Every Child Is Innocent Save Them from Fear. STOP CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE

Child Sexual Abuse leaves a wound that does not heal with time but could get worse. Individuals could either grow up to be disturbed and traumatized adults or at times become abusers themselves. The impact of childhood sexual abuse stays with the person for a long time, much beyond the immediate trauma. It continues to affect them even as they continue to become adults at various levels; emotional, social, sexual and psychological.

According to WHO, India has the world’s largest number of sexually abused children, with a child below 16 years raped every 155th minute, a child below 10 every 13^th hour, and one in every 10 children sexually abused at any point of time. Given the high prevalence of Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) and its long lasting negative impact on the life of the individual it becomes imperative that interventions are taken.

Most children quietly suffer, and don’t talk about Sexual Abuse, But we need to talk about it, so that WE can PREVENT IT and HEAL it’s ill effects.

Arpan Working towards the Freedom from Child Sexual Abuse

The motivation to initiate work on Child sexual abuse (CSA) within Arpan actually started in 2004 when Pooja Taparia, the Founder and CEO, was inspired by the play 30 Days in September, which depicts the trauma faced by a survivor of sexual abuse as they carry on with life, in their decisions, their relationships, their aspirations, their fears, their choices, every day.

In 2006 Arpan started its work on CSA with the Prevention and Healing services.

With one counselor, Arpan began conducting talks to spread awareness on the issue of Child Sexual Abuse. Arpan reached out to housing societies, civil society clubs like Rotary & Lions Clubs, interested colleges or any other forum or platform, where they could reach out to a parent or adult & talk to them about the cause. Arpan also took on cases to enable adult survivors to come to terms with their trauma as well, and move on to lead more fulfilling lives.

Arpan has so far reached out to over 50,000 parents, teachers, children, adolescents, young adults, NGO professionals, caretakers and mental health professionals directly and over 2, 00,000 indirectly with our prevention and healing programs.

कोवळ्या वेलींना वेळीच द्या आधार!

"Child Sexual Abuse is any act using a child for the sexual gratification of the more powerful person" 
"Aware parents and caretakers can help a sexually abused child better"

These are some messages which Arpan talks about on Child Sexual Abuse through their various programs, Sakal has very kindly published the information in their newspaper today.

19th November - World Day for Prevention of Child Abuse

"Child Sexual Abuse is a violation of a child's body as well as of the trust, implicit in a care giving relationship. This violation can have a significant impact on how the child, as a victim and later as an adult survivor, see and experiences the world. The effects of child sexual abuse can be damaging but need not be permanent."

19th November - World Day for Prevention of Child Abuse

www.arpan.org.in

VOTE for ARPAN and help us reach out to maximum children for Personal Safety Education Program

HelpYourNGO.com has started an fundraising contest for NGO's working with children and Arpan has been shortlisted for it. Arpan with the other NGO's will be competing for the donation which would be only given if we receive the highest number of votes.

VOTE for Arpan and help us reach out to more number for children through our Personal Safety Education Program with the help of the donation. 

Just click on the link and select Arpan (Preventing Child Sexual Abuse) and submit your vote.

http://www.helpyourngo.com/ngo_vote.php

“Is it my fault??”

This happened in one of the city schools where Arpan’s Personal Safety Education Project was being implemented. It was the last session for that grade and the trainer was teaching them about the last and one of the most critical rule ‘It is not your fault if somebody has broken Personal Safety Rule 1’. It was then that one child approached the trainer in an overwhelming state. The child shared that she was being sexually abused repeatedly and in spite of knowing the abuser’s intention of calling her alone she was not being able to stop the abuse and hence deduced it to be her fault. In order to stop the ongoing abuse and help the child overcome the deep rooted belief and taking onus of the abuse, Arpan’s Psycho-Social team and the Psychotherapeutic team worked together along with the PSE team. The psychosocial team made home visits to understand the family dynamics and brought the sexual abuse to their attention. The family could identify the offender, the behaviours that he was showing namely isolating the child and giving expensive gifts (which they earlier thought to be driven by love and affection). Being empowered the family could stand up for their child and keep the abuser out of their home. The Psychotherapeutic team simultaneously supported the child’s healing by working on her self-esteem, shame and guilt around the abuse.

Personal Safety Education Project is one of the core interventions of Arpan that focuses on empowering children with adequate knowledge, attitude and skills to prevent instances of child sexual abuse as well as to seek support when such an incident has occurs. Arpan conducts this module with children in privately owned and government schools as well as with highly vulnerable groups of children referred by NGOs, and in shelter homes and orphanages. The PSE project also involves awareness building and skill enhancement of adults (like parents, teachers and institutional caretakers) who are the primary stakeholders and caregivers in a child’s life in order to create strong safety and support networks around children in their respective environments.

12th November ARPAN Foundation Day!!

“I’m the Boss of my body”, the children say with conviction in their voices...

In the last six months i.e from April to September 2013 Arpan taught over 5200 children personal safety program, helped 200 children heal through counselling, created awareness on CSA amongst 6500 parents and teachers, trained 750 police cadets, constables and inspectors, trained 200 mental health, social service professionals and teachers to address CSA in their environments. We also reached out to over 250 varied professionals through our public and policy advocacy initiatives. Overall we reached out to over 13,000 individuals in six months.

Arpan empowers children, teachers, parents, NGO professionals and other care givers in multiple setting like schools, NGO set ups, institutions etc. with knowledge, skills and attitude to prevent instances of child sexual abuse and provide adequate support to children who have been victims. Along with empowering relevant stakeholders, Arpan also offers psychotherapeutic support through trained, qualified therapists to children and adult survivors of sexual abuse and their families. 

www.arpan.org.in