School program would have helped 7-year-old

RE: SUSPECT charged with trafficking 7-year-old, Journal, 5/4/18

What if this girl had participated in a child maltreatment prevention program starting in kindergarten at her school? What if she had been given ageappropriate education about the types of child abuse – abuse to bodies, abuse with words, and abuse of private parts? What if she could recognize neglect, bullying and cyberbullying?

During lessons of the Childhelp: Speak Up Be Safe program, which just finished its inaugural year at La Mesa Elementary in Albuquerque, she would have learned the importance of valuing and respecting herself, her body and her boundaries. She would have been asked to identify at least two safe adults in her life so that if she were experiencing abuse, she could tell someone about what was happening to her. And most importantly, she would have learned to tell and tell and tell until someone listens.

Because of the program, her feelings about what was happening to her would have been different. She would have had the words to describe the abuse she was experiencing. A report initiated by the victim herself, instead of adults who suspected abuse, would have made its way through the system faster. It would have been recognized as an acute problem earlier.

It is an adult’s responsibility to keep children safe, but sometimes adults don’t do their job. We need to empower children to help rescue themselves.

As volunteer facilitators of Speak Up Be Safe, we plan to continue the program at La Mesa Elementary next year. The one-year pilot project was privately funded, but now we would like to expand Speak Up Be Safe and offer this important resource to other elementary schools in Albuquerque, at no cost to the schools and no extra work for the school staff. To do this, we need the community’s help.

The Albuquerque Community Foundation is the fiscal sponsor of Speak Up Be Safe. For more information go to albuquerquefoundation.org contact Sheila Genoni, sheilagenoni@comcast.net, 505 414-9173 or Diane Berger, dialonger@gmail.com, 505 550-9344.

You can trust that your donation is going to an evidence-informed child abuse prevention program that is desperately needed in Albuquerque, a program that could have changed the life of this 7-year-old girl, that can still change the lives of children who are suffering at this very moment and can prevent the abuse of other children in the future.

SHEILA GENONI AND DIANE BERGER

Albuquerque