CHRISTINE SYKES

CS: Thank you so much for inviting me Lady Anita, it is always an honour and pleasure to be able to share my programme and mission.

CS: My Name is Chrissy, and I am a singer song writer originally from Zimbabwe and South Africa. I was invited to the USA in to record and a series of events led me to write the My Body is My Body Programme and it took my life on a completely different path.

I just couldn’t get her out of my mind. A gentleman heard me sing “Kimberley” at a dinner party and asked if he could use the song for the Texas Child Welfare Board’ Child Abuse prevention Month. I said of course…and we recorded it and raised $70,000 during the month of April for the children in Texas.

As a promotional aspect I travelled Texas for 3 weeks and found myself being introduced to talk to children in schools and giving general public presentations. This gave birth to the “My Body is My Body Programme” I found that just by talking to the children (sometimes up to 2000 at a time) and sharing my experience of being sexually abused as a child and then singing some songs, that it just seemed to break the ice and both children and adults were disclosing their being abused for the first time ever, to anyone, at the rate of 15% per presentation.

So working closely with professionals from the Department of Human Services and The Department of Education, I put together the program and the songs. These were approved by both the Department of Human Services in Texas and Tennessee.

After many years of touring and reaching over 350,000 children, I realised that I could only reach a small portion of children by presenting the live show, so I decided to animate the program so that it could be shared on the internet and distributed to schools, teachers and parents worldwide.

As I did not have the money to have this done professionally, I decided to animate it myself. It took me 4 years to learn how and set up my studio and in 2017 I released the first animation in English. The videos were so well received that I had several requests to produce them in various languages.

To date the program has been translated into 19 languages by volunteers and animations have been viewed nearly 800,000 times on youtube. This is not a true reflection as to how many children are watching the videos as I send many schools, NGO's and Foundations all the videos to download due to many areas not having suitable internet. This has all been done with the wonderful help of Volunteers and no funding.

CS: The Programme is a totally free programme available for parents, teachers and communities to teach children about body safety and abuse prevention in a fun, empowering and positive way.

Songs are also a wonderful way for children to remember the important messages being taught as they are interactive. I am sure you all remember little songs that you were taught as a child, these songs and messages will stay with the children and will also be good grounding for future life lessons. A study published in the Journal of Music Therapy, showed that music, and learning new songs relate to a more positive self concept and development of self esteem, helping children feel better about themselves.

There are 6 songs each with a different message and objective: Song 1.My Body Is My Body Song Objective To teach children that their body is their own and no-one has the right to hurt them or touch their private parts. Song 2. If It Don't Feel Right - Don't Do it Song Objective To teach children to listen to their own feelings. To talk about peer pressure To help children with body empowerment Song 3.The What if Game Song Objective To teach children to say NO with authority in difficult situations Song 4. If You've Got A Problem Song Objective To reinforce the learning of telling someone if there is a problem and if that person doesn't listen, keep telling till someone does listen Song 5. Love Is Gentle Song Objective To teach children that love is gentle and kind and is all about caring, sharing and trusting Song 6 Say "NO" To Secrets Song Objective To teach children NOT to keep SECRETS

CS: According to the WHO globally, it is estimated that up to 1 billion children aged 2–17 years, have experienced physical, sexual, or emotional violence or neglect in the past year.

This is around half of all children in our world. Another report from Know Violence in Children states if you add bullying and cyberbullying into the mix you are then talking about 1.7 Billion Children.

My Message to world leaders is PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE let’s break the silence and start educating all children and parents about different types of abuse, body safety, and boundaries. We have so many broken adults and children that will become broken adults and it is all so unnecessary. If we bring abuse out of the shadows and start talking, educating and preventing, we can change societies.

CS: I was a sexually abused child and I know what effect it had on me growing up, with my self esteem and relationships and I want to make sure other children do not go through the same journey as I did. Since starting the programme I have met so many people both male and female that have told me about their abuse. Many times I have been the first person that they have told. It is a terrible thing to have to grow up with abuse and secrets. We owe it to the children of the world to educate them and their parents to create a safer world for all.

CS:

CS: Together with the Global Goodwill Ambassadors we have created 2 Free Courses: The My Body is My Body Programme is the GGA’s Core Education programme.

Firstly we have to educate parents, teachers and communities Course 1 Introduction to Child Maltreatment and Safeguarding Children 1. Why we need to teach about Maltreatment 2. Worldwide Facts about Maltreatment (from ISPCAN) 3. How Child Maltreatment affects a community’s quality of life and economic prosperity 4. Different Types and Signs of Maltreatment 5. How to react if a child discloses their abuse to you 6. Basics on how to report child abuse Course 2 How to present the My Body is My Body Programme

This includes tutorials on all 6 songs, with lesson plans, Children’s workbook and quiz

This will give adults the knowledge about safeguarding children and also how to educate them. We know that this is making a difference and the children love the songs.

CS: I am dyslexic and find reading books difficult. My life has been mainly influenced by people that I have met that have inspired me to be better, stronger and kinder.

CS: I would say don’t worry!! I look back at all the times that I thought I would not be able to pay the rent or feed my children. As a single mother I went through many hard times - but things always turned out ok. Just be positive , believe you can do it - because you can!!

CS: My family and wonderful children, my beautiful dog and life in general. Even through these hard times I keep seeing wonderful stories of humanitarians doing amazing things for each other. This gives me hope and makes me smile.

CS: Thank you so much for the opportunity to share, I would like to encourage everyone to talk, share and please keep an eye out for any abuse and report it. The one good thing about abuse is that it is 100% preventable - so please join us and make a difference.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MBIMB1

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/442148276214672/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjvBZpuutdWbqO2-U_yd6Q

Instagram: https:// www.instagram.com/ mybodyismybodyprogramme/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin. com/company/my-body-is-mybody-program

Website: http://www. mybodyismybody.com

Course 1 : Introduction to Child Maltreatment. https://www.mybodyismybody. com/gga-education-my-bodypart1 Course 2 : How to teach the My Body Is My Body Prevention Program https://www.mybodyismybody. com/gga-education-my-bodypart2

Thank you so much

Chrissy