Introduction

The workshops aim to create awareness among children and youth on their basic human rights with the specific purpose to protect them from all forms of abuse, particularly sexual abuse. In doing so,

 

Designed to help children to open up and to discuss serious issues, we use animationsThe creative activities also aims to empower children who are already abused to seek help.

The training run over two and half days. The first day’s activities focus on understanding children’s rights. The second day is a discussion on the right to be protected from all forms of abuse, particularly sexual abuse, while empowering the children and youth participants to be assertive in claiming certain rights. The third day is for sharing personal experiences, and many disclosures see the light of day for the first time. The last half of the third day is used for creative activities and recreation.

In the following description of the workshop we divide the activities into 5 main sections, namely, the Convention on the Rights of a Child, Child Sexual Abuse, Naming our Body Parts, Learning Assertiveness, and finally Sharing and Disclosure.

Children’s Rights

In order to understand the concept of child sexual abuse, it is imperative that the children/youth understand that they have rights. We teach them about children’s rights through various fun-filled and informative activities.

Who is a Child?

The workshop opens by defining who is a child. The aim is to understand the characteristics and special needs of children. The participant’s are asked to distinguish the difference between children and adults through picture groupings. In the discussion, the participants are directed to identify the particular needs of children that adults should provide.

Needs and Wants

The participants are given pictures to categorize things under needs and wants. This activity is relevant since the desire for things is often a motivating factor in abuse or exploitation of children. After the discussion, the participants are asked to think of the situation of Filipino children and find out if their needs are met. Most of the sharing is focused on the negative situation of children and where their rights are violated. This leads to draw out the ideas of the participants on how to protect themselves from violations on their rights.

Identifying Rights

Following the discussions on rights and violations from the perspective of the children and youth, we move into the history, the principles, and the four major areas of the CRC. The history of the CRC is illustrated through a drama and a puppet show. The principles (in the best interest of the child) and the four major areas of the CRC (survival, development, protection and participation) are presented in a lecture form. The participants are given pictures of children’s rights and asked to group and explain based on the four areas. Once they know their rights, emphasis is put on responsibilities. This is to inculcate the fact that with rights come corresponding responsibilities.

Decision making

To raise the awareness of the participants on the violation of children’s rights, we show the video animation, Goldtooth, which depicts life of street children and the abuses they experience. The animation also teaches the participants about making healthy decisions. The participants are asked to enumerate the rights violated and the kinds of abuses the children in the animation experience. This is the first time the issue of child sexual abuse is clearly presented.

Child Sexual Abuse

In this session we use a series of creative and interactive games/activities designed for two purposes: 1) to build confidence, trust, support and respect amongst the participants and the facilitators and 2) to draw out the participants personal ideas and experiences of what is child sexual abuse. Working from their personal experiences and understandings of the issue we then proceed to discuss the issue of child sexual abuse in more detail.

Who am I?

We initially ask the children and youth about the kinds of sexual abuse they know. They are also asked about the feelings of abused children. Coming to the conclusion that sexual abuse leaves the victims with a feeling of being helpless and worthless, the next exercise is the who am I?, where the participants portray themselves through a life size drawing and explain to the group about how they see themselves; both the inner and the person. The exercise of looking at their inner and outer self is valuable in the process of understanding how the offender uses his power to manipulate his victims.

Observations

The findings from the Child Sexual Abuse section shows most of the participants have a definite trust in authority figures such as teachers, priests and parents. They do not realize that pornography, voyeurism, verbal stimulation, obscene calls and letting down the barriers of privacy are also forms of sexual abuse. They generalize CSA into rape, incest and prostitution.

Naming our Body Parts

According to local custom, the private body parts are never mentioned except in a joking fashion and by many names but the proper ones. When the participants are challenged to use the proper terms for their private parts most find it rude and very embarrassing. The lack of proper terms makes it difficult for children to tell about sexual abuse. Instead of support, they find unsupportive adults who make them feel shame and guilt. This unsupportive environment nurtures the secretive nature of child sexual abuse, which is only for the benefit of the offender.

In this exercise we help the children and youth to use the proper names for their private body parts and we practice speaking the names out loud.

Learning Assertiveness

In the drama exercise for being assertive, the SFI youth facilitator brings several of the girl participants to tears, stressing their almost total lack of assertiveness. Once again, the social mores of the culture play an integral role in the children’s attitudes and behaviors. Local custom does not permit children to speak out. They are seen as objects or possessions and thus have no rights, which makes them very vulnerable to sexual abuse.

Safe, unsafe and confusing touch

In relation to the private body parts the participants are also taught to identify safe, confusing and unsafe touch. A role play of each kinds of touch is presented.

The right to say NO

We discuss different ways of saying no, such as passive, aggressive and assertive. Participants are asked to role play a situation where their rights are violated. The scene is in a theater and one of the Stairway youth acts as the abuser and the participants as victim. Each participant has turn to act as the victim and they have to be assertive in their words and actions. Another learning assertiveness exercise is forming a circle where everyone has to maintain eye contact to one of the participant while saying no. The circle activity also shows an assertive confrontational way of saying no.

Report abuse

In addition to learning assertiveness, participants are also encouraged to report any kind of abuse they may experience. They are given names of trained personal safety officers in the centers, where they are connected.

Sharing and Disclosure

Story telling

The sharing starts with the reading of a short story. For the girls we read 'Daughter', which is a story about incest, and for the boys we read 'A Good Boy', which is a story of commercial sexual exploitation of a boy.

Sharing

The short story is usually followed up by one of the Stairway youth sharing his or her experiences of sexual abuse. At this time there is a very supportive and caring atmosphere in the group and often the participants bring out their own stories of abuse.

Questionnaire

After the verbal disclosure, we hand out questionnaires to all the participants and they can decide whether to disclose or not. There are no names on the questionnaires, but the facilitators have a way of identifying the child behind each questionnaire.

Caregivers: Handling Disclosures and Reporting Systems