Do You Hate Childhood Sexual Abuse?

So do I.

Sexual abuse is a horrible thing AT ANY age. But when it’s done to children, I find it particularly despicable.

As an MD in my native country, I saw many cases of child sexual abuse. I used to work at a third level hospital and what I saw broke my heart. Some children even needed extensive reconstructive surgery. I vowed to some day do something about it.  And while I know that support for victims and their families is extremely valuable, I’m more interested in prevention.

The opportunity finally came in September 2010 when I saw a tweet from @VoiceFound on the #Ottawa feed inviting people to attend a workshop on Childhood Sexual Abuse Prevention!

I did a little research, concluded the thing was legit, and signed up for the workshop.

Me, at the first Voice Found Stewards Of Children Childhood Sexual Abuse Workshop. Wow, that’s a mouthful.

That’s how I met the wonderful Cynthia Bland who is a childhood sexual abuse survivor and the founder of Voice Found.  She had a dream and was willing to do whatever it took to make it come true.  And I was more than willing to help her achieve that.

Shortly after, I became part of the Voice Found executive.  Shortly after, Voice Found became incorporated as a non-profit and we’re now waiting for our charitable status.  Lot of good things are happening and the wheels are in motion.  I’m not of much use for all the corporate red tape babble so other than helping with the fundraiser efforts, the past year has been mostly Cynthia and Alex’s work.

But now this is my chance to step up.  And I need your help for that.

Remember how I’m mostly interested in prevention? Well, the best way to prevent childhood sexual abuse is by educating those who are in charge of children.  That’s why the Stewards of Children program was created.  Problem is, the ONLY person in Ottawa that is certified to offer those workshop is Cynthia and she’s getting more strecthed than Bilbo Baggins after carrying the ring for so many years.

I feel all thin, sort of stretched, if you know what I mean: like butter that has been scraped over too much bread.

As you can see, Voice Found is in great need of certified facilitators.

I wanna become one of them facilitators but it’s a bit tricky.  All positions at Voice Found are volunteer positions.  And facilitators must come up with the money to pay for their training.  Which is not terribly expensive but it’s not cheap either.  In other words, I don’t have the money.

But!  YOU CAN HELP ME

How, you ask? why, how nice of you!  This is what you can do:

1.  Reblog the crap out of this post so we get the message amplified.

2.  Tweet, Facebook like, pin my gofundme campaign.  Help me get the word out

3.  Donate to my gofundme campaign if you can afford it.

4.  Help me think of other ways to get the word out

I wanna be a… facilitator!

Thanks for reading and thanks in advance for your help.  I heart you guys!