Our Work

The work of Beyond the Silence is guided by founder Deborah Ho-Chung's childhood dream of wanting to help children who experienced the trauma that she experienced as a child. Her dream of a world free of child abuse... a world where children can live a free happy, healthy and safe life.

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It is important that the responsibility be removed from children to keep themselves safe. It is not enough to teach our children to stay away from strangers. The responsibility lay solely on the shoulders of adults for the safety of children. 

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AWARENESS / ADVOCACY:

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Advocacy and creating awareness are effective tools for putting a problem like child abuse on the agenda, seeking to find a solution, and building a support base. It can also be seen as a social change process affecting attitudes about this important issue.

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EDUCATION:

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Adult education is key. When we know better we can do better. 

South Africa however uses the "BandAid" method for the most part because of the shear volume of children that need help in our Country. 

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Beyond the Silence welcomes the expertise and collaboration with those organisations who are fighting the same fight. Working in a silo does not benefit our children.  

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Our focus is training adults who can work at grassroots level allowing adults to take ownership of the prevention of child abuse in their communities.

 

Another group that needs to be reached are those adults who work closely with children because they are in a position to pick up on telling signs of abuse if they know what to look for.

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Employers and corporates who employ vast amounts of adults with influence are also a group that needs to be reached. The more adults we are able to reach, the better our chances of making our country a better place for our children and future adults and employees.

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PREVENTION:

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There is no doubt that prevention starts with knowledge and awareness of the problem. 

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Another very important aspect of assisting the prevention of child abuse is effective research. Research broadens our understanding of how abuse abuse occurs and can better help prevent it. 

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It is well known that research comes directly from the stories of survivors who have experienced childhood abuse firsthand. And that is why BTS believes that survivors who are able and willing to share their stories, are the best teaches of prevention information. 

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OUR TRAINING:

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• For Corporates and Employers we have a 1hr Talk - (Online or in person

• We also offer a 3hr workshop for adults working with children, or anybody else interested in a more in-depth introduction to prevention.

• Our grassroots Community Train-the-Trainer course runs for a full day with monthly follow up sessions.  

 

 

TRAINING CONTENT:

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What is child abuse? What are the possible warning signs?  What is childhood age appropriate sexual development?  What is grooming?  

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