Children are abused every single day and yet most of them never make others aware of their sufferings. While you might wonder why they would hold back and refuse to speak out, how could they speak up when the world around them teaches them to silently suffer?
April for those who forgot or were not aware was and is Sexual Assault Awareness Month and while it is May now, it is important that we come together to think of those who have struggled and suffered. While we cannot change the past we can change the future and working to make this a topic more people are open about discussing is crucial.
Below I am going to go over some of the people working hard to bring awareness to not only sexual abuse as a whole but more specifically childhood sexual abuse. Just because you aren’t aware of it does not mean it isn’t happening, please make sure your kids know they can come to you. Everyone needs a safe person to talk to.
Amita Swadhin
Swadhin is the founder of a project called Mirror Memoirs. Swadhin went through childhood sexual abuse for about eight years when younger and has forever been changed by that. While now doing well and helping others Swadhin struggled for a long time. Swadhin specifically works with mostly LGBT+ people because they are nonbinary, femme, and queer.
Working to make kids realize how not normal or okay it is to be hurt in this manner is important and through that and a lot of connecting in order to heal, growth is possible for society itself. Swadhin accepts all and helps whoever is in need. Through healing circles and so much more, a big change is happening in many.
Aishah Shahidah Simmons
Simmons is a survivor of childhood sexual abuse and even adult rape. She has been working hard to bring awareness to these topics for a very long time and is doing a great job. Not only does she write but she also makes films. You can find a lot out about her and her work on her website by clicking here.
While rape as a whole is becoming more of an open topic childhood sexual abuse is not and should be. Far more kids are abused each year in this manner than you could ever imagine and some never speak up. Silence to those who hurt us is a form of what they feel is loyalty, and we should never give them that. This Simmons believes strongly.
Beverly Engel
Engel speaks out as often as possible about the things she went through as a child. She is a psychotherapist who works hard for the victims of sexual physical and emotional abuse as a whole. She actually wrote the book ‘It wasn’t your fault: freeing yourself from the shame of childhood abuse with the power of self-compassion.’
On her Heal My Shame website page she wrote as follows:
“I have dedicated my career to helping those who were abused in childhood or as an adult. As a survivor of child sexual abuse and emotional abuse myself, I have a great deal of respect and compassion for victims of abuse, especially the difficulties they have due to debilitating shame – what I consider to be the most damaging effect of abuse. I am so dedicated to helping former victims heal their shame that I created this website solely for this purpose.”
Ignacio G. Rivera
Rivera is the founder of the HEAL project and works heavily on YouTube. As a trans survivor of sexual abuse both as an adult and child, this person is very strong. Their efforts are something that should not go without being noticed even if recognition is not what they are after. Rivera was able to heal through bringing awareness and hopes to help others do the same. The more questions children feel comfortable asking the more progress we are making.
Childhood sexual abuse is not something that should be happening and yet it happens all the time, all over the world. The more aware we all become the more it can be fought more properly. If you’ve gone through any kind of assault or abuse please speak up, your voice deserves to be heard.