Child Sexual Abuse in Colombia - Personal Statement Example

Child Sexual Abuse in Colombia al Affiliation) The need for a social change campaign The proportion of sexual molestation subjected to children in Colombia is alarming, as recent research indicates that it is amongst the most disturbing trends within the country (Colombiareports.com, 2015). I decided to choose the topic of child sexual abuse because I am Venezuelan by nationality; hence, I understand the severity of this problem in the neighboring country of Columbia. Moreover, the problem of child sexual abuse is not only rampant in Colombia but also in my home country. As such, the identity shared between Colombia and Venezuela played a pivotal role in shaping my decision towards the choice of a social change campaign focusing on raising the awareness related to the child abuse. In relation to dealing with child sexual abuse, the government of Colombia in conjunction with the regional leaders has implemented policies that aim at limiting the prevalence of this trend (Spohn & Tellis, 2012). In line with these plans, the country has seen a rise in the number of Non Governmental Organizations, such as UNICEF, Global Humanitarian, and USAID that highlight the rights of children to fair and equal treatment (Globalhumanitariausa.org, 2015). Through these organizations, the legal fraternity of the community acquires adequate grounds upon which the perpetrators of such crimes are subjected to severe punishment. What’s more, the community education programs installed by the government help in raising the awareness of children and adults on the risk factors pertaining to child sexual abuse within the community. Therefore, the steps taken by the relevant stakeholders all focus towards emphasizing on the rights and freedom of children. Currently, a number of barriers exist in the bid to solve the child sexual abuse crisis. To begin with, the rising rate of unemployment in the community has been a contributing factor to the difficulties associated with eradication of the problem. Inadequate employment opportunities subject the adults to minimal activities, which gives rise to the increase in criminal mentalities that bear such criminal activities. In addition, the increasing rate at which the community indulges in drug abuse increases the difficulty to eradicate the crisis. Poor educational standards, which lead to ignorance within the community, limit the knowledge of the victims on their appropriate protection strategies and the nature of violations that may be subjected to them. Within this community area, the problem of child sexual abuse is persistent due to certain historical factors. The family structures of the community often lead to violence among members of the family, a factor that leads to massive divorces and inadequate moral uprightness within the society. Apart from the family structure, the community has poor communication frameworks through which the society can voice their opinion on the risks associated with this crisis. In addition, the historic nature of the community fuels stigmatization against people and families that have low social status and poor economic backgrounds. This often leads to parents toiling hard within the urban industries in a bid to immerse adequate wealth that guarantees social recognition and acceptance (Colombiareports.com, 2015). Therefore, lack of parental attachment contributes to neglect and subsequent lack of protection to children from members of the immediate family. Access and community partners Access to this community, as such, depends on my origin as the researcher. However, I hold a Venezuelan nationality; hence, I do not qualify to be a member of this society. The origin of the researcher plays a central role in determining the methods used in the research and the possible communication frameworks that the researcher would use in conceptualizing the trends behind specific observations made within the community. Despite this, the fact that I am not from the specific community does not limit my ability to undertake a formidable research that reflects the identity and nature of the community. However, I have family friends who reside in the capital city of Colombia, Bogota. After long discussions and deliberations with them, I concluded that child sexual abuse was a major problem within the community. Judging from their contributions, I could deduce the existence of criminal attachment to the trends witnessed within the community. Consequently, they said that the problem of child sexual abuse has been a historical problem not just within the city but also in the entire country. Despite the society witnessing the happenings of such discriminatory activities, they said that the stigma and social pressure related to victimization often contributes to lack of willingness and growth of fear among the members of the community. Through their assistance, I was able to acquire access to the community and analyze the weight behind their observations. The campaign solely deals with raising awareness of the Colombian public to the risk factors associated with child sexual abuse. Furthermore, this campaign aims at utilizing the support from prominent public figures within the community. As evident, the public figures play a central role in shaping the perception of the public towards certain activities and specific developments (Clarke, Wylie & Zomer, 2013). The campaign, nonetheless, aims at using influential people such as Alvaro Uribe. Uribe is the former Colombian President who has a large online presence that I aim at using for the campaign, and since he draws close semblance to the struggles against child molestation in Colombian viewpoints. The campaign may include other individuals such as Shakira, a renowned musician with her roots being of Colombian nature. Not only will the campaign focus on musicians but also sporting personalities such as Radamel Falcao and James Rodriguez, both of whom have significant numbers of followers on social media platforms. The choice of the above people depends mainly on the fame and pride that the Colombian public attaches to them. These influential people form the mantle of the Colombian community; hence play a pivotal role in shaping the direction of the society. Currently, Colombia is among the leading locations that have the highest users of smart phones in Latin America, joining such countries as Brazil and Mexico that have since been the pioneers of the use of smart phones within this geographical segment (Emarketer.com, 2015). The campaign focuses on leveraging on the increasing number of smart phone users to launch an internet-based communication framework that focuses on raising the awareness of the community. Therefore, the campaign will depend mainly on the social media sensitization and gaming to convey its message. Moreover, it will use the internet due to the limited cost pressures associated with this method of sensitization. Through the internet, the campaign will reach at least 14.4 million people, and cut across all the tiers of social and economic settings (Emarketer.com, 2015). Thus, the social media platform, amidst the existence of other methods, is the best affordable and effective platform. Social Change Process The main methods that I will use in engaging the community include Information Communication Technology and Gaming. The use of games for social change is the process of creating a game that attracts the attention of the target audience to specific social crisis witnessed in a particular environment. I will design a graphic game that relates to child sexual abuse, putting in relevant authorities such as police and influential societal leaders including politicians, musicians, and preachers. On the other, through ICT I will market the game on the social media platforms of the influential figures mentioned earlier. Furthermore, ICT is critical in this process, as it represents the platform upon which the game will be played. As such, the main component used in this campaign is smart phone gaming, while the sensitization occurs through marketing the game on the social media platforms of the prominent public figures. Primarily, the strategy of combining gaming with ICT is the best method to use in conveying this message due to the high levels of smart phone usage in this community. Therefore, this medium represents the best platform on which I can engage the populations, and create the awareness related to child sexual abuse. Besides, this method is the best way as it reaches the largest populations responsible of societal change, which is the youth. The main benefit of employing this method is that it reaches the largest number of people. Beyond this, using the Smartphone technology is flexible and reduces the costs of running the physical campaign. What’s more, the social media platforms work efficiently and rapidly transform the societal behaviors through shunning the evil deeds and increasing the community awareness against the factors that constitute immorality (Nurullah, 2009). However, the use of social media as the alternative sensitization mechanism increases the risk of victimization, stigmatization, and subsequent use of uncensored language that may affect the reputation of the campaign. Consequently, the social media platforms may lead to development of cracks within the social structure. The involvement of the community is pivotal in creating a successful campaign. In detail, the community will play a role in suggesting the names and traits of characters to be used in the game. Besides, the community will participate by contributing to the translation of the game to other parties that do not understand the Latin American language, but show interests in being involved in the game. In my project, the community will be the basic contributors of the images that will be used on social media to depict the status of child abuse in Colombia. As evident, the level of participation of the community in this campaign will be high in order to give the community the much-needed sense of attachment towards the eradication of the vice. The use of social media, nonetheless, has been important in a number of projects. For instance, the Cost of Life is a game that helped to raise the awareness of the world towards the difficulties encountered in Haiti (Davies, 2008). Through this campaign, several global leaders came together to commission a fundraiser to help alleviate some of these difficulties. How the game works In the proposed, game, the players will get the opportunity to help a Colombian child who is subject to frequent child abuse. The main themes if the game will include the health, the happiness, education, and financial gains. At the start of the game, the player will hear the deafening sounds of a crying