Help Eradicate Abuse through Learning

In February 2008, ‘the foundation’ through its new initiative, HEAL: Help Eradicate Abuse Through Learning, started its fight against child sexual abuse (CSA). This is a two prong effort which involves awareness building and providing practical assistance to those who have been victimized. 

HEAL involves a dialogue with parents and teachers to address the myths surrounding sexual abuse and also to help them deal with any situation of abuse faced by children. For a child, parents and teachers are the two sets of adults whom he/she can trust and seek support from. Thus it places an immense responsibility in their hands of protecting them.

HEAL involves dialogue about CSA with school principals, teachers and parents. Workshops are being held to help teachers and parents understand CSA, identify cases and also know where they can turn for help. We have the support of an esteemed panel of psychologists, psychiatrics, paediatricians and lawyers to whom cases are referred when any child/parent/teacher or even an adult survivor of CSA needs help.  This help can be sought online as well.

We may not be able to end this inhuman practice but we hope to make our parents, teachers and children better equipped to fight it.  We may only touch the tip of the iceberg because the fear of being discriminated by society may never really bring to light the years of trauma and pain that a child goes through. However it is an urgent need to stand up and take notice of the problem now.