Cuencan researchers create narratives to prevent child sexual abuse

While doing her doctorate in Salamanca, the researcher and professor at the University of Azuay, Caty González, worked on responding to how narrative persuasion and "edutainment" can change behavioral attitudes. 

Initially, the researcher worked on the prevention of unwanted pregnancies in adolescents. However, in this process she realized that the data recorded in Ecuador showed that there were more and more girls becoming mothers. 

In an interview in her first days as Secretary of Human Rights, Bernarda Ordóñez warned that, in Ecuador, every year, more than 3.000 women under the age of 14 are mothers due to rape. 

Faced with this reality, González, together with the child clinical psychologist Ana Lucía Pacurucu, decided to undertake work to create activities that alert children to sexual abuse. 

“What we think is that children should be encouraged to ask for help, not to be afraid, not to feel guilty, and, above all, to increase their intention to ask for help,” González told El Mercurio newspaper. 

It was then that the researchers began to work with communication and psychology students and graduates to create scripts for children's narratives that were later conceptualized to be presented to a group of children from schools in Cuenca.   

For the presentation of the products, the project was divided into stages: in the first, stories were created explaining "where the bad guys are", in the second, puppet shows were created, and in the third, animations with the characters are being created. that were already presented in the first and second stage. 

With this, so far, the working group has reached around 600 children who have shown a substantial change after seeing the works. Among the results is that minors already see 911 as a number where they can ask for help in the event of some type of sexual abuse. 

“One of the things we intend to do is to encourage children to ask for help when they see that the situation gets difficult, and one of the things that has really been raised is that children use 911 to ask the police for help. ”, explained Ana Lucía Pacurucu. 

Next process 

To carry out each stage, the researchers have been testing different techniques, different characters, since the objective is to know what children feel good about and which strategy works best so that the result is the complete prevention of sexual abuse. 

A next plan of the group is to participate in economic funds that allow them to reach more school children not only in Cuenca but also in the country through new tools. 

For now, the group is already thinking of a web page that will be an ally through various options: a chat, resources and an application that advises if there is a case of sexual abuse among children. (I)