April 2013


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UWI’s Department of Behavioural Sciences and the Social Work Unit hosted a workshop in February titled, Understanding Child Sexual Abuse: Perspectives from the Caribbean, for early years, primary and secondary school teachers, school social workers and guidance officers. This was one of a series of activities funded by the British High Commission. Eighteen schools from the St George East District were represented.

Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) is one of the most under reported criminal acts against children. It violates children’s rights and perforates their sense of security and normalcy; a perforation further enlarged by the colluded silence of those who have the responsibility to protect them. Caribbean societies are not untouched by the scourge of CSA and while the subject remains largely taboo, our societies live with its effects daily. In their report on the study “Perceptions of, Attitudes to, and Opinions on Child Sexual Abuse in the Eastern Caribbean,” Jones and Trotman Jemmott (2009) say that “child sexual abuse has not only multiple layers but increasingly severe consequences for Caribbean societies.”

In Trinidad and Tobago, guidance officers and social workers within the education system regularly encounter instances of CSA. Mandated to report all instances of disclosure, and to do therapeutic interventions, it is a challenge to be proactive in relation to an issue that usually comes to them after the fact. But there are measures that can help; one is in the area of information sharing, that is, creating awareness and building knowledge among parents, teachers and students.

Workshops or seminars for parents and teachers can focus on:

  • What is CSA
  • The warning signs of CSA
  • Child Development and age-appropriate sexual behaviour
  • Steps to take if CSA is suspected
  • How to talk to children about CSA, about their bodies and saying NO
  • How to create safe spaces
  • How to build trusting relationships to facilitate dialogue with children
  • How to respond to a child who has disclosed
  • Steps to take when a child has disclosed
  • How to support a child in the post-disclosure period
  • Questions to ask if my child is going to camp or sleeping over at a friend’s house
  • How to protect my child from cyber predators

Information sessions with students can focus on:

  • What is CSA
  • Understanding your body
  • Appropriate and inappropriate touching
  • Saying NO
  • Speaking up
  • Finding a trusted adult/person
  • What are some of the signs you may see in a friend who is being sexually abused
  • How to respond to a friend who tells you that they are being abused
  • What to do if you are being abused
  • Strategies to stay safe: At home; school; camp; playing sports; on the internet
  • Websites that students can go to for information on CSA

Information sessions may also involve watching movies or videos on CSA, or reading stories and newspaper articles on CSA, followed by discussions on the stories presented. Students can also be engaged in developing a safety protocol for themselves for different contexts: at home, the mall, at a party, a friend’s house. This is a good group/classroom activity. When talking to children remember to:

  • Use concrete examples – What if you are at a friend’s house and her older brother asks you to play a game that makes you feel weird or uncomfortable or involves something like touching or taking off your clothes?
  • Model healthy boundaries – Help students to practice setting healthy boundaries. Model saying "no.”
  • Talk about touch – Remember that sexual touch can be very confusing. In a strictly physical sense, sexual touch can feel good and for a victim of sexual abuse, this can create more shame and confusion about the situation.
  • Explain about tricks – Some people who sexually abuse children use tricks, bribes or threats to keep them from telling. The abusive person might promise gifts, they might tell the child that it is their fault or that no one will believe them, or that if the child tells anyone they will hurt their family or pet. Explain these tricks to students. Assure them that what the perpetrator is doing is wrong, even if a child did not object to the sexual interaction at the time.
  • Highlight helpers – Engage children in a deliberate discussion about who are the persons in their space that they may be able to go to for help.
  • Be approachable – By having conversations about healthy sexual boundaries and answering questions accurately and respectfully, you send the message that you are someone students can talk to even when something has already happened.

Other proactive strategies can include:

  • Engaging your school’s administration in the creation of a CSA prevention policy for your school.
  • Creating a community support outreach programme through the school’s PTA.
  • Networking with organizations working in the field of CSA to provide training at the community level for parents.
  • Lobbying for specific professional training in the area of working with CSA victims

Child victims of sexual abuse often suffer in silence, trying coping strategies that may result in more harm and can often go through life struggling with issues of intimacy and trust. As helping professionals, approaching CSA in a proactive way empowers children, gives them a voice and a say in their own safety and protection and forces those who have responsibility for them to be accountable for their care, protection and maintenance of their rights.

The World Health Organization defines Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) as, “the involvement of a child in sexual activity that he or she does not fully comprehend, is unable to give informed consent to, or for which the child is not developmentally prepared and cannot give consent, or that violate the laws or social taboos of society. Child sexual abuse is evidenced by this activity between a child and an adult, or between a child and another child who by age or development is in a relationship of responsibility, trust or power, the activity being intended to gratify or satisfy the needs of the other person. This may include but is not limited to, the inducement or coercion of a child to engage in any unlawful sexual activity; the exploitative use of [a] child in prostitution or other unlawful sexual practices, and the exploitative use of children in pornographic performances and materials.”

(pp. 15-16, Report of the Consultation on Child Abuse Prevention, Geneva, 29-31 March 1999, World Health Organization, Social Change and Mental Health, Violence and Injury Prevention)

This paper was presented by Lorita Joseph, a Guidance Officer with the Ministry of Education who is currently pursuing a PhD in Social Work at UWI, St. Augustine. Her research focus has been in the area of children and trauma, looking at children's responses to natural disasters and more recently, children's responses to the loss of family members through homicide.