'Be A Voice' in the campaign

As well as supporting individual victims of child sex abuse, Transformation is campaigning to:

bring a greater awareness of sex abuse and its prevalence in our society
create circumstances to empower victims to be able report their abuse in safety
improve the services and support for victim
reduce the burden of proof against abusers to bring about more prosecutions
hold the agencies responsible for protecting children and young people to account for their actions, particularly where they have been negligent

If you would like to join us in the campaigning and receive further information on what you could do, please do give us your details.

People believe that we have structures in place to protect children such as the Police, child protection and Children’s services. Most of those who know the truth will say that none of these really did anything to help them when they reported what was being done to them. We have a legal system that has everything in place to protect abusers but insufficient to protect or support victims. Unless the public unite together and say

“Listen To The Victims
Look At The Facts
Stop The Abuse”
the current system will continue to deny or cover up the truth.

One in five of girls (21%) and one in ten boys (11%) in the UK are sexually abused before they reach the age of 16.

1% per cent of children experienced sexual abuse by a parent or carer
Another 3% per cent by another relative during childhood.
11% of children experience sexual abuse by people known but unrelated to them.
5% of children experience sexual abuse by an adult stranger or someone they have just met.

Three-quarters of sexually abused children do not tell anyone about the abuse at the time, and around a third still have not told anyone about their experience(s) by early adulthood.
(NSPCC Research: Cawson et al. 2000 Child Maltreatment in the UK:
A Study of the Prevalence of Child Abuse and Neglect).

Child sex abuse includes penetration of a child's mouth, vagina or anus by a penis (rape), penetration by a part of abuser's body or another object, sexual touching, masturbation, indecent exposure, use of children in or showing children pornographic films or pictures, encouraging or forcing children into prostitution or encouraging or forcing children to witness sexual acts (Sex Offences Act 2003).

More than 25 per cent of all rapes recorded by the police are committed against children under 16 years of age.
(Harris and Grace, 1999, A question of evidence?
Investigating and prosecuting rape in the 1990s, Home Office.)

There are many organisations working with victims, but much more needs to be done. Organisations need to link together so that victims will know that we are all standing together to stop the silence. Survivors and victims need to feel supported and empowered to tell their stories. They need to know they have nothing to be ashamed of - it is our shame as a society that we choose to turn a blind eye to the reality that 25% of females and 10% of males in the UK have been victims of sexual abuse – this is shocking, yet accepted.

The saying “united we stand, divided we fall” is so true if we are all to bring about the required change. We talk about human rights, yet children being raped in their homes is not treated as a big issue - instead it is covered up and kept in the dark at every level of our society.

Can it change ? Yes it can.

Changing Hearts and Minds

One of our aims is to inform the public about the level of sexual abuse. Until the public are made aware of the huge number of children that have been abused, and are still being abused, the systems that we now have in place will continue to cover up the truth.

We have people sitting on a jury in court that find it hard to believe the truth of a child’s abuse because they do not understand the effects and damage done to a child by these acts.
We have a system in place that does more to protect the people that are guilty of causing the abuse than supports a child that reports the abuse.

We need the general public to use their voice to let the people responsible for the present system know that it has to change. Children should know that they can rely on the adults they have contact with to give them the support they need.

We should have zero tolerance when it involves a child being raped. It is shocking how our children being raped is tolerated so much that children do not have the confidence to know there is real help and support for them if they find themselves in that position.

The people that sexually abuse children know they are safe in what they are doing and can keep their victims silent by the threats they use to put fear in them. The “professionals” do not seem to know or understand what happens when a child is brainwashed by an abuser.

Why should adults be allowed to get away with raping children with no fear of what will happen to them? Adults and parents seem to have human rights, but the children have none.

There are many adults in this country that have had to suffer in silence as children. We need to remove the stigma from them and let them know that it is the shame of us all for not wanting to know the truth.

If we can start to talk about this openly, then children will know it is all right to tell the adults in their lives that do not know. Even as you read this you could know a child that is being abused by someone you trust - it could be a brother, husband, friend, father, grandfather, sister, aunt, mother. Children do not want to cause trouble, and the people responsible for abusing children know what to do and say to keep them silent.

