Hundreds of people from around the world are in Calgary for the International Conference on Preventing Child Abuse and Neglect.
The conference kicked off with a ride by members of the Calgary chapter of Bikers Against Child Abuse, some of whom have a personal connection to the issue.
“I came from an extremely abusive background, so for me this was extremely important, there wasn’t anyone as a child that I could turn to, and I know there are many in the group that are like that, there are so many stories I hear on a daily basis,” said Wheels, President of the chapter. “There’s physical, mental, sexual, I mean, there’s kids out there that are living nightmares, every day they live in a nightmare.”
The group offers support to families who have suffered abuse, whether by coming to court in a show of support, or helping to provide access to therapeutic support.
“Therapy to us could be a clinical advisor or it could be ballet lessons, it’s whatever empowers that child to get back to some sense of normality is what we are here to do,” said Wheels, who also believes not enough is being done to support victims and punish perpetrators. “I think we have over 700 children in our system here in Calgary, we’ve got cases right now where perpetrators are getting 18 months, nine months, that’s ridiculous, that child is going to live with that for the rest of their life.”
The numbers are staggering, with over half of children in North America, Asia and Africa victimized by some sort of violence.
The University of Calgary’s Social Work department is hosting the event to help bring the issue into the spotlight.
“Child abuse affects everybody, it’s part of our community, it’s not isolated to any single community or population, it’s something that happens in every neighbourhood, and we have an obligation to talk about it, make it a public issue and do something about it,” said Jackie Sieppert, University of Calgary Faculty of Social Work.
“We’ve really, really not paid enough attention to prevention, and you know, once a child has been abused, you can help that child, you can promote that child’s healing, but you can never take the experience away,” said Joan VanNiekerk, International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect. “We need to bring levels of child abuse down, they are extraordinarily high.”
Conference-goers will discuss solutions, support and practical advice over the course of the event before it wraps up on Wednesday.
