Trying to turn a whisper into a roar
#Minimetoo wants to see victims speak about abuse
FOR 24 years, Miranda Jordan has listened to the stories of abused children, desperately trying to find a way to help them.
Every day she takes these stories home with her, calculating the correct course of action to ensure these broken children are placed on the road to recovery.
Her organisation, Women and Men Against Child Abuse (WMACA), has clinics across Johannesburg dedicated to treating young survivors of abuse with limited funding and waning resources.
This week it teamed up with child justice institutions across Gauteng to launch its new proactive anti-abuse campaign, #Minimetoo.
Inspired by the global phenomenon of #Metoo, where millions of women spoke out on social media about the abuse they have suffered, the new campaign is dedicated to bringing the same awareness to child abuse.
This week’s launch, at the Wanderers Protea Hotel, drew celebrities, child justice advocates and abuse survivors to what they hope will grow beyond a simple campaign into a movement.
#Minimetoo advocates people acknowledge how difficult it is for survivors of abuse to come forward with their stories, with children often trapped by fear and silence.
But the campaign’s ideology is simple. It should be used to assure children they have the right to speak out, that they don’t have to bear the shame of what an adult or peer has done to them, and that they have the right to justice and support.
“Our message to adults is simple: protect our children. Respect their bodies. Ensure other adults do the same. Listen to children’s complaints. Speak out on their behalf. Never protect a child abuser,” the #Minimetoo manifesto reads.
A Twitter campaign will hopefully allow children to see which adults and organisations are on their side, and allow them to reach out if they have been too frightened to speak out before.
“The object of the campaign is to ensure that crimes against children can no longer take place in silence. We want to break the cycle of abuse and ensure that perpetrators of these heinous crimes are shamed and punished.”
The campaign began the second leg of its media launch at Kingsmead College yesterday, where representatives from dozens of other schools met to hear about the campaign’s message and hopefully spread it across the province.
Before November’s 16 Days of Activism, WMACA is planning to launch a 100 000-person march against child abuse under the #Minimetoo banner. ● I stand up for a child being sexually abused
● When I am older I don’t want to be a #Metoo
● Don’t use your adult power to abuse me
● I want you as adults to protect
But Jordan says her organisation doesn’t own the campaign.
“It’s not our property. We want people to run with it,” she says.
Other media and child justice heavyweights have joined the campaign, including activist Khumbul’ekhaya and host Andile Gaelesiwe.
She says the campaign is important because the survivors of abuse are often convinced me
● Don’t protect adults who sexually abuse children
● Don’t protect other adults who sexually abuse me
● I have the right to be safe to doubt what happened to them.
Gaelesiwe made headlines last year when she accused her biological father of raping her during her childhood.
“No one would believe a father would do that. This is why it’s easier to remain quiet. We are conditioned to sweep it under the table, and never dare bring it up,” she says.
While discussing the vast number of child abuse cases in South Africa, and why the campaign needs to happen now, she remarked: “When Miranda (Jordan) says this is urgent, it’s beyond urgent.”
Rees Mann, the founder of SA Male Survivors of Sexual Abuse, joined the campaign because he believes that men are conditioned into an abusive mindset.
“Our abusers are in our churches, schools, neighbourhoods and probably in our families. Men are raised not to care, to lack empathy. We need to change that,” he says.
For Mann, the survivors of abuse, particularly children who come forward, should be celebrated as heroes.
Actress Enhle Mbali was almost in tears at this week’s launch, describing what she called South Africa’s “damaged society.
Combating child abuse is a daunting task but doing nothing will be catastrophic for the next generation.
“It takes a community to raise a child, but if a community stands and waits for someone else to fix the problem, the problem is going nowhere,” the actress says.
Child justice advocate Luke Lamprecht says that adults have to go out of their way to speak out for child survivors of abuse.
“Children tell us (that something is going on) all the time, subtly. We have to listen.”
Among the other speakers was Olivia*, a survivor of historical abuse whose court case set a precedent for adults successfully prosecuting their abusers, even years after the incidents.
Olivia was sexually abused by former tennis star Bob Hewitt when she was a teenager, but was only able to prosecute him decades later.
However, she and two other complainants succeeded in convicting Hewitt, who is currently serving a six-year sentence.
Olivia was forced to change her name because of the backlash associated with the case, and despite the court ruling in her favour, she is still subject to threats from those who refused to believe her story of abuse.
“I was told I was unemployable for ‘what I had done’. No one should be forced to change their name, their identity, because they spoke out.
“No child should have to fight this hard in their adult life,” she says.
*Olivia has requested her full name not be used.
For anyone wishing to assist the campaign or the march, please contact Jordan on miranda@wmaca.org.