We walked through a rough unpaved road on the way to our first visit to invite Iraqi refugees to attend Not Guilty’s four-day training to children, parents, young men, young women and caregivers. We divided ourselves into three teams. Marka, where we were staying, is a very poor area of Jordan where most of the […]
I need your prayers. This week, as I was training in Jordan, on Love, Sex and Lasting Relationships as part of a school on what do after Adolescence, I went to look at our accommodations for our Not Guilty trip ministering to Iraqi refugees who fled Iraq because they wrote the ن (noon meaning Nosrani […]
As I get older, I see I have an excess of skin, I see crêpey skin creeping on my forearm, I see bags under my eyes that have nothing to do with my losing sleep. I wake up with aches and squeaks that become better as I oil my body with daily exercise and coffee. […]
Today a couple came from the USA to counsel with me about their 6-year-old daughter. The mother had attended with me last year, the parents session on how to protect our kids against sexual abuse. She bought the girl’s book, and read it several times with her daughter. This past month, her 6-year-old daughter was […]
Here I am sitting on my bed like a wounded animal, licking my wounds caused by loved ones who hit me hard with harsh words. It always catches me by surprise when someone does that to me: you are totally oblivious about how that person feels about you until that person explodes in your face […]
The greatest fear we might have is what if sexual abuse actually happens to my child? This is the biggest fear of all. Seeing your child in pain and unhappy and not being able to do anything about it. As President for Not Guilty I have counseled many traumatized parents and abused children and adults […]
Sometimes you meet someone and think, “Wow, that person looks at the world in a totally different way. I wonder why!” When sexual abuse happens, that person’s worldview changes for life. Even if the abuse stops, that person wears scratched lenses with which they see and react to the world. The people living in a […]
Five-year-old Beth was enjoying her chocolate. Most of the chocolate ended on her face and her hands. Her mother did not mind since she will give her a bath as soon as she finished eating. After all, as my mother always says: “A spotlessly clean child is an unhappy child.” “Hello everyone?” Beth’s grandma appeared […]
A new hashtag these days is, #WhyIDidntReport and. #WhyIDIDReport. This, of course, is over and above the #MeToo and the #WhatHappensAfterMeToo ##TacklingTheICeberg As I looked on Twitter why victims of sexual abuse choose not to report, here are some of the replies: “ When I was 3: Because he was a family member. Because I […]
The Time Magazine posted an article about the scandal of child sexual abuse in the Catholic church. It tells this true story, Frank Finnegan was 7 years old when he was first molested by a local priest. As a child, he didn’t know how to prevent the repeated assaults, which went on for almost […]
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