If someone would have talked in school about safe touch and unsafe touch, I believe I would have spoken up as a child and not been victimized over and over again for years, but that day never came, which is why my mission now is to protect children from the childhood I could not be protected from.

~ Erin Merryn

Erin Merryn Child Abuse Child Abuse Prevention Child Sexual Abuse Childhood Sexual Abuse Education Revictimisation

when traumatic events are of human design, those who bear witness are caught in the conflict between victim and perpetrator. All the perpetrator asks is that the bystander do nothing. He appeals to the universal desire to see, hear, and speak no evil. The victim, on the contrary, asks the bystander to share the burden of pain. The victim demands action, engagement and remembering.

~ Judith Lewis Herman

Judith Lewis Herman Abuse Survivors Child Abuse Prevention Childhood Trauma Evil Hear No Evil Society Denial Survivors

As in so many cases of sexual abuse within the family, it is much more complicated than had it been done by a stranger.

~ Erin Merryn

Erin Merryn Child Abuse Child Abuse Prevention Complicated Family Sexual Abuse Stranger Survivor Trigger