Teaching children about body safety
... to prevent sexual violence
During the COVID-19 pandemic, South Africa implemented emergency measures to reduce the spread of the disease. However, these measures may have intensified sexual violence against children in South Africa, a country with the highest incidence of sexual violence of children in the world.
GEZUBUSO Projects conducted a workshop supported by Zoe-Life, a local NGO that supports children and adolescents living with HIV in South Africa. The facilitators used the KidzAlive Model which is a child-centered approach to providing care and support to vulnerable children.
Our children were taught the following:
- about “safe” and “unsafe” touching rather than “good” or “bad” touching.
- to use age-appropriate wording for their body parts.
- the difference between healthy and unhealthy secrets.
- "Hand of Safety" - to have your child name five people that they could talk to if someone was touching them in an unsafe way.
