Jared, Katherine, Sarah and I take a photo with three of CAPP’s unique puppets, which they use to create skits and educate children on child abuse.
On November 5th, my social justice group and I payed a visit to the New York Center for Children, or CAPP, in the Greenwich Village. CAPP is an independent, non-profit organization that aims to educate children on child and sexual abuse and how to stay safe. CAPP does so by putting on unique puppet shows that inform student’s on abuse, what is normally a scary topic, in a very pleasant way that is easy for young children to comprehend. We had set up our first fieldwork, an interview, with Marion White, the director and founder of CAPP. On our short walk to the center from school, the four of us were a little nervous and unsure of what to expect from the interview. When we walked in CAPP’s door, we were immediately greeted by Marion, who introduced herself and settled our nerves with her warm smile. Ms. White led us up the stairs and through a lobby decorated with colorful pictures, drawings, and informative texts, to a simple room lined with a few childrens’ drawings. She began setting up a video to show to us, and asked and answered some questions while the video was being set up. Unfortunately, the sound wasn’t working in the video, but from viewing it, we still got a great picture of what CAPP aims to do, as well as the passion and dedication that goes into their work.
After the brief video, we all headed upstairs and settled into our interview room, where we snacked on some donuts and juice, and even got to take a picture with three of CAPP’s unique-looking puppets. Shortly after, we settled into asking our interview questions. With some interview tips in the back of our minds, the four of us were able to ease our way into a smooth-running, informative interview with Marion. In the 40 minute interview, I learned a tremendous amount of valuable information on CAPP, as well as child abuse in general and what it actually is. I learned that CAPP not only educates children on how to stay safe and avoid child/sexual abuse, but has also created a reliable “safety net” (as Marion called it), for children, where students can openly talk about their experiences with abuse (if they have faced it), with CAPP representatives after a puppet show. From there, CAPP reaches out to other organizations and sometimes reports child abuse cases to the Child Abuse Hotline, in order to help out the kids who reached out to them and are in an unsafe place at home. At times in the interview, it was difficult to hear some of the shocking information that Marion exposed us to. I was most surprised by some of the stories that Ms. White shared about child abuse cases that were brought up by young students after the shows. Hearing, first hand, of such truthful stories, really turned child abuse into a reality for me. For the first time, I was able to comprehend that children get abused all the time, and that all of the stories that we hear so often on the news, are not made up or exaggerated; they are the complete truth. I was also astonished when Marion told us that 80% of child abuse cases go unreported because the child either doesn’t know that such abuse is abnormal, doesn’t want to have to turn in or leave their parents or the abuser, or doesn’t know who to tell. She also told us that 1 in 4 girls are abused and 1 in 6 boys are abused. That was when I truly felt that action needs to be taken by people like us to raise awareness on child abuse and put an end to such a foul crime against justice.
