Be Free Program of Bahrain Women Association for Human Development, conducted an interactive workshop titled “Parents’ role in protecting disabled children from abuse” at the Association of Parents of disabled children and their friends. The workshop focused on making the parents aware of the importance of their perception of the child with disability and the effects of this perception in protecting the child from abuse.
The workshop covered physical and emotional abuse as well as neglect, which are mainly caused by caretakers of the child, and most importantly the parents. Parents want the best interests for their children, however, they could still unintentionally harm their child either due to their lack of knowledge of the effects of their actions towards the child or because they’re unable to handle the pressure they’re under which reflects negatively on their children. Sexual abuse has been addressed and highlighted, along with the child’s self-confidence, and his belief in his self-worth and how it affects the development of a strong personality that is less vulnerable to sexual abuse.
Through the discussions, it was concluded that the parents are the ones who’d program the child’s self-confidence and self-worth, and they can build a strong personality for their children, to be a protective shield from abuse. The most important aspect contributing to that, is the parent seeing the humanistic side of their children more than seeing them as children with disability and limitations. The humanistic side is always evolving, they can see in their children valuable traits and start to empower them by instilling their humanistic values and contributing in the child feeling honorable about it.
“A human being with disability… A Humanistic Perspective” booklet was distributed to parents, it contains features of the humanistic perspective the child with disability.
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