Creating spaces for children's voices: participatory approaches in child sexual abuse

There is now growing consensus that approaches to child sexual abuse must be parallel with child empowerment, highlighting the need for creative approaches within child protection strategies. It is now more widely accepted... [ view full abstract ]

There is now growing consensus that approaches to child sexual abuse must be parallel with child empowerment, highlighting the need for creative approaches within child protection strategies. It is now more widely accepted that children have the capacity to deal with matters pertaining to sexuality, power relations and cultural beliefs, however children’s participation in sexual abuse prevention is insufficiently articulated or practiced and they are rarely asked to define the problem or contribute to solutions. This workshop will present an innovative participatory action research project undertaken in a township in South Africa in which children articulated their views on child sexual abuse, from defining the issue through to potential mechanisms of protection. Using a variety of participatory techniques to explore children’s views, the research highlighted numerous social constructs that exist within a child’s world that cannot be ignored or overlooked. The research demonstrates that children do not view themselves as vulnerable but rather, when given the opportunity, are active agents who are competent to participate in child sexual abuse prevention initiatives. They viewed themselves as having a significant level of power to deal with child sexual abuse, from self-advocacy through to children changing their own sub-cultures and affecting changes within children’s own spaces. The main objective of the workshop will be to expose participants to the practical application of various participatory methods that could be used in creating spaces for children's voices.  It will also adopt a learning-by-doing model, facilitate the transfer of lessons learned and share the researcher's experience in navigating these methods while adhering to ethical standards when addressing sensitive issues within a multicultural context. It is hoped that the innovative approaches can provide an alternative avenue for the development of genuinely holistic protection strategies that create spaces to truly recognise and embrace children’s voices in these matters.