Governor and DG support child sexual abuse prevention
(CNS): Last week Governor Martyn Roper, Deputy Governor Franz Manderson and members of their staff took the Cayman Islands Red Cross training session on recognising the signs of and preventing child sexual abuse. CIRC said that since 2014, around 3,000 people in the Cayman Islands have taken the Darkness to Light’s (D2L) session to tackle child sexual abuse, which they say is likely the most prevalent health problem children face with the most serious array of consequences.
“Globally about on in 10 children experience child sexual abuse before their 18th birthday,” CIRC said in a release. “Research shows that 95% of sexual abuse is preventable through education, and educating and empowering adults to prevent child sexual abuse has been a key focus of the Protection Starts Here group on island.
CIRS said the D2L’s ‘Stewards of Children’ is an evidence based child sexual abuse prevention training which has been delivered to the community on a monthly public training schedule by the Red Cross and its Protection Starts Here project partners for the past six years. The roughly 3,000 people who have taken the session include parents, educators, youth workers and concerned citizens.
“In the past there has been a lot of focus on how to teach children to resist abuse, and while we know the importance of teaching child safety lessons and empowering children, at no point should a child carry the burden of protection because that is an adult responsibility,” explained Red Cross Deputy Director Carolina Ferreira, who heads the charity’s Child Protection and Sexuality Education Programme. The session “is really wonderful in giving adults tangible skills to protect children”, she added.
Governor Roper said, “We all come into contact with children at some point in our lives, whether as parents, friends, caregivers or through our work. It is important that we are able to recognise the signs and know what steps to take. Ending child sexual abuse is everyone’s responsibility. Only by bringing the community together to address this social problem can we be sure that our children can grow up in a happy and safe environment. I would encourage everyone to consider taking the training.”
DG Manderson said he found the session incredibly powerful and informative. “We need to educate, raise awareness and reduce the stigma. Prevention is possible and we all play our part, as a civil service and as individuals. Our children need us to take action we have never taken before to protect them from sexual abuse or the potential exposure to sexual abuse.”
Ferreira explained, “When the Protection Starts Here child abuse prevention project started in 2012, our goal was nothing short of creating a culture of safeguarding in all sectors of our community.”
She said that having the governor and deputy governor take the training session was “an important milestone in that endeavour because it helps us to illustrate that safeguarding really is everyone’s responsibility, and we all have a role to play in protecting children, personally and professionally”.
Protection Starts Here is a multi-agency child abuse prevention project coordinated by the Cayman Islands Red Cross in partnership with the Employee Assistance Programme, Health
Services Authority, Ministry of Education, Royal Cayman Islands Police Service, Sands Creative Studios and Hedge Funds Care Cayman.
Darkness to Light “Stewards of Children” training sessions are free and available to everyone. To find out more, visit the Cayman Islands Red Cross website or Facebook page, or email deputy@redcross.org.ky.
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Category: Health, Medical Health
I see the churches sent out another advisory to come and vote on CNS comments again. 😂
So, CNS voters are church people now?
They are when they are on a “mission”.
Wait a sec 🤔 all of a sudden this thread is about gays!
Because 👏🏻 The 👏🏻 Religious 👏🏻 Homophobes 👏🏻 Don’t 👏🏻 Post 👏🏻 350 👏🏻 Comments 👏🏻 On 👏🏻 This 👏🏻 Subject 👏🏻 Showing 👏🏻 Their 👏🏻 Disdain.
Why wouldn’t they support this, duh. Then again, they could side with orthodox Christian fray and say nothing, do nothing, see nothing, and hear nothing.
Which actually is the norm in Cayman when it comes to child abuse.
The Churches, from their silence, would argue that domestic abuse, battery, child assault, neglect, deadbeat dads, broken homes, addiction, and rape don’t manifest into precise correlated Godly wrath in the same way that viruses (in China), plate tectonics, and global warming apply to “foreign gayness in the Cayman Islands”. Insert scripture reference from God. Welcome to crazyville, where crazy gets motioned, seconded, thirded, and fourthed…into policy – and even the Governor and Deputy, sitting in the room, say nothing!
If you pay your tithings the church will turn a blind eye. Shit, if you show up on Sunday they still won’t talk. Disgusting.
You may make a mockery of Christianity and their Bible, but everyone knows there are some things that will always be wrong no matter how you trivialize it☝🏾🙂
Oh, you mean like hate speech? Got it.
🙌🏻
Yes, the many hate speeches and comments coming from your side.
Of course. If you could spin it any better you’d be getting an Medal of Honor too from president bone spur.
Naturally and morally unjust.
The hypocrites would quickly rally at Fort St to protest against two Caymanian adults who consented to love each other, but not a peep about pedophiles, rapists, robbers, nada.
Keep paying ya 10%, sheep.
Totally agreed. Been saying this from the jump. Those ‘nice’ church people can’t speak out about the pedophiles and rapists cause they full up the church. I mean we all sinners but I guess you can turn a blind eye once the sinner in church. So sad. Our children and elderly are some of the most disenfranchised in the world.
What about abuse in same-sex homes???
What about it? And where is your statistics saying it’s more than in heterosexual homes? It’s a proven fact that it’s absolutely rare and you lot are always stretching for what ifs.
But we’re talking prevention, not statistics?
But we’re talking about the same thing then. Got it?
I say prevention yes, because the statistic in the United States is alarming for example. And we don’t need any more child abuse in Cayman than what we have.
Yeah, remarkable at it’s non-existence!
Abuse in any home is terrible, but pin pointing a group of people like that is suggesting that abuse ONLY happens in same-sex homes, which it DOES NOT.
In fact, statistically, the vast majority of rape incidents are perpetrated by straight people. And this is coming from a straight person.
The commenter above just pin pointed Christians.
We are not dumb 🙂
I wonder whether you ever go to Church- if you did you would know better. Also sexual abuse is a criminal act and punishable by jail time. Are you suggesting the same treatment for gays by inserting the subject in this story? Why does the the gay issue always come up no matter whether it is a a story on the dump burning, traffic jam, break- ins or whatever.
Because you lot don’t post 350 comments on a story about a child being molested but you do about two consenting adults wanting to marry.
Oh brother, another one. You defending two consenting adults whereby you will demand all Caymanians to recognize their same-sex union, lest be penalized. That’s whats coming… but you are too SELFISHLY short-sighted to see that!
Ha. I’m heterosexual and I am sitting here posting on behalf of my gay Caymanian friends… so literally I’m doing the most unselfish thing that I can do… but you religious lot keep doing you. Cheers in your “afterlife”. I hope it’s true cause I’ll be in a heaven and you lot will be in hell.
O wow.. can’t reason and give the commenter a good reply. So you must condemn. 🙂
Ask Eden why he brings it up in his motions first then.
true. very rare you find a gay person in church, especially the Jamaican ones here. They quick to say gayness is a foreign culture but how they think one religion out of hundreds got here? many gay born and raised Caymanians here
In 2006, Time magazine labelled Jamaica the most homophobic place on Earth, and it’s probably still true. Male homosexuality and sodomy are still criminal acts there, and there is a high degree of homophobic vigilante violence and murder – some of which seemed to be condoned.
because like eden, religion is a dying concept, and most homosexuals don’t go to church. Their lifestyle being more and more accepted is a reminder that the church is dying off, and of course they don’t want that.
Being born gay is not a lifestyle.
Nonsense. I’m an atheist heterosexual and most of my gay friends are the ones who attend church.
If they are attending church and openly professing and promoting homosexuality, isn’t that very hypocritical or two-faced ???? 🙄 Like… doesn’t the Bible classify homosexual acts with immorality and sin ?