CECP Assistant Professor travels to Bangalore to provide workshops
December 2016
Dr. Jennifer Foster was invited to travel to Bangalore, India to provide child sexual abuse prevention trainings with parents, teachers, counselors-in-training, faculty members, and ministry leaders. The workshops focused on increasing participants’ knowledge about child sexual abuse and learning specific strategies to protect children. Child sexual abuse (CSA) is a serious and widespread problem in India, which has the largest child population in the world. It is estimated that 53% of children in India experience sexual abuse before the age of 18 (National Study on Child Abuse in India, 2007). Beginning in 2012 laws were implemented mandating the reporting of child abuse. Yet, many children never disclose their abuse, and children who do tell may not be believed or protected because the offender is a close friend or family member. Due to cultural stigma surrounding abuse, many children suffer in silence. In order to decrease the prevalence of CSA, educational programs are needed to raise awareness about CSA and to assist adults to take steps to protect children. Foster’s pilot program trained 400 adults in diverse prevention strategies. Follow-up research will be conducted on the efficacy of the training.
