THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Geo P George initially thought his life would move in a perfect circle - he would finish a course in clinical psychology and make a career out of it. However, he was thrown off track when he was flooded with stories of child abuse cases during his first year as a psychologist.
“The scenario was not good. Many youngsters, who were approaching me, were scarred for life because of minute incidents in their childhood. Suddenly, I felt very incomplete in my career,” says Geo, whose passion to provide children with a safe childood led to the creation of ‘5 minutes workshop’.
This is a module which has been designed to teach children on how to respond to abuse. The module which is free and available both in print and online, has reached 6,300 parents and children across India. It has been created in several languages including English, Malayalam, Hindi, Tamil and Bangla. “The module is hardly five minutes but has five important messages. It can be taught at schools, colleges and homes by teachers and parents alike,” Geo says.
The target groups are children aged between 5-12 years and 12-17 years. There are also separate modules for parents and teachers. “I created a compact programme since I was aware that young children don’t have a long attention span,” he adds.Though the module is short, it took Geo nearly eight months to complete the script. “I sought help from many friends since the subject was very sensitive and had to be handled carefully,” he says.
The message
For children, aged five to 12 years, Geo has created a graphic image of private parts of the anatomy and how it was not okay for anybody to touch them there. For teenagers, he has prepared a more empowering module where he tells them not to tolerate abuse of any kind and be a fighter.
“Several child abuse campaigns have always portrayed victims as helpless and emotional. Through my module, I hope to empower the children and teach them to be survivors,” he adds.
Geo is grateful to his parents who have backed him in his choice. “When I told my parents that my career dream was to protect children from abuse, they didn’t ask me the scope of it or the job security involved. There were only blessings and no questions,” he says.