Y.E.S. works against sexual exploitation of children

You don’t need to watch the news every night to know that the exploitation of children for sexual purposes is a major problem confronting our society. And while exposing the predators in the media is one way of combating this crime, the battle is being waged on many fronts, as News Five’s Marion Ali reports.

Marion Ali, Reporting
Today the Youth Enhancement Services took a closer look at ways of addressing the commercial sexual exploitation of children. The organization has embarked on a 14-month pilot project, starting with a survey in the Belize and Cayo Districts. Director of the Youth Enhancement Services, Karen Cain, says the project was long overdue.

Karen Cain, Director, Youth Enhancement Services
“The C.S.E.C. initiative itself is necessary simply because I think it has been going on for far too long and no one really has been addressing it in terms of looking at victims and families to help them to alleviate this problem. And I think for us as a culture it has become a norm and Y.E.S. has been fighting against sexual abuse and exploitation for quite some time now and it was only appropriate for us to take on this other piece of the project.”

Cain says the programme will focus on the major contributing factors to sexual exploitation of children: poverty, lack of education, and social exclusion.

Karen Cain
“They are offered counselling, they are offered services to go back into school, assistance with school books and uniforms in the case of high school because the school textbook programme is only for primary school level so they’re offered for us to pay school fees, help with school uniforms and school books where necessary.”

Single mothers are also targeted for inclusion.

Lorna Cayetano, Programme Coordinator, Y.E.S.
“Through parenting and through group participation we are going to do skill training which means we go back to the multi-tasking approach where we will work with education, we’ll work with vocational training centres who’d be able to go back and have these people learn some sort of trade. Maybe there’s a lady out there who knows how to sew, she probably needs a sewing machine; probably through the project we’ll be able to get her a machine so she could be self-sufficient for self and children.”

Because sexual exploitation is so deeply rooted, it also creates great challenges for the judicial system.

Cecil Ramirez, Senior Crown Counsel, D.P.P’s Office
“Between when a person is arrested and when the matter comes to trial there are a lot of circumstances, let’s say about 40% or so where the victim or the victim’s parents do not wish for legal action to be proceeded with and that is why you’ll hear from the D.P.P’s office the Prosecutor will “nolle prosequi” a case and that is because witnesses do not want to come forward.”

Claudia Ferguson, Student, Y.E.S.
“Even the mothers, if the person that did their child something like go and talk to them and tell them well I would give you this amount of money for them not to go and talk they would like listen to that man and don’t go, yeah drop the charges, and that would definitely corrupt their children life.”

For Y.E.S. student, Claudia Ferguson, it means the need to make tough decisions.

Claudia Ferguson
“Well I used to have friends in that situation but from their experience I learned a lot off that.”

“I drop them because like sometimes I have this thing that I would walk in their footsteps or something like that so in my point of view I can’t see them as my friends.”

And a friendlier environment for victims if child abuse is exactly what the Y.E.S. programme hopes to accomplish.

Marion Ali reporting for News Five

Officials at Y.E.S. are preparing a draft bill which looks at protecting potential victims and dealing more strictly with offenders, including parents and guardians who encourage sexual exploitation of their children. As part of its fundraising efforts, Y.E.S is presenting a skit highlighting exploitation of young women on Friday night in Belize City. The play, called “Sweetie Love Baby Doll”, will take place at the Port Loyola Community Centre starting at seven-thirty. Admission is one dollar.