On the surface, some of these children appear happy or “normal”. It is a mask they wear to cover up what is happening to them. Their “act” is seen as proof that all is OK - they are not acting weird and they even appear to like their abuser. These children are often very frightened of the repercussions of exposure as told to them by their abuser, or they think it is normal and just fight or suppress the internal feelings of shame they feel inside.

We need to hear what people that have had to endure living with abuse say about what they needed to enable them to speak out to get the abuse to stop.

Case Study

We have one young girl that told us that her mother held her down whilst she was raped, and although she was taken into care, nothing was done to help her. The mother continued having her raped weekly by a gang of men until she was nineteen and a half. In all the years she kept telling “professionals” that her mother was still having her raped, none of the them did anything to provide her with a place of safety away from her mother. Although she said she wanted to talk but there would be consequences, she was not given the reassurance she needed. She needed to know that she would be protected if she told them the truth about what was happening to her.

Although Social Services and the agency she was placed with kept some records of her telling them she was still being raped, nothing was done to find out why she kept saying it if it was not true. The only person that treated her with any care was a teacher that she told - her teacher really wanted to help her and was willing to spend time with her so that she would reach a place that she could talk. Social Services put this teacher in her place by telling her that she was being unprofessional.

It is well documented that the mother had strong control over her and that she could not do anything without her mother’s consent. Some of the things that the ”professional” wrote in the girl’s file without taking any action is quite unbelievable. This girl is so damaged that she does not know how to feel or think, as she has always just done what she was told by her mother. Her mother had always told her that there was no point in telling anyone as they would not believe her. The fact that Social Services allowed her mother to break contact agreements and the rape continued worked in the mother’s favour, as it proved to the girl that she “belong to her mother and she could do whatever she wanted to her”.

The “professionals” in her life that were supposed to be “experts” behaved as if they did not have the knowledge to know the effect on a child that has been raped since being a toddler. To listen to her account of some of the things that were done to her as a seven year old child is like listening to a horror story. Some of these things were documented when she was fourteen years old but just dismissed. The mother was able to break all the rules and do whatever she wanted and nothing was done about it. Everything worked in her favour because she was a social worker and a bully. This woman also sexually abused her daughter herself and in having her raped she would tell her that “this is how I show my love for you”.

What Can You Do

Please take time to inform yourself of individual stories and life experiences, rather than turning a blind eye to the reality for so many children. None of it is pleasant, but this should not be a reason to ignore it. Please remember, we are just reading about it - children are living it! Everyone can be part of this campaign; you can help with time, finance, your skills or your voice.

When children are severely abused from an early age, some of them protect themselves by shutting down and blocking out their abuse. This results in what is known as “dis-associative disorder” or “ multiple personalities”. The person can only remember or talk about the abuse when they switch to one of the personalities that they used to protect themselves. This is very real and there are a few true stories that have been made into films. “Sybil”, “Shattered” and “The three faces of Eve” are three that give a true portrayal of the effects, two of them can be seen on Youtube.

Organisations Working Together

We would like to see agencies that support victims and survivors working together, all with one voice saying “it must stop”. Our main aim must be exposing the level of abuse and demanding change to the current system.

We need to give public reassurance to the children still being abused - there should be large bill boards telling children that it is wrong and that they can get help “they” need. We need to be saying “it must stop now”. It is not enough that children can speak to someone but then go home for the abuse to continue. Does anyone really want to just tell someone and then go home for it to continue?

It is only by rising up and using our voice that we will be able to stop this evil continuing. We would like those that have been victims to join with us and talk about their experiences. It does not matter if people choose to not to go public with their identity. What is important is that their voices and real experiences are used to inform the public of the reality. The more people we can get to talk about their experience, the stronger our voices will become as we demand the change that must be made.

For more information from other organisations:

Please note: Transformation Powerhouse cannot be held responsible for the content of websites where links are given, and any links do not represent an endorsement from us. We cannot guarantee that these links will work all of the time and we have no control over the availability of linked pages.