April is Sexual Abuse Awareness Month #SAAM. SHF is involved in a Sexual Abuse awareness campaigns in the North West Region of Cameroon. The Companion is a project of the Sysy House of Fame that seeks to reach to young peoples affected by the ongoing armed conflict in the Anglophone regions of Cameroon through arts, culture and Digital education. We believe in the children of our future and have a proper understanding of the fact that they are the most vulnerable during conflict periods. We, therefore, organize arts, culture education programs to reach out to these children through established institutions to build competencies in children. Today the 18th of April 2019, our visit was to CBC Manda in Bamenda III subdivision. The children were educated on Sexual abuse, its consequences and ways to prevent and put an end to sexual abuse as a child.
With a total number of 121 children, the first session saw a brief discussion on what sexual abuse is and causes. This was an interactive session with the children contributing actively to the conversation. Then followed discussions on prevention and consequences. Finally, there was the identification of the various individuals, Legal authorities and organizations the children can report cases of sexual abuse or when they are at the dangers of being sexually abused.
Building mutual trust in children is an important way to reduce and/or eliminate child sexual abuse. This session ended with a personal consultation with the children to help them speak out. After taking statistics with these children, it was realized about a quarter of the children are victims and most of these children know their perpetrators who are either a close friend or family members.
Creativity in children is a great way for a child to express feelings, therefore, we had the children expressed themselves artistically through painting, spraying and drawing with the use of cardboards and watercolors.
We appreciate the staff of CBC Manda for opening their doors for us to impart knowledge, creating child awareness on sexual abuse in these children at their very tender ages and so together we say no to child sexual abuse in our community. Presentations were done by Njobati Sylvie, Jato Emmanuel, and Iduhun Blessing.
For more pictures, click here.
