After the original charity encountered some last-minute problems, we are delighted to announce the charity the 12for12k Challenge will be supporting in February.
Stop the Silence is an amazing charity that is doing some incredibly difficult and heartbreaking work – dealing with the sexual abuse of children.
Across the world, 150 million girls and 73 million boys are subjected to forced sexual intercourse and other forms of sexual violence (WHO, 2002). In the U.S. at least one out of four girls and one out of seven boys are sexually abused by 18 years old. Nearly 50 percent of all sexual assaults are against girls aged 15 or younger. There are an estimated 60-80 million survivors of CSA in the U.S. alone.
Life outcomes often include poor school performance, depression, psychosis, promiscuity, teen pregnancy, prostitution, drug abuse, sexually transmitted infections (STIs) including HIV, homelessness, suicide and homicide, and chronic disease. Between doctors, lawyers, social service workers and many others, it costs the U.S. billions of dollars each year to address the aftermath of the abuse – it needs to be prevented, and treated correctly if it happens.
The Mission of Stop the Silence is to expose and stop child sexual abuse and help survivors heal worldwide. The charity’s overarching goals are to:
1) help stop child sexual abuse (CSA) and related forms of violence;
2) promote healing of victims and survivors;
3) celebrate the lives of those healed.
Through their work, Stop the Silence aims to address the relationships between child sexual abuse and the broader issues of overall family and community violence, and violence within and between communities.
While the popular belief is that sexual abuse is carried out by strangers who lure their child victims, the majority is actually carried out by people in positions of trust. Family; friends of the family; teachers; community leaders and more. This leaves the child feeling as if they’re to blame – why else would someone they trust abuse them in this way?
While our original charity for February was going to be an animal-based one, the 12for12k Challenge believes strongly in what Stop the Silence is trying to achieve. We hope you do too, and help us raise much-needed funds for this inspiring cause.
DONATE HERE
- Note: When using the ChipIn widget to make your donation, the email on the front page will be the main 12for12k Charities one. However, your payment does go directly to Stop the Silence and your PayPal or Credit Card receipt will show this.
Danny,
Usually a relative is the perpetrator – the same person children need to trust. So this makes sexual abuse something that rocks the very soul of children. We're talking about children here! Also, our societies denial around this makes it even more difficult for adult victims as they make efforts to heal.
Thanks for having the guts to support this cause.
John
Great choice for this month's charity. My wife Kerry and I just donated $20.
Let's go 12for12kers – donate today and don't leave it until the last minute!
Cheers, Iggy
Child sexual abuse (CSA) is an epidemic here and elsewhere — and it's going to take all of us to do something about it. We need to educate ourselves and others about what CSA is, what it does to children, what it does tto the adolescent and adult survivors, and what it does to us all. We as a nation need to know how to prevent it and address it if it happens. To do all this, we need to be able to talk about it and then act. Thank you so much for helping Stop the Silence.
I just donated $10.00 for this very worthy charity. I hope all of my 650+ twitter followers will consider doing the same. Thanks, Dan, for your continued enthusiasm. You are deeply appreciated.
I'm in again! I committed to the whole year, and I hope everyone does the same. This is such a simple thing to do, friends. $10 a month. Pass it on!
I agree, Beth. Talk is cheap. Donate a minimal amount each month and stick to it.
Thank you all guys – you make this happen every month and I truly appreciate your support.
Dan the Man. I'm in.
Thank you Danny ~ I will squeeze my husbands arm for the credit card on this one; )
My best friend here in Belfast ( and also ist canadian I knew) was abused by her Father. I can talk about it now as she is gone now. She was such a clever girl. Got the grades for Oxford… we were so close through school & she taught me so much. I still have all her letters. But she never said a word about it. I knew her Dad well too. You would NEVER have known. He was such a spiritual man ~they seemed to have the perfect family. Grew their own vegetables etc, he was a teacher & leader in the Church, very charismatic & trustworthy. Some time after she graduated he died of syphilis. He was still quite young, late 40's. She was full of it too it turned out and would have been on antibiotics for life, no chance of children. She took her own life in the end in her mid twenties. As children & teenagers we simply would never have known. The hardest thing I learned from this is that the deception is deep & you simply can NEVER know. For me its is one of the saddest crimes I have known to a person close to me. She had so much to offer & so much was taken away.
Eva, I am so sorry to hear that story. It is such a sad tale and sadly one that is happening too often. As you say, it can be people that you would never have thought capable of harm in this way, and the effects can be devastating. Thank you for sharing what must be a hard experience and my best wishes to the girl, wherever she is now.
Childhood sexual abuse is a sick thing. I should know I was a victim. I was molested and my innocence raped when I was 2 and it continued until 8 or 9 years old. I was molested by 4 men and woman all family members or very close friends of the family.
I lived so many years trapped in the pit that they threw me in. It would take a book to tell it but let's just say I traveled down a dangerous road as result of innocence raped.
Today i have learned to forgive so that I can heal, be delivered and finally set free. I am between the deliverance and freedom phase.
I'll do whatever I can to support this cause. Like my friend LaTara up there, I'm a multiple survivor too, both perpetrators were relatives. It didn't just affect me, it affected my other family members, my children, my relationships.
It takes awareness and it takes courage to bring about change so hopefully these donations will help Stop CSA create more awareness, help victims heal, and prevent any further incidents of abuse.
To both you and LaTara, I can't offer words that would ever be enough to show how brave you both are for speaking about your experiences. It's because of people like you, and organizations like Stop the Silence, that the 12for12k Challenge exists. Thank you both for inspiring so many.
It's me again. Pamela Pine, here. I am the Founder and CEO of Stop the Silence. Thank you all so much! And, to everyone who reads this and to everyone who contributes, thank you!! What Danny and John, and now you all have done is INCREDIBLE!
I want to extend an invitation and put forward a little request: I want to invite you to the sixth annual awareness raising event, the Run and Rally to Stop the Silence in on Apirl 19, 2009 in West Potomac Park, Washington, D.C. It is a run and it is a walk, but it is far more than that. We have inspirational speakers, we have informational booths, we have the Guardians of Children (GOC) bikers and Bikers Against Chiled Abuse (BACA) of Gettysburg coming to help really Stop the Silence, games and toys for kids, bands, food and more. Register to walk. Register to run. Register for the rally — but register. Register even if you can't come (it's only $20 bucks). Encourage others to register. There is strength in numbers and we're trying to tell policymakers and the public that we intend to Stop the Silence together: http://www.stopcsa.org/Race. Join us in whatever way you can!! Thank you!
Seven years ago, I was sitting at my desk when some language in a request for proposals for research on societal violence struck me. I was working exclusively as an international public health specialist, and this request was for work on U.S. domestic violence and child abuse—including sexual abuse,marirea penisului(CSA).