1 in 10 Girls Around the World Has Been Abused:It’s happening right in your town

(Photo from the IN PLAIN SIGHT report by UNICEF)

A BBC reporter said: “Women make up half the world, but do we really hear their stories?”

This isn’t necessarily a pharmacy or medicinal related post but it is health care related because it is people related. No one suffers abuse without coming away with scars. Whether they are physical or emotional or both. These scars take away from one’s health and stability; whether it is for one month, a year, five years or the rest of their lives.

Half of Teddy Bear

The United Nation’s Children Fund (UNICEF) published on September 1st their annual report detailing violence against children through out the world. This year’s report titled In Plain Sight  is particularly shocking. (If you want to read a brief summary, BBC pulled out the most shocking statistics here.)

  1. This past year they were able to gather more statistical data from more countries around the world than they have previously, giving us a more complete picture of conditions all children face, whether in developed countries, or developing, whether in the middle of a crisis, conflict zone, or peace.
  2. Among the discoveries of what children are facing throughout the world the UN has statistical evidence that 1 in 10 girls around the world have experienced rape or sexual assault by the time they turn 20. That is 120 million girls. Let me clarify that this does not mean boys do not suffer violence, abuse, or sexual assault, they do, but not to as great a degree.  Not 1 in 10.

So why do we, NOVA ScriptsCentral– Central Fill Pharmacy Extraordinaire, want to write a blog post to you about child abuse? Because last night we were invited to one of our donor’s annual celebration. During the event they commended everyone they had donated to with associated pictures and/or quotes on screen to match the activities these organizations had undertaken. During the commendation of a group that works in Prince William County who educates, identifies, and prevents human trafficking, a note written by a high school girl popped up on the screen. It said “I never knew human trafficking was happening here. I always thought of it happening only in Africa or Los Angeles.” This is a common misconception about human trafficking or perhaps an ignorance of choice. It is something not widely discussed but effects everyone, in every neighborhood. And the same can be said about child abuse.

Social media outlets have been on fire for the past week about the leaked naked pictures of celebrities. The nature of the conversation of the hacked photos has changed from being merely scandalous to become a discussion on the severe violation of privacy creating a form of sexual assault. Not that this conversation isn’t worth while but we are only starting to see a few stories about the UN Report. This is a conversation that needs to happen everyday. This is a conversation that needs to be in every post on our various news feeds. This is something that we need to raise our awareness about. Human trafficking, child abuse, and sexual assault does not just happen over there wherever there is. It happens, HERE. In our neighborhoods, in our backyards and in our schools. 29 students of Prince William county were identified as victims of human trafficking last year, and I guarantee you that even more fell through the cracks.

1 in 10 girls are abused before the age of 20. This abuse occurs through, trafficking, through cyber-victimization, through interactions with those people we hold in esteem in our communities, with people we trust, and through strangers. It is not a problem that only effects certain population. This statistic, “cuts across boundaries of age, geography, religion, ethnicity and income brackets.” This is not something we can continue to be naieve about because it effects all of us.

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