The child sexual abuse is a significant problem in Europe, estimating that between 10 and 20% of children are sexually assault during their childhood. This is a cross-country issue that affects all social and economic classes throughout Europe and it is a serious and urgent problem that as a society we have to take over because of its short and long term harmful consequences on children.

Maltreated children have lower educational attainment, lower attendance at school and are less likely to finish high school or attend university. The degree to which educational attainment will be impaired will be influenced by the child’s environment such as the family, the community or society as a whole.

Breaking the Silence Together is a program to prevent, detect and respond to child sexual abuse in primary schools, involving school leaders, teachers and management teams, children and their families as well as other community stakeholders with a community-based and collaborative approach.

The Breaking the Silence Together program aims to improve academic success rates for all children in European primary schools addressing one of the possible causes of child sexual abuse.

Deliverables online available in English, German, Polish and Spanish

• Awareness raising kit; the awareness raising kits will raise consciousness on child sexual abuse. It will help children, families, educators and policy makers to understand the issue and know about the high prevalence.
• Community prevention program; the program aims to strengthen schools’ capacities to prevent and protect children from child sexual abuse
• Teachers manual; the teacher’s manual is a practical tool that seeks to empower teachers to engage in the prevention and protection of child sexual abuse within their classrooms.
• Training and toolkit for parents and children will provide you with the needed guidelines and a training toolkit so that you can learn how to talk to your children and be aware of what signs to look out for. In case of a suspicion in the family or at school you will find information on how to act in an effective and protective way.
• Report learning from the experience intends to identify common key elements of scientifically sound prevention programs addressing the issue of child sexual abuse in primary schools.

You can find all mentioned materials via the website http://www.preventingchildsexualabuse.eu/

The consortium partners

This program has been established by the Foundation Vicki Bernadet (Spain), the Institute of Child Health (Greece), Hazissa, preventing sexual violence (Austria), European School Heads Association – ESHA (Netherlands), Empowering Children Foundation (Poland)

If you have further questions or need more information, please contact ESHA info@esha.org

Project website: http://www.preventingchildsexualabuse.eu