided in some of the trainer’s training.

Stairway Foundation prioritizes its approach in multiplying effects, and institutionalizing the program among the partners being trained.  Rather than having the SFI trainers run a hundred workshops, the Foundation has put more energy to cultivate ancillary trainers, supervise and monitor them in their workshops, which is a more constructive approach in order to have these partners include CRC and CSAP on their program agenda in the future, independent of SFI

In 2005, Stairway Foundation, Inc. had conducted a total of 83 CSAP trainings and workshops given for children youth, and adults.  These were participated by 12,182 children and youth and 3,312 adults resulting to 15,494 participants. The succeeding table summarizes the entire trainings and workshops provided by Stairway. 

Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Trainings

Summary Table 2005

Facilitators/Trainers	Participants	Number of Trainings	Number of Participants
1. Stairway Foundation, Inc.	a. Children & Youth	11	409
	b. Adults	16	919
2. Department of Education-      Calapan City (Ancillary)	a. Elementary pupils	32	11,237
	b. parents &      barangay officials	21	2,393+
3. Puerto Galera Academy and     Prince of Peace College,     Puerto Galera (Ancillary)	a. students of Puerto   Galera Academy	2	525
	b. students of Prince of Peace College	1	11
OVER-ALL TOTAL		83	15,494+

These training workshops produced ancillary trainers like the public elementary school teachers in Calapan City.  This has become generative in a sense that Calapan City became a pilot area for the CSAP Program implementation.  The ancillary trainings in Calapan resulted in 53 CSAP workshops with 11, 237 elementary pupils and approximately 2,393 parents and barangay officials participating. (Please see Appendix B.1).  Two schools in Puerto Galera also conducted ancillary trainings to a total of 536 students as reflected in Table 2.

The CSAP trainings and workshops primarily conducted by Stairway are itemized in the succeeding tables.  Table 3 shows the trainings conducted with adults and Table 4 exhibits the trainings conducted with children and the youths.

LIST OF CRC-CSAP TRAININGS CONDUCTED

by STAIRWAY FOUNDATION 2005

Table 4

LIST OF CRC-CSAP TRAININGS CONDUCTED

by STAIRWAY FOUNDATION 2005

CSAP Pilot Project Approach in Calapan

One of the most effective means of reaching out to children is through schools. Program wise, one of the end goals of such endeavors is to raise awareness of the issue unto mainstream institutions. By institutionalizing and mainstreaming CSAP in schools, the issue of program replication would take on a whole new dimension as we can target the most number of children, and at the same time, instigate change within institutions which have been traditionally, ignoring the issue. Presented here is our experience in Calapan in working with the local school on raising awareness on the issue of Child Sexual Abuse. As a pilot program, Calapan has produced excellent results in terms of the numbers of children given CSAP sessions, the positive responses regarding the program, the initial mainstreaming of CSAP in the schools and the validation of the strategies employed as basis for replication in other areas. 

After the collapse of the collaboration with the Cavite Provincial DSWD and the Association of Provincial, City and Municipal Social Welfare and Development Officers in the Philippines, SFI initiated communication with new potential partners that could be pilots in the multi sector approach in the CRC/CSAP campaign.  The choice fell on Calapan, the largest city on Mindoro Island, where Stairway’s Resource and Learning Center is based.  Calapan is a city of some 250.000 people, with approximately 600 elementary school teachers covering 17.000 elementary students and 320 high school teachers covering 11,000 high school students. The initial contact to the City Social Welfare Development Office was very timely, as the city had been chocked by the news that a highly respected high school teacher had sexually abused several students.  The fact that the abuses were the talk of the town resulted in strong political interest to show resolve, and the opening day of SFI's training of the teachers in the city was attended by the city mayor and covered by the local media, print and TV. 

Project Development and Implementation Flow of the Calapan CSAP Pilot Project

Coordination and arrangements were made between and among the offices of the Department of Education, City Department of Social Welfare and Development Department, and Stairway Foundation. The school teachers underwent CSAP Training and Workshops en masse during the summer break. Subsequently, they became ancillary trainers by conducting CSAP workshops to their pupils and the pupils’ parents starting last June 2005 onwards.

Stairway has assigned a social worker to monitor and assist in the CSAP Program implementation in this area. A government social worker with the City Social Welfare and Development Department Office worked in tandem with Stairway in this regard. The constant support and monitoring secured a steady level of quality in the teachers’ education of their pupils, while at the same time providing SFI with the opportunity to constantly assess and evaluate the chosen approach. Modifications and adjustments were made in the contents and methods in conveying the CSAP issue to suit what works with the participants, like using the CPTCSA’s film animation Hoy Bata for younger kids, and screening Sugat sa Ugat for the adults workshops.

A participants’ evaluation was administered after the conduct of the trainers’ training on Child Sexual Abuse Prevention last summer of 2005.   Four hundred ninety-seven (497) elementary school teachers from Calapan City were the respondents to the assessment using a semi-structured questionnaire.  The questionnaire consisted of queries on the participants’ experiences on dealing with the issue of child sexual abuse, the conduct of the trainings, the use of the Stairway’s film animations, and how the acquired knowledge will be passed on.

Seventy percent (70%) of the respondents claimed that they have not ever dealt with the issue of child sexual abuse.  However, 78.9% of them averred that conducting the CSAP workshop was necessary and relevant.  This can be interpreted that child sexual abuse is prevalent, only that it exist in secrecy, hence the need to really address it in the open.  Majority of the respondents (89.3 %) expressed that they do not feel uncomfortable discussing the issue.  This can be construed that many are ready to talk about it.

A large number of the participants appreciated the methodology and approaches used in the CSAP training and workshops, and maintained that the film animations Daughter and A Good Boy were significant tools in addressing the issue of child sexual abuse. Showing the video was in fact to them, the most commendable part.  They also hailed the facilitators as excellent. Providing handouts and reading materials though, could have made the training better.

About 96.4 % of the respondents vowed to apply the knowledge from