Protect Them B4 Abuse Begins: Students ages 5-17

When I posted the Global Giving project, I had posted that we will reach 1000 students. But because the return on investment is so hgh in the Middle East, we have reached over 2000 students since the start of the project. Thank you so much for your encouragement and for your unspeakable generosity. I am very grateful.

The training shown here is in Beni Sweif, a village about 200 miles south of Cairo. It is one of the poorest governerates. Parents marry their daughters at the age of 12 and the girls do not mind because they want to get away from the dire conditions at home. They think marriage will give them freedom, only to face the reality of the dominating husband. Many of the teen age girls who attended with us this training related to Not Guilty trainers how leaving the house through marriage at whatever age is their desire. A fourteen year old girls came to the training with a one and a two year old.

Not Guilty insisted on training the men too as they are a crucial part of the solution to the problem. What we saw with those particular men who attended this session was: 95% work as farmers. They give the wife the full responsibility of bringing up the children without any input from the father. Men feel it is weakness to show any emotions to their wives so the wives feel unloved and unappreciated.

Violence at home is the norm.

One man was asking the Not Guilty trainer about how to handle  his teen aged son who is on the internet most of the day. Aother man in attendance simply answered back, "Beat him, kill him. He is no good."

Sexual abuse and rape are rampant in spite of the fact that Beni Sweif is a very conservative environment. Yet no one talks about it because of the guilt, the shame and the stigma.

It was sad. Yet their response to the training was, "We need you to come back. No one speaks to us about those touchy subjects".

There were several counselors with the Not Guilty team who sat as time allowed with a few survivors. But the follow up is what is important.

Poverty is very obvious. Not Guilt bought gifts for everyone, and although they were simple and small gifts, yet the joy of the kids, the youth, the mothers and the men was beyond comprehension.

In one day, we trained 200 kids ages 4-10; 100 youth; 200 mothers and 50 men. Not bad for a day's work :)

We need to go back at least once every two months to make sure we plant seeds that will last.

Every trip, we take 8 people from the Not Guilty team. every trip costs $1000. Will you help us go back?

I hope you read my book What Happens AFter #MeToo- Tackling the Iceberg. You can find it here.

Links:

• Training 200 kids, 100 youth, 200 mothers and 50 men
• http://www.notguiltyinc.org