May 18 is marked in Brazil as the “National Day to Combat Abuse and Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents”, so the Vedruna Assistance Center, with the students, staff, family members and sisters participated in the march organized, along with other NGOs in the region to publicize, sensitize, guide, raise awareness and denounce all forms of abuse of the most vulnerable.
The week before the event we worked in the classrooms, with conversations, drawings, videos, dialogues, games… the theme and the story of the girl Araceli Cabrera Crespo who, in May 1973, in the state of Espiritu Santo, was drugged, sexually abused and murdered. Some years after the horrendous crime, which remains unpunished, it became the framework for alerting society about violence against children and adolescents.
We marched through the streets of the San Marcos neighborhood, singing songs, proclaiming awareness slogans and handing out a yellow flower made by the children, as a symbol of this day, representing early childhood and the innocence of this stage of life.
Along the way, other groups from schools and organizations joined in. We all walked to the CEU (Center for Unified Arts and Sports), where we made the conclusion of the day remembering that it must be a daily struggle.
Sr. Maria do Socorro Vieira, CCV
