Stories of individuals and communities -

Reclaiming a voice of the hidden child

Summary This is a call to invite contributors to a campaign that primarily seeks to engage a
large number of people on an online media on the issue of child sexual abuse – its prevalence
and the psycho-social dynamics it entails to an individual and a community. The campaign
seeks to reclaim the voice of the hidden supporter and survivor in society. This campaign will
build support to five organisations across India addressing the issue by creating a map of
collective stories from people that will express their own ideas, views and feeling on child sexual
abuse.

Introduction Murray Culshaw Consulting is an organisation that works towards making a

vibrant and visible voluntary sector by enabling voluntary organisations to communicate with,
seek support from and be accountable to the public.

Child sexual abuse is particularly difficult issue to raise funds for, from corporates or from
individuals. On 19 November 2009 we propose to launch a campaign for six months that seeks
to engage people to understand the reality of child sexual abuse and calls for support. This is a
product of the efforts of volunteers who have contributed immensely and still continue to do so.

The campaign will

- Communicate the prevalence and dynamics of child sexual abuse

- Reach out to 3 lakh people1 and convert 2% of that population into supporters
- Showcase programmes of organisations working on child sexual abuse across India that
the campaign seeks to support
- Create a platform for accessing various resources pertaining to child sexual abuse

How?

- An online campaign of six months that will consist a line of stories from people to create
the understanding of child sexual abuse
- Stories will be invited from individuals and forums and will not be open to entries that can
be uploaded on the site. The stories will be collected largely offline and will be mapped
out in a manner that will allow viewers to draw a line of continuity
- Build a platform for understanding and sharing the dynamics of child sexual abuse -
stories from a perspective of not understanding child sexual abuse to a perspective of
surviving and moving on.
- Have unique programmes covering different aspects of addressing child sexual abuse
represented in the campaign for supporters to donate to.

Organisations in the campaign for whom support and funds will be raised

1. Tulir – Centre for the Prevention and Healing of Child Sexual Abuse, Chennai,
founded in 2004 educates children on personal safety and teachers and parents on
preventing and identifying child sexual abuse. Tulir also offers training and consultancy

1
There are 30 million people in India that are active net users also using social networking
sites. We aim at reaching out to 1% of that population.
 to other professionals on CSA. Tulir also offers therapeutic services to children who have
suffered abuse.

2. RAHI – Recovering and Healing from Incest: A Support Centre for Women
Survivors, Delhi, established in 1996, specialises in working with adult women
survivors of incest and childhood sexual abuse and offers services that are uniquely
important to their recovery process.

The centre provides individual and group services for survivors, aimed at their
psychological, emotional, sexual and spiritual recovery. It also provides education,
training, research and communication to enhance awareness on CSA and supports
other professional communities with resources for the prevention of CSA.

3. Enfold Proactive Health Trust, Bangalore, educates children in schools to enable

them to protect themselves, and parents and teachers to prevent child sexual abuse.
They also train other professionals in handling cases of child sexual abuse. Enfold also
counsels children who have been sexually abused. Dr Sangeeta and Dr Shaibya are co
authors of a series of workbooks on Life skills and Personal Safety for use by 3rd to 9th
std school students. The workbooks are aimed at preventing child abuse - especially
sexual abuse.

4. Arpan – Arpan’s Endeavour on Child Sexual Abuse, Mumbai, started as an informal

group of volunteers who give their time to various social causes, of which child sexual
abuse was one. They now have a team to provide education and awareness in schools
on protection and prevention from child sexual abuse to children, parents and teachers.
They also offer support services to survivors of child sexual abuse.

5. FACSE – Forum Against Child Sexual Exploitation, Mumbai, formed in 1995,

comprises of a group of voluntary organizations, professionals and other concerned
individuals, working to spread awareness and disseminating information on child sexual
abuse. Members take up individual cases of child sex abuse and focus its combined
resources on public awareness and advocacy.

The Idea

The concept of stories has been adopted to share stories on a large scale and begin a more
visible platform to understand the reality of child sexual abuse. The campaign seeks to spark off
engagement and support from individuals across India and create a support base for these
organisations to continue communicating with them and building relationships with these
individuals and creating new ones. With the support of various individuals, organisations would
be able to reach out to more people in their work and sustain their work on a long term.

Stories

In order to map stories on a large scale and thus give voice to a hidden supporter and survivor,
we require stories, narrations, reports, poems or any other form of writing that will cover
significant points in the dynamics of child sexual abuse and society. Though the list below may
be far from comprehensive, it is a starting point to develop more perspectives and connections
to the issue.
 - Denial of the prevalence of child sexual abuse and of its impact.
“So what? … Who cares?... Yeah right!”

- Unaware of the prevalence of child sexual abuse and its impact.

“Is this really true? This is shocking!”

- Unable to understand the impact of child sexual abuse and how people known can be
abusers
“I don’t get it… It happened to her so long ago but she still cries about it” “But these
people who do it must be sick in the head or have a psychological problem. They can’t
be normal!”

- Ignoring the issue

“Things like this may happen but one should just forget about it and carry on with their
lives”

- Anger at one’s own helplessness and experience of child sexual abuse.

“Why did it happen to me? I could’ve screamed. I could’ve said no. but why didn’t I?”

- Flashbacks and recollections

“It keeps coming back, playing in my head… and feels so real”

- Effect on future relationships

“I always seem to be getting in to the wrong relationships. I always end up getting hurt all
over again”

- Trust, boundaries and Identity

“I can’t seem to tell right from wrong, I don’t trust people, I don’t trust myself, who am I”

- Accepting the past, taking charge of one’s self and seeking to move forward
“I’ve done things I regret, I have been careless with people who have loved me and I
have abused my own body, but now, no more”

- Support that helped in transition

“Friends and family that helped… by just being there”

- Restoring confidence and respect

“I can look at myself and feel proud… I can reach out and help…”

Where do you come in?

In 180 days we are aiming at bringing together 100 stories. We invite you to participate in the
campaign by writing a story that you relate to around the subject. This is totally voluntary and as
many stories from as many people are invited, and contributors are also free to choose how
they would like to create this story. If you feel that this is something you will want to be a part of
and contribute to, then please do write to Sandeep (sandeepvegad@gmail.com). Do also write
in about questions about the campaign and about stories.

If you have ideas on volunteering on other aspects of the campaign do mail Trupti
(trupti.c.s@gmail.com) or call +91 97408 43964 for anything pertaining to the campaign.
Note: Informations received in the course of this campaign will be kept Strictly Confidential.