The Story of Grace In November of last year, I become an employee of the Southeast Alabama Child Advocacy Center. I was very excited and proud to be part of an organization that I believed really cared for the abused children of our community. Now, I know these children: children with faces, names, families, favorite colors. They look, talk and act just like other children. But their life story is different: it has been changed by something and someone out of their control. I am so thankful that the CAC can offer them hope and healing, and an understanding that they do not have to be held down by their abuse, but can go on to live in a brighter future free of abuse. I am grateful for laws that protect our children from predators that prey on these innocent victims. Recently, I was reminded of the horror that children experienced before laws were in place to protect them from abuse. I had just sat down to enjoy a new book and began reading an astounding introduction: “In the summer of 1874, Mary Ellen Wilson, a nine-year-old girl from New York City, was the most talked about child in America. The event that created a national media frenzy back then wouldn’t make the back page of a rural newspaper today: Mary Ellen was abused by her parents. The abuse was so severe that Mary Ellen likely would have died if she hadn’t been rescued by Etta Wheeler, a Methodist missionary working in the girl’s neighborhood. Ms. Wheeler’s initial efforts to help the child were fruitless. No one wanted to believe that child abuse existed, or even that it could exist. Because of this, there were no laws on the books prohibiting cruelty to children. There were, however, laws prohibiting cruelty to animals. After repeated failures in her efforts to seek justice for Mary Ellen, the determined Wheeler took her case to Henry Bergh, the founder of the ASPCA, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Bergh and his organization won protection for Mary Ellen by arguing that a child was, in fact, a member of the animal kingdom, worthy of the same protection under law as a dog… It wasn’t until the early 1960s, nearly a century after Mary Ellen’s case that the medical profession formally agreed upon the existence of child abuse. While the world debated whether or not child abuse existed, thousands of children carried horrible secrets and scars, both physical and emotional, because no one would believe or protect them. Many of them ran away from home. Grace is the story of one of those children.”—Richard Paul Evans, Grace Ironic that the main character would have my name, and I am so fortunate not to have been touched by abuse. But the CAC has seen many “Graces” with different names over the years: my heart strings were tugged as I immediately thought of one girl who had run away from her abusive home, only to be ensnared into child prostitution. I am glad we have laws, but the laws themselves are not enough. People still ignore child abuse: they turn their faces away because they are scared to report, confused about what to do, or just don’t want to get involved. And those children may run for the rest of their lives-physically and emotionally-because no one has ever helped them with their abuse. It’s not an easy thing to do, but we must be the voice for those that can’t speak up for themselves. For the neighbor’s daughter, the little boy in your Sunday School class, that student in your class. They are children with faces, names, and hearts. And they need hope. You may be their only hope! Grace Vaughn, CAC Education Specialist/Therapist ***Grace Vaughn is the Education Specialist/Therapist at the CAC. She provides child abuse prevention programs in area schools, conducts mandatory reporting workshops, coordinates professional workshops for multidisciplinary team members, provides therapy for child abuse victims. Visit southeastcac.org for information about the CAC.
Posted on: Fri, 22 Nov 2013 13:07:03 +0000
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