SAN ANTONIO – April is Child Abuse Awareness Month and once again Childsafe plans to bring the conversation about children harmed at the hands of adults forward in a unique and colorful way. The only difference this year, is that the tens of thousands of Cardboard Kids distributed around San Antonio will break records. Instead of 30,000, Childsafe is handing out 40,000 blank figures ready for decoration.
Each sweet face represents one child abused at the hands of an adult, a real problem for our community. Kim Abernathy, president of Childsafe said, “We know that one in four girls and one in five boys will be sexually abused before their 18th birthday. And we know that only one in 10 victims ever tell."
Abernathy said since victims remain quiet, it’s up to others to put the conversation out in the open and make sure that it does not remain a silent subject.
“We want everyone to post where they put their kid, post everywhere they see them. Last year we had over 22,000 kids [abused} and we reached 3 million people," she said