child and locate the area from which the sound comes. Consequently, the game will proceed to offer a wide array of techniques for handling the perpetrator including legal, police arrest, physical ambush, and escapades. The successful mitigation of the problem will lead to the happiness of the child, who will increase the player’s points upon the acquisition of the aforementioned themes. Therefore, the increase in the levels of prominence in the game would lead to the assignment of tougher tasks by the game to rescue children in worse and more secretive locations such as drug nests and low-income settlement areas. Goal of the campaign The main goal of the campaign is to raise the awareness of the community towards the effects of child sexual abuse through the social media platforms. On the other hand, the gaming criterion is focused on educating the children on the best possible ways through which they can protect themselves against sexual harassment. Moreover, the games will enlighten the children on the best feasible ways to escape from the shackles of child abuse. The timeline I would use in implementing this strategy would be one year. Initially, during the first three months, I will seek all the legal documentation that would enable me to undertake the online campaign with support of the government. As evidenced, serious gaming could affect the responsibilities of target groups significantly (Peng, Lee & Heeter, 2010). On the second phase of three months, I will approach the necessary stakeholders, such as gaming companies and influential public figures, to which I will explain the importance of my campaign. The third step would be to raise the finances for the creation of the game after which I will secure all the rights to post it online, a step that would require three months too. Last three months of the process would form the last phase of the campaign, upon which I will evaluate the impact of the process on the child sexual abuse rates in the community. To evaluate the success rate of the campaign, I will launch an online survey to people within the community. The campaign-focused metrics would enable me to tailor the requirements of my survey to the Columbian population. In addition, I will combine this assessment methods with ongoing analytics through which I will extract the general perception of the community about the impact of the campaign. Though the campaign focuses on children and adult education, the lessons envisaged in this campaign could be of critical significance to the parents about the need to improve the attachment to their children and avoid neglect, which often subjects other children heightened insecurity. The lessons could help the educational experts within the country to introduce child sexual abuse in the Colombian syllabus. As evident, lack of education contributes to higher prevalence of child abuse in this community (Spohn & Tellis, 2012). Therefore, improving the education would help in eradication of this activity. Moreover, through the social media platform, the government can trace the possible perpetrators of vices that encourage child sexual abuse such as drug dealers. Such lessons would be important in eliminating the fears attached to reporting cases of child sexual abuse. Upon leaving the community, the campaign will be sustained through concerted collaborative efforts between the residents and the community elders. I will root for the creation of a solid communication framework that enables the authorities to track, apprehend, and punish perpetrators of such crimes. Therefore, the sustainability of the campaign will be based on frequent communication between the public and the relevant authorities. References Clarke, S., Wylie, G., & Zomer, H. (2013). ICT 4 the MDGs? A Perspective on ICTs’ Role in Addressing Urban Poverty in the Context of the Millennium Development Goals. Information Technologies & International Development, 9(4). Colombiareports.com, (2015). 81% of child sexual abuse cases in Colombia never make it to court. [online] Available at: http://colombiareports.com/81-of-child-sexual-abuse-cases-in-colombia-never-make-it-to-court/ [Accessed 8 Dec. 2015]. Davies, L. (2008). Gaming for Social Change. Afterimage, 36(1), 4. Retrieved from https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1G1-182665017/gaming-for-social-change Emarketer.com,. (2015). Colombia Joins Top Three Smartphone Markets in Latin America - eMarketer. Retrieved 7 December 2015, from http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Colombia-Joins-Top-Three-Smartphone-Markets-Latin-America/1011750 Globalhumanitariausa.org, (2015). Global Humanitaria USA. [online] Available at: http://www.globalhumanitariausa.org/what-we-do/featured-causes/protect-colombia/ [Accessed 8 Dec. 2015]. Nurullah, A. (2009). The Cell Phone as an Agent of Social Change. ResearchGate. Retrieved 7 December 2015, from http://www.researchgate.net/publication/228176223_The_Cell_Phone_as_an_Agent_of_Social_Change Peng, W., Lee, M., & Heeter, C. (2010). The Effects of a Serious Game on Role-Taking and Willingness to Help. Journal Of Communication, 60(4), 723-742. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2010.01511.x Spohn, C., & Tellis, K. (2012). The Criminal Justice Systems Response to Sexual Violence. Violence Against Women, 18(2), 169-192. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1077801212440020 Read More