was organized in our community.

Chula has been wanting more independence. She calmly stated that she would like to walk to and back from the bus stand/park by herself and would also take responsibility for her younger sister. ‘Amma, I am ready amma’, she said! Apart from standing in the balcony with my binoculars (ahem…., yes I do that), I thought that I need to do few more things to equip them. Starting point of which was organizing the CSA workshop for my children and for the other children in my community.

I don’t know if it is the SMJ effect, ppl were flocking to sign up. Alas, no two families have the same schedule! So many emails later, we were able to agree on a time that was convenient for at least 1/3 rd of the parents who were interested.

Viji Ganesh conducted the session for about 15 chidlren in the 6 – 10 year old age range.

Some interesting snippets from the workshop:

* VG: Can you think of some body parts, when touched by other people, make you feel uncomfortable?

Chula: (Loudly) Yes. My underarms.

(Okay, Viji, we might need a few more sessions for this one.)

* VG: When some one is giving you an uncomfortable touch, what do you do?

Child 1: Kill him?

Child 2: Hit him between the legs and run away.

Child 1: If we are next to the swimming pool, and if he does not know swimming, push him in to the water.

Child 1: Shoot him with a gun.

Child 1: If he likes chocolate, poison his chocolate and kill him.

Child 1: Touch his pressure point and he will collapse.

To me, all the killing and out of the world ideas aside, it was interesting to note that all children used HIM in association with the abuser! Viji quickly caught on to it and said, ‘adult’, can be a woman or a man, sometimes even a older child.

Viji is good. She conducts these workshops in schools as well as in communities. If you are in Hyd get in touch with her organize a session in your community or your child’s school.