Meet the woman combating sexual abuse of children in Nigeria

On Friday, September 9th, 2022, a 38-year-old Nigerian was reportedly arrested for sexually abusing his 14-year-old niece who was under his custody. This is similar to the experience of 1 in 5 girls and 1 in 13 boys who have been sexually exploited or abused before reaching the age of 18 globally according to UNICEF report.

The fact that cases of child sexual abuse are shrouded in silence and swept under the carpet with the aim of protecting the victim’s public image makes it even worse to prosecute preparators thereby making total eradication of child sexual abuse nearly impossible.

At least 120 million girls under the age of 20 have been forced to engage in sex or perform other sexual acts although the actual figure is likely much higher. But many of such victims including millions of boys, never tell anyone.

Amidst all these, remedial actions against child sexual abuse have mostly focused on treatment and therapy for victims as well as getting justice against perpetrators in few cases which only come after abuse must have occurred.

This is why Ms Juliet Ohahuru-Obiora started her initiative aimed at preparing Nigerian children and parents to identify potential child sexual abusers and take proactive measures to protect their children.

Juliet is a victim of child sexual abuse and has always wanted to stop children from experiencing what she passed through as a child. This fueled her desire to start the initiative in 2016 after first working in the humanitarian sector for over eight years.

“I’ve always wanted to set up the initiative. I started as a volunteer for an organization called sustainable healthcare initiative and that gave me the experience needed to start up since I was practically learning everything I needed to learn. I got to a point when I told myself that it was time to fulfill my long-term dream.” Juliet told AWiM News.

“I talked to a few friends who were interested and we started going for outreaches in schools, churches and anywhere we could find children. We started talking to them about child sexual abuse” she continued narrating how the initiative was birthed.

Action Against Child Sexual Abuse is a women-led organisation aimed at leveraging digital technology and communication tools to mitigate sexual violence against women and children who are the most vulnerable population by giving them a voice through awareness, sensitization, empowerment and education.

The initiative educates both children and parents using both soft and hardcopy books written by the founder, Juliet alongside a colleague.

“We disseminate these books by first getting sponsors and then sending the books to different schools so children can learn from them. It comes in four packages which is a storybook, workbook and graphic books,” she said.

With programmes focused on prevention, Juliet through the initiative teaches children how to detect the signs, know things a perpetrator will likely tell them to do and avoid it or speak out. She also teaches parents to monitor and supervise what their kids have access to especially concerning technology.

Research highlights that education and prevention plays a vital role to counter the ever-increasing rate of child exploitation and molestation.

More and more children have continued to gain access to information communication technology especially as the world continues to advance rapidly. This also means that activities previously done physically have found its way to the digital space.

This includes child sexual abuse which has gone beyond touching of body parts and penetration to involve coercing children to do unimaginable things that violates their sexual rights via the internet.

“Today we hear stories of children committing suicide or getting depressed because someone is somewhere telling them that if they don’t play along by sending more nude videos of themselves, the ones they already sent would be shared with their classmates or parents,” she pointed out.

Child sexual abuse materials are shared indiscriminately without due consideration of the child’s image and identity.

In 2021 alone, the Internet Watch Foundation removed a record-breaking 252,000 URLs which contained images or videos of children being raped and/or suffering sexual abuse with that of children aged 11-13 being most prevalent.

Aside from that, UNICEF reports that one out of three children is online. This makes them vulnerable and prone to sexual abuse from adults.

Action Against Child Sexual Abuse is one of such initiatives working towards reducing the spread of child sexual abuse materials online by reporting such materials and making sure they’re taken off the internet permanently.

“Our focus is not just child sexual abuse but online child sexual abuse which is why we are using digital communication and technology because that is where half of the world lives,” Juliet continued.

Juliet added that it is important for parents to understand that child sexual abuse happens anytime and anywhere so their work is to consciously protect their children, teach them sex education at an early stage and give them listening ears knowing that children hardly ever lie about issues of sexual violence.

“The quality of children we have determines the quality of our society,” she concluded.

This article is part of the African Women in Media (AWIM) Graduate Trainee Programme in collaboration with Fojo Media Institute