"It's never too late to start anew. SpeakLIFE
to those dry bones... shake them loose and LiveUP!"
No! No more, ‘Hush-hush!’ TELL your Story… Open your mouth—Yes, SpeakUP, SpeakOut, SpeakTruth out LOUD! Tell someone for LIFE’s sake! And yes, SpeakLIFE to your soul… Love the Girl/Woman in the mirror back to LIFE.
This is what I tell girls and women, as we have to find the courage to champion our plight. We have a right to stand and take back what the enemy stole—our LIFE. At LiveUP, together, we find healing—discover, recover and nurture in self-care.
Through process, we unearth and discover or recover values, vision, voice to WIN from WithIN to Live again. Yes, it’s time to reclaim your IDentity—VoiceUP… and BE a Voice for LIFE.
In the absence of parents or caregivers too many things go on behind closed doors. Just as many things happen when parents are present, but not available.
The atrocious acts of childhood sexual abuse are devastating. To a young mind that is not ready in time, age, maturity or function to take on such, it is a hideous violation that steals innocence/identity, kills childlike imaginings and oftentimes destroys lives, girls and boys.
Though I say, “This is what I tell girls and women…” the same applies to boys and men. The numbers are devastating as to the heinous sexual exploitation of boys and is hidden in plain sight. This happens in homes, in the homes of close kin, in the homes of friends and outside of the homes (schools, camps, clubs, etc…)—in places where our children should be safe.
What is Safe? Is there any such place!
There’s a new breed in town. They’ve been around, in hiding—clandestine, with an agenda. The agenda to emasculate and feminize our boys and men. This malevolent agenda is immorally perverted—wicked. It is so great that as we advocate, this issue is given a dedicated space for dialogue—shining the light and bringing awareness. Stay tuned on our “SOS: Saving Our Sons” page and our podcast. However, we will reference this often in CSA Advocacy.
We need to encourage young people to talk… SpeakUP! TELL! Too often children are hushed. Sometimes this hushing comes with derogatory words, slights, scorn. This same silencing is what renders children voiceless as the muting continues. Stifling a child’s voice not only shuts the mouth of a child outwardly, but it shuts them down inwardly. Their voice is more easily muted by predators in the grooming process when they have been continually muffled.
Yes, SpeakUP, SpeakOut, SpeakTruth out LOUD! TELL! Tell your story and don’t stop telling until you’re heard and believed.
I was 18 when I first opened my mouth to tell. I told… I felt empowered, bold. I was of age and could protect myself. I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t know the scope of my parental guardians’ mindsets. How they would react. If I would have support. It didn’t matter. I told. I could protect myself.
I graduated from high school. I had my new born son-shine. Seven months later, I packed us up and was Jersey bound. I moved back home to New Jersey.
By this time, consciously unbeknownst to me, the deeper effects of years of external debasement—sexual molestation as a baby-child and later verbal abuse prominent in a dysfunctional family-life, played on my internal dialogue. I began to echo the external. This along with my closeted secrets served to work its way into my psyche—self-debasement had become an internal norm—woven into perverted thoughts and deeds. As a child, I told myself a myriad of times, “I’m still good.”
"Tell your story... Be TrUe to U."
Do we know the statistics?
The issues that affect our children are endemic community ills that have proliferated unaccountably far too long, with children being neglected, abandoned and abused.
Child Abuse is a Crime! no matter the form—mental, emotional, physical or sexual. Sexual abuse is one of the most damaging as it steals the innocence and identity of its victims.
Child sexual abuse is an issue and community ill that devastates the lives of many—children as well as those who have aged, but not matured due to the effects of this evil.
Based on the reported figures, 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys are sexually abused before 18. However, only 1 in 10, who are sexually abused tell about or report their experience, approximately 42 million, thus, the statistical numbers are skewed to the point of what’s reported. When we consider numbers unaccounted for we surmise that the numbers for actual cases of sexual abuse is a much greater astounding figure.
Childhood sexual abuse disrupts the lives of its victims, stunting growth, and wreaking havoc emotionally/mentally and functionally. Some are able to overcome in time with the proper resources and support, while others experience a lifetime of anguish and torment.
Together WE Can Give Greater Hope to the Hopeless by helping to Give Voice to the Voiceless of child sexual abuse.
VoiceUP…Be a Voice! ∎