- One in 10 children in Malaysia – about 750,000 – are sexually abused. In 95% of the cases, their sexual abusers are people known to them. (Source: The Star Online)
- Police recorded 1,721 sexual crime cases involving children in the first six months of 2020. (Source: Free Malaysia Today)
- A girl or woman is being raped in Malaysia every 35 minutes. (Source: The Star Online)
How does these stats make you feel? Angry? Frustrated? Hopeless?
We can all play a role in reducing these numbers. Let’s start at home.
In a recent survey of our readership, it was unanimously agreed that it is important for us to have conversations about safe touches with our children. But, more than 90% of our readers responded that they would be more comfortable having the discussion with the right, age-appropriate materials.
We understand that it is often hard to know the right thing to do. Or to know the right thing to say when it comes to having these crucial conversations with our kids.
Come join us as we learn how to keep children safe in our workshop Dunia tanpa Dera.
Meet the Facilitator of Dunia Tanpa Dera, Thency Gunasekaran
An experienced facilitator and a gazetted Assistant Child Protector, Thency Gunasekaran began her 15-year journey by working on women’s human rights issues before deciding to focus on issues that affect children. She was one of the founding members of Projek Layang-Layang, an organisation that was focused on educating the public in child sexual abuse prevention, and has worked with organisations such as Protect and Save the Children and Voice of The Children. Over the years, she has consulted on topics such as sexual gender-based violence, politicisation of ethnicity and religion, child rights, child protection and prevention of child sexual abuse.
As part of her journey to create spaces for people to develop the knowledge and confidence to protect children and make child rights a reality for all children, Thency has developed and co-written several human rights and child protection related training manuals for children and adults.
Some of her work include:
- Legal Awareness Programme for Children: A Facilitator’s Manual (2015)
- Creating Safer Spaces for Children: Understanding Child Sexual Abuse-3-day Training Manual (2016)
- Developing A Child Protection Policy Training Manual (2017)
- Case Advocacy: Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse Manual (2018)
- Keeping Me Safe Programme: A Rights-Based Approach to Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse for Children – Lower Primary, Upper Primary, Lower Secondary and Upper Secondary (2019)
- Child Protection Intervention: A Training Programme for Service Providers (2019)
Recognising that the journey to make this world a safer space for our children can be daunting at times, Thency strives to create a non-judgmental and supportive space for adults to learn and unlearn, to share and be supported via her workshop spaces.
Details of the workshop are as below:
Date: 3rd and 4th October, Saturday and Sunday
Time: 9.00am – 1.00pm (registration opens at 8.30am)
Venue: Surin Community Centre, Ground Floor, Damansara City (DC) Mall, Bukit Damansara
Fee: RM200
Programme:
Day 1
- Introduction
- Make It Right for Children’s Rights
- Child Abuse: A Brief Overview
- Understanding Child Sexual Abuse:
- Definition
- Unpacking Child Sexual Abuse
- Dynamics of Child Sexual Abuse
- A Child’s Perspective
- Should I Be Worried?: Possible Signs
- Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse (CSA): What can I do?
To purchase tickets, head on over to https://tinyurl.com/duniatanpadera. Seats are limited.
For any enquiries, email us at makchic@popdigital.my
