Child Sexual Abuse Awareness Month - April 2012.

Remember April 2011 on Twitter, Facebook and blogs? We talked about Child Sexual Abuse – the hows, the wheres and the whens. We were overwhelmed by the response it generated, humbled by the weight of the personal stories of despair and courage.

It’s that time of the year again and we’re going ahead with Child Sexual Abuse Awareness Month – April 2012.

Do you have a story to tell? Tips to share? A video, a link, an ebook? As a parent, as an adult, as a child? As before, we honour all requests for anonymity.

Bring your experience and your expertise to this awareness initiative via

Blog posts with the logo (you can copy the image above), linkback to our blog, with the words “CSAAM April 2012” in the title
Twitter posts or links to @CSAawareness, tagged “#CSAAM”
FB notes linking to our Facebook page
Emails to csa.awareness.april@gmail.com
Or just simply show support by displaying the Picsquare badge on your site/page/profile

This year, we hope to increase our focus and reach with our new CSAAM App and our sensitisation workshops. You’ll find both in our blog come April 2012.

Stay tuned at http://csaawarenessmonth.com/

Child Sexual Abuse Awareness Month - April 2011.

All through April, there is going to be a lot of discussion, posts, expert opinions, helpful information, point to ponder, statistics, dos and donts about Child Sexual Abuse Awareness across many blogs. If its one blog you should nt miss reading, it is this - http://csaawarenessmonth.wordpress.com/

The blogathon begins on April 1st.

Please support the initiative. Here's how.


If you would like to add to the discussion or know somebody else who would, please note that entries are welcome.

a. mailed to csa.awareness.april@gmail.com OR
b. posted as FB notes and linked to Child Sexual Abuse Awareness Month Page OR
c. posted on your own blog with the logo and linked to the main blog OR
d. linked or posted on Twitter tagged twitter.com/CSAAwareness OR
e. sent via some/all of the above methods

If you are wondering what to write about, the list of topics is available here. Or you can choose your own topic related to CSA. Anonymous contributions are accepted and requests for anonymity will of course be honored. Bloggers can publish guest posts too.

Please remember to send in a mail with all necessary links or just your input to csa.awareness.april@gmail.com

Hats off to Kiran and Monika who have been working hard round the clock to put everything together.

Learning Disability Awareness.

Kiran came up with this idea to dedicate the month of March to the awareness of Learning Disabilities in Children. Many bloggers have contributed valuable information and tips on this subject. Check them out.

Tharini on Types of Learning Disabilities.

Lak writes about the self esteem of a child with learning disabilities.

Kiran - How Parents can work with their child.

GnD on Treating/managing the disability.

Cee Kay on ADHD.

Cee Kay on Being an advocate for your child.

Sue talks about her brother - Examining Disability.

Priya talks about her daughter - "We Have Come Such A Long Way"

Will update the post as and when more posts come up. Please leave a link in the comment section if you have any information or experience to share on this subject. Thanks.

Food Allergy Awareness.

Tharini of Winkies Ways has started a Food Allergy Awareness Month. She has kick started the posts with her first post here and Sujatha of blogpourri has shared a wonderful and informative post in her blog. Theres more to come from Tharini and quite a few other bloggers as well. Also, check out Tharinis post on the difference between Food Allergy and Food Intolerance.

If you have done a post on Childhood Allergies in your blog in the past , please pass on the link in the comment space. Or if you have any information to share, please do a post and leave the link here. I ll be doing a final round up of all related posts in the month end, so come back. Lets all come together for this good cause and spread the awareness. Thanks in advance.

NO - Possibly the most used word by a parent.

Never say No? - An interesting post by Cee Kay on how to say "No" with a postive attitude to kids and why "No" should nt be over used.

Yes, we'll buy that toy some other time.
No, we can't buy that toy right
now.

Yes, you can have potato chips as soon as you finish this cucumber.
No
you cannot have potato chips. you have to finish this cucumber first.

Yes, we will go to the park as soon as you finish your dinner.
No, we
aren't going to the park until you finish your dinner.

Yes, I'll give you candy after you finish your lunch.
No, you cannot
have candy. Finish your lunch first!

And more recently -
Yes, we will think about getting you a laptop
when you are a little older.
No, you cannot get a laptop until you are a
little older.

And,
Yes, an iPod sounds fun, but we'll think about it.
You can't
have an iPod for Christmas. We'll have to think about it first.

Child Swapping.

When this piece of news came in the Parent Center Newsletter today in my mail box, my stomach just flipped.

RIYADH (Reuters) - Two boys, one Saudi and one Turkish, will swap homes four years after a hospital gave them to the wrong parents, a Saudi newspaper said Wednesday.

"Mistakes are always possible, but we will try to find who was responsible and hold them to account so it doesn't happen again," Prince Mishaal bin Saud, governor of Najran in the far south of the kingdom, said in comments in al-Watan newspaper.

Saudi health authorities had been reluctant to accept the Turkish father's claim that his son Yacoub was not his, but DNA tests carried out this week proved him right.
Published pictures show a distinctly Saudi-looking Yacoub.

The father of the other child, Saudi national Mohammed al-Monjem, had no inkling that pale-skinned Ali was not his. He will press a 50 million riyal ($13 million) compensation claim against the health ministry, al-Watan said.

Courtesy: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071107/od_nm/boys_swap_dc

Of course I had to drag Hd and put him in this situation and ask what he would do. He of course knew he was getting into trouble and said that he saw Ashu coming out of me and hence he ll never be in this situation technically! Men! Anyway, after much prodding he said he ll swap if that's what the other parents want! WHAT? Who cares what anyone wants? What do you want, Dude? You mean you will just give up Ashu just because shes not biologically yours? Now he knew for sure he was in trouble and said he had no choice and turned the table and asked what I would do. Hah, that's easy! I ll take Ashu and disappear from the face of the Earth! Why would I give her up? So he tried to make me feel guilty about abandoning my biological child. But then, its all Math, is nt it? 9 months in my tummy Vs 2 1/2 years of being together every single day and seeing the child blossom. Tough but then that's what came to my mind instantly.

What would you do?

Resilience in Children.

A very informative post by UTBT.

All
parents have an in built reflux that wants to reach out and wipe away all their
child’s misery. But are they really that delicate? The truth is children are
pretty resilient. Much resilient than what we give them credit for!

She has also written about the childhood of Nobel Laureate Dr.Mario Capecchi. Very inspiring. We are waiting for a follow up post too.

Multilingual Children.

Lakshmi ponders about raising a child in a multilingual environment. This is her interesting background:

1. My mother tongue : Tamil 2. LG's dad's (The Seniol) mother tongue : Bengali 3. LG's dad speaks with his dad in : Punjabi (as he grew up in Punjab) 4. I talk with LG's dad in : English and Hindi 5. Language of the environment : Marathi (we live in Pune)

Tricky indeed!

Is child rearing boring?

Gauri asks,

Boring ??? Humdrum ??? Lackluster ??? – Are these sentiments that one would normally associate with bringing up a child ?