The issue at the center of last Thursday?s launch of the Port-Louis Soroptimist website on commercial and sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) at Le Courtyard Restaurant, Port-Louis, is not something remote and forgettable. It is one of the most crucial issues that affect our society.

?Child? and ?abuse? ? in our unhappy world, there is something of a contradiction between these two terms, one suggesting smallness and frailty, the other pointing to an unspoken pain that cannot be resumed in a few words. The gap is enormous, like the pain. Whereas most children weep for ordinary, tiny reasons, those who lose their dignity and are driven to the unending abysses of prostitution and sex abuse don?t always even find a sympathetic ear in which to confide the story of their tortured experience.

?Invariably, one out of four women I meet in therapy sessions confesses for the first time to having been abused in her childhood?, says Audrey d?Hotman, the psychotherapist who worked as consultant for the website and who is leading a series of workshops on child abuse with students from two secondary institutions, London college and Loretto college Rose-Hill. ?I can confirm that the figures are the same among girls aged from 16 to 18 in star schools.?

?Whereas most children weep for ordinary, tiny reasons, those who lose their dignity and are driven to the unending abysses of prostitution and sex abuse, don?t always even find a sympathetic ear in which to confide the story of their tortured experience.?

But in most cases, one really has to dig into people?s lives to unearth these tragedies. Now that www.soroptimistcsec.org hosts links and features like ?To capave dir non !?, ?To le kone plis ??, or ?Bizin cosé ??, those who want to be supported or to testify can do so without inhibition or feeling judged. As pointed out by Sophie de Speville, who developed and monitored the website, this site, which aims to inform people about the critical situation in that field in Mauritius, is there to help eradicate CSEC by raising consciousness among children of their rights and responsibilities, through a medium which is cherished by them. ?It can always be improved, hosting new links. Every positive contribution is welcome.?

<B>Fear for scandal</B>

One of them came from sega singer Asoka Venkatasawmy, who, with other musician friends like Jonathan Boncoeur (arrangements and production), Asvin (bass guitar), Anand (tabla), Raj and Stephano (vocals), composed a special title for the event, that can be heard on the website : so rev zenn fi finn envolé. Stickers bearing details of the website are also being distributed in schools and other targeted institutions.

?When we began our work on child abuse, it was not easy. Some school administrators feared that their establishment might be associated with scandal and declined to participate?, said Manda Boolell, president of Soroptimists. ?But from the beginning we had the support of the Ombudsperson, the ministry of Women?s Rights, some non governmental organizations and the private sector.? One of the most important contributions ultimately came from USAID funding from the United States Embassy in Mauritius.

In the less serious cases, child abuse does not lead to commercial exploitation but, as revealed by a UNICEF study done by the university of Mauritius in 2000, and addressed to the Ministry of Women?s Rights, ?there may be as many as 2600 children who are victims of CSEC in Mauritius and 3900 adult sex workers (18 + years). That would make a ratio of 4 children to 6 adults, which is high and alarming?.

What we also need to know is that child abuse can take the form of rape, caresses (?attouchement?), exposure of children to pornographic images, photographic exploitation of children by pornography. Or even exposure to a sexually oriented language that a child is unable to process or assimilate. ?It is like breaking a glass. It harms someone for the rest of his life. In some cases the person is psychologically destroyed?, explains Audrey d?Hotman.

In concrete terms, those who are abused lose their sense of the limits that act like moral barriers within which they can develop their personality. They become vulnerable and their schoolmates may call them ?p...?. ?In their chaotic lives, they may be unable to make sensible choices, and will tend to live with companions that will go on exploiting them.? In that nightmarish reality, the abusers tend to think that a girl who is on the point of becoming a woman acts and feels like an adult, which is not true.

Most of those who earn that fate are women, but fieldworkers who dig into the lives of people of all trades like Audrey d?Hotman bear witness that about 10 % of boys are sexually abused. CSEC is thus not a matter of gender, race or even social extraction.

And it is just part of the problem of violence perpetrated on children, ? ?The core problem is that of violence, of which women are victims all through their lives?, comments Shirin Ameeruddy-Cziffra, Ombudsperson for children.