Trends in reported cases of CSA (Sahil)

Sexual abuse has for long been neglected by various segments of our society where social norms and cultural anecdotes have played an active role in suppressing these issues. These practices have affected the response of law enforcing agencies towards these issues of violence. There are many victimized segments in the society. However one segment that stands helpless due to its dependence on elders, and has less or no access to resources, is children. Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) is prevalent worldwide and is one of the menaces that are persistent in all classes. In Pakistan, children less than 18 years of age are falling prey to CSA at the ratio of 6 children per day. Sexual abuse is perceived as shameful and not to be discussed and hence hundreds of innocent lives live with the shadow, memories and trauma of the assault. Several children surrender their lives in the name of honor or absorb the pain for fear of losing a loving one, if the secret is revealed. In the past, cases related to child sexual abuse were published in newspapers using humiliating words that could create more harm than good to the victim. However, in recent years various advancements in media and the steps taken by Social Organizations, National Commission for Child Welfare and Development, and Press Council of Pakistan have succeeded in sensitizing the reporters on following a code of ethics set for reporting a sexual abuse case. Sahil working on child protection with a special focus on sexual abuse, has been publishing Cruel Number reports for the last 15 years, which is based on data collected through monitoring online and printed newspapers, direct calls received at Sahil for free counseling services, free legal aid and cases shared by other organizations working on CSA. The report has been helpful in identifying the target groups for awareness raising. Moreover it has also been of a great help for other organizations to steer advocacy campaigns. The current publication is a five year trend analysis of the reported CSA cases from 2007 to 2011. We hope this report will benefit our stakeholders in particular and society in general.

Source : http://sahil.org/five-year-analysis/

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SPARC Gets New Executive Director

Ms. Sadia Hussain joined SPARC as Executive Director in November 2015. She has been working in Pakistan on diverse areas of education, monitoring and research for the past fifteen years. She has worked on several DFID and ADB funded projects as a self employed educational research consultant, running her own company successfully for more than five years. Currently, her focus is on research and advocacy for alternate methods of teaching and learning through technology integration.

Ms. Sadia Hussain holds a Masters degree in Educational Leadership and Management from the University of New England, USA, and a Bachelors degree in Civil Engineering. She has also completed several continuous professional development courses from Harvard School of Education and University of Missouri, USA.

Source : http://www.sparcpk.org/

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Solar kids treatment successful

The two children who live in a suburb at Quetta city suffer from a rare disease. When the sun rises they are bright and chirpy, when it sets they become lifeless.

“I have five children. But only these two suffer from this disease,” said Hashim, their father.

Doctors at Islamabad’s Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), where the children have been brought for treatment, are perplexed at this strange case.

PIMS Vice Chancellor Dr Javed Akram said, “This case is a challenge for the entire medical community. We need to first identify their defective genes. Their entire data is being shared with Johns Hopkins University [in the United States] and hospitals for neurological diseases in England.”

Doctors have recommended over 200 tests to the duo they have named as ‘solar kid

Treatment :

According to PIMS Vice Chancellor (VC) and Head of the medical board Dr. Javed Akram, this was the minors’ first night where they behaved and played like normal children. Dr. Javed Akram also lauded Media efforts for highlighting the issue which led to successful treatment of the ‘solar kids’.

Father of the affected children, Hashim, was also overjoyed to see his children healthy and act normal.

The ‘solar kids’ of Quetta were seen playing in the hospital and taking selfies in front of a mirror, proving that they will finally be able to live normal healthy lives.

The children had long suffered from strange symptoms where they seemed to be active, full of life and normal during day time however, as soon as the sun set, their bodies started becoming dysfunctional and they seem to be half dead.

The father of the three children spent many years of his life rejoicing upon the sight of dawn but every sunset used to leave him gloomy. Now at last he will also be able to breathe a sigh of relief.

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