In our hands: ending violence against children through multi-sectoral prevention and early intervention support services

I am a psychoneurologist, human rights consultant, and one of the founding members of ECA: Ending Clergy Abuse. ECA is a volunteer-led global justice project that has grown over the last 7 years across 5 continents. We have members in 23 countries, with the largest concentration in Latin America. Our mission is to end the systems that allow child violence to persist in faith-based institutions, especially in the Catholic Church.

I am the only Jamaican survivor of clergy sexual abuse to publicly disclose my experience. I was honored to be a member of the Global Survivors Council which informed survivor engagement at the first-ever Global Ministerial Conference on Ending Violence Against Children.

Consider if half of the world's population of children experienced an Ebola epidemic right now––there is no doubt that a global rapid response would be established. But we do have a silent global epidemic right now: childhood violence. 

As a Jamaican survivor of childhood violence, no prevention or support was available to me. Home wasn’t safe for me because of the emotional and physical abuse I endured. I couldn’t trust anyone at school: when I told the guidance counselor about what was happening at home, she called my parents, which led to my beating at home. I couldn’t go to the Church, because the very person who sexually violated me was a religious figure. When I was taken to the hospital, no one provided any help; no counseling or advice. My sexual assault resulted in a pregnancy and the illegal termination of the pregnancy was arranged by the Church. I carried the secret, guilt, shame, pain and blame and internalized it for most of my life.

Today, there are still no educational programs in schools that teach us about sex or indicators of abuse. A 2016 UN Women’s Survey on Women’s Health in Jamaica showed that 77% of women believe that God intended that a man should be the head of the family. There are systems and assumptions about gender roles that rationalize and support gender and child-based violence.

Jamaica holds the Guinness World Record for having the most churches per square mile, which can explain the common ideology that women carry. Similarly, in many Caribbean and Latin American countries, views are shaped by religious teachings and beliefs, such as “spare the rod, spoil the child,” a religious saying that implies that physical discipline teaches a child humility.

Investing in these multi-sectoral prevention and early intervention support services are far more economical than the long-term costs for care for those, like myself, who are traumatized by child violence. Estimates by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention put lifetime costs of rape at over $122,000 US dollars per survivor.

We are at a pivotal moment where we can change the trajectory of the lives of the world’s children. We can change the narrative of how we treat children and involve them in their own care. Global leaders can act now, so that no child ever experiences violence of any kind. It is in our hands to make sure that no one ever does.