CSEC holds workshop on commercial sexual exploitation
Most Belizeans are familiar with child abuse, carnal knowledge, and incest, but mention the term Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents or CSEC, and many of them won’t know what you’re talking about. Simply put, CSEC refers to the act of using a boy or girl under eighteen years old for sex or pornography in exchange for payment whether monetary or in-kind. Not only is the practice against the law, it is a violation of the child’s rights. One of the organisations seeking to combat the practice is the Youth Enhancement Services. This week Y.E.S. is holding a series of one-day workshops with high school teachers from across the country to educate them on CSEC and encourage them to become part of the solution. Today’s session was held at the St. Michael’s College in Belize City and featured educators and counselors from schools in the Cayo District.
Judith West Lopez, Teacher, Our Lady of Guadeloupe
“We’ve been learning a lot about children being exploited in Belize, the different ways, the different fashions and some of the things that we can do and we’re probably trying to educate our youngsters out there so that when we go back into the classroom we can educate them more so that they can learn and then we can have some preventative measures taking place.”
Maggie Patchett, Workshop Facilitator
“What we will be doing here is really discussing with the teachers what to look for in their students, some of the signs that they can recognise. It’s the obvious ones, for example: sexually transmitted infections, pregnancy, there’s also a lack of concentration in school, drowsiness. Some of the more obvious signs are when children come into school with things they would not normally have. When the teacher knows that the family has got issues with poverty and all of a sudden the child comes in with new trainers on or a new mobile phone, where has the money come from? These are things that they need to be looking out for.”
Armando Chulin, Counsellor, Sacred Heart College
“I think it’s a real problem all over Belize, but many times people don’t seem to realize that this is going through, this commercial sexual exploitation of children and we need to let the word out to everybody, that we need to do something positive to stop this crime that is going on.”
The public should report suspected cases of CSEC to the police, Department of Human Services or the Youth Enhancement Service. Y.E.S. is hoping to hold training sessions with primary school teachers and community and youth workers later in the year.
