Break the Silence Project
What Are We Doing?
The Break the Silence Project aims to advance the Deaf Child Sexual Abuse Prevention (DCSAP) advocacy in the Cebu Province by institutionalizing a process for raising awareness, providing training and engaging with various stakeholders in an effort to form a unified local response to the issue of Deaf women and child sexual abuse.
The Problem
A recent nationwide survey and case monitoring have found the following:
- 65%-70% of Deaf boys and girls across the Philippines are being molested
- From a sample of 60 Deaf women in Manila and Cebu, one-third have been raped
- From a separate sample of 32 Deaf women in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao; 72% were abused or battered, and 63% were abused by their fathers
- In Cebu City alone, PADS has recorded nearly 50 cases of sexual abuse from July 2012 up to the present day.
Most of the sexual abuse cases against the Deaf were not addressed or ended up in settle outside the court due to a lack of expertise on how to handle the cases.
What We Want
The key activities of the BTS include the development of the DSCAP network. This is done through trainings that cover a range of topics, and are targeted at different groups. We provide trainings on:
- Sexual abuse prevention for Deaf women and children
- Human trafficking, online safety and gender sensitivity for Deaf women and children
- PWD sensitivity and case handling for lawyers and paralegals
- Beginner to Advanced Filipino Sign Language for courtroom interpreters.
We are also raising awareness of the issue through activities including The Global Run, on March 19, 2017.
What We Do
Recent nationwide survey and case monitoring have found the following:
- 65%-70% of Deaf boys and girls across the Philippines are being molested
- From a sample of 60 Deaf women in Manila and Cebu, one third have been raped
- From a separate sample of 32 Deaf women in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao; 72% were abused or battered, and 63% were abused by their fathers
- In Cebu City alone, PADS has recorded nearly 50 cases of sexual abuse from July 2012 up to the present day.
Most of the sexual abuse cases against the Deaf were not addressed or ended up in settle outside the court due to a lack of expertise on how to handle the cases.