About 30 volunteers performed a staging and made an awareness movement in order to talk about the sexual abuse of children and adolescents. The action took place in Ecoporanga, Espírito Santo, on May 15. The initiative of the youth of the Seventh-day Adventist Church (IASD) took place at the Municipal Fair, in partnership with the Municipal Secretariat of Social Assistance.
On Friday, May 14, the municipality registered the case of a six-year-old child who was raped and assaulted, which made the group's initiative all the more necessary. Young people carried banners to encourage reporting cases and dial 100 to contactHuman Rights. They positioned themselves, on Avenida Milton Motta, to carry out the movement and create awareness among the drivers who traveled along the road.
“We had a sad coincidence here in the city. Everything was ready for action when, on Friday night, there was a case of abuse of a six-year-old child, who ended up dying. And that made the action on Saturday morning have an even greater impact”, explains Dayane Almeida, one of the creators of the project.
People passing by recorded the movement in photos and videos. Others congratulated the group for the initiative. This Tuesday, May 18, Brazil has in its official calendar the National Day to Combat Violence and Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents. And in the month of May, innumerable actions are taken with the aim of guiding the theme.
Breaking the Silence
The fight against violence in all spheres is an agenda executed by the Adventist Church through the Breaking the Silence project. Each year, since 2002, this campaign has a different emphasis, but the foundation is to make people aware of the respect for women, children, and the elderly.
The campaign runs throughout the year, but one of its main actions always takes place on the fourth Sabbath of August. This is the “Day of Emphasis Against Abuse and Violence”, when there are marches, forums, parents' schools, educational events against violence, and demonstrations in South America.
This article was originally published on the South American Division’s Portuguese news site