Child Protection Specialist, Heather Stewart, and Communication for Development Specialist, Lisa McClean-Trotman, both at the UNICEF Office for the Eastern Caribbean Area, discuss some of the work that their department does with the US Ambassador to Barbados, Linda Taglialatela, recently at the UNICEF Open Day.

Child Protection Specialist, Heather Stewart, and Communication for Development Specialist, Lisa McClean-Trotman, both at the UNICEF Office for the Eastern Caribbean Area, discuss some of the work that their department does with the US Ambassador to Barbados, Linda Taglialatela, recently at the UNICEF Open Day.

Address masculinity

Issue key to combatting child sexual abuse

One of the key issues to combating child sexual abuse is addressing this whole issue of masculinity.

This is according to the Communication for Development Specialist for the UNICEF Office for the Eastern Caribbean Area, Lisa McClean-Trotman, who said that this whole concept of what it means to be a man must be clarified, and this would start not only with the men, but also with the mothers who rear them from childhood.

“To me, one of the key things to addressing child sexual abuse is working with this whole issue of masculinity, and it has to be at both ends – with both men and women – because I don’t want to give the impression that child sexual abuse only happens with men... it also happens by who groom men.

“And the thing is that when it happens to boys, we say that it is batting practice, in that it is preparing them. So it is that whole concept of masculinity, and from me, (it has to be tackled) from both ends – from both mothers as well as men.”

Speaking to the media at the Open Day that was held by UNICEF Barbados recently, she further stated that while this may be hard to do because a lot of it is a cultural thing, it is an area that they need to address as soon as possible, if it is a case where it can lead to the sexual abuse of children.

“It is a long way to go, but we really need to start breaking that concept of masculinity and what really is a man and what really is a boy, and what should a boy be like and what should a girl be like, and so on. So it is something that we really need to work at, and some of it is cultural and it is really hard (to break); but just as long as it can lead to child abuse, I think that it is something that we really need to work on, because children have a right to be protected.”

The UNICEF Communication for Development Specialist also rightfully stated that it also starts with the comments of sexual nature that persons tend to make, whether they do it directly or disguise it as a joke, and this is where someone needs to step up and say that comments like that are inappropriate to make.

“We really need to reach a point like that where even if a comment like that is made, that people would say something like, ‘you know, you shouldn’t make that comment.’”

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