“Justice that Heals” : how you are enabling us to address the global issue of child sexual abuse

THE SCALE OF THE PROBLEM

Over 370 million girls and women globally have been subjected to rape or sexual violence as children. That’s about 1 in 5 girls, and 1 in 8 for all children. A huge number.

The consequences are devastating for each and every child affected. Anxiety, depression, chronic shame, low self-esteem, challenges in forming healthy relationships, intense and unpredictable emotional reactions, flashbacks, nightmares, and more.

Unless special care is given, these usually stay with the child for life.

Kids Alive’s Justice that Heals – a new model to address child sexual abuse

Over the last few years, we have been establishing a model in Guatemala and Peru which we call “Justice that Heals”, and which we are now taking to Zambia and Kenya.

THE TWO MAIN CHALLENGES

When we initially started pursuing justice for victims in Guatemala, it was mainly to help them with the healing process. We quickly came to realise that a child’s testimony – regardless of other evidence – is critical to achieving a successful conviction. And that successful convictions are key to solving the problem.

We came across two major challenges:

Expecting a highly traumatised child to give their testimony without proper care and preparation was a massive challenge and posed huge risks of re-traumatisation.
Court environments were not child-friendly, sometimes expecting children as young as five or six to give evidence multiple times over, often in front of their aggressor and often cross-examined by an aggressive defending lawyer.

These challenges were huge barriers to holding perpetrators to account.

Why trauma care is so important

Unless they feel safe, children will not tell the whole story, especially as they often feel guilty and ashamed about what they have been made to do during the abuse.

To address this, a key part of Justice that Heals is to provide trauma care, which not only helps the child start to overcome what they have been through, but also empowers them to speak about what has happened to them.

We place particular emphasis on gaining trust in adults. If a child goes through a testimony process with a trusted adult – who can explain each step, and help a child to process their feelings before and after each stage, and who is consistently supportive – they are more likely to be able to give admissible evidence.

Creating child-friendly justice systems

The other part of the model focuses on working with court systems and key players to create child-friendly and trauma-aware courts and processes, including video testimony facilities.

We learnt in Guatemala and Peru that a properly trained counsel in the court – who will protect a child from abusive questions and know how a child wants to tell their story – will result in higher conviction rates and higher sentences.

Indeed, successful conviction rates with Kids Alive cases are way above 70% (closer to 100% where the accused does not escape from custody and/or the child has cognitive issues). This is significanyly higher than those cases where Kids Alive has not been involved.

Governments seem open to judicial reform

Encouragingly, our teams have been pleasantly surprised at just how open their governments and court authorities are.

In 2026, we signed agreements with the governments of Guatemala, Peru and Zambia, to train and work with officials so they feel empowered to provide child-friendly court environments, training judges and lawyers in trauma-informed and child-friendly approaches.

And we are about to start piloting the model in Kenya with a similar programme.

Can you please pray for our work?

Our vision is a world without child sexual abuse. And for those who have been abused to feel empowered to transform their trauma into triumph and go on to live healthy, happy and fulfilled lives.

Please would you pray for this vital work, that we really do make significant inroads into dealing with the issue, especially in the countries where we work. And for anointing and blessing on our teams working at the sharp end.

Thank you and God bless you!

“But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” Amos 5: 24