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In May 2013, the media released reports of sexual assault cases against girls. Sun Xuemei, soon to be pregnant with a daughter, found her heart crushed in anguish, calling out to the victims in compassion. Her journalism instincts led to piles of research on the subject.
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Sun teaches primary school children in Yunnan. [Photo/bjby.bjwmb.gov.cn] |
She found out that most sexual assault cases occurred in rural areas, mostly victimizing children left behind or children of migrant workers. Sun had grown up deep in the mountains of Guizhou, and she could remember the hardships that she had faced too as a child.
A few days later, Sun took on the initiative and began the Protecting Girls movement.
China officially recognizes June 1 as Children's Day. By this date, Sun already had a circle of over 100 female reporters supporting her. It was also on this symbolic date when she put up her first Protecting Girls post on weibo.
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A total of 140 students watch a live presentation that is televised to the entire school population of 1,700. [Photo/bjby.bjwmb.gov.cn] |
In under two months, Protecting Girls has been listed under the Child Safety Fund and supported by the Chinese Social Assistance Foundation. With strong momentum under her belt, Sun began the first of her child sex abuse prevention plans, vividly introducing children to protection lessons. She designed the classes in such a way that children could master them in a relatively short amount of time.
Sun's days were already taken up by her career as a reporter. Now, Girls Protection had swallowed up almost all of her free time.
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Sun, despite being seven months pregnant, still insists on continuing her work. [Photo/bjby.bjwmb.gov.cn] |
But she had a core team of 20 other reporters. She had an extensive collection of anti-assault material for children both at home and abroad, and she had lesson plans and expert advice. After six months of strenuous work and 40-some revisions, Sun also had a complete lesson plan preventing child sex abuse specially tailored for primary schools.
As of July 23, 2014, Girls Protection had already commenced in 17 provinces in China. A total of 9,103 children had received education on recognizing and protecting themselves from assault. Sun's handbook has been printed over 100,000 times.
The project team is now cooperating with local governments and training volunteers by the hundreds. "This is hope," she says, "A sustainable, long-term hope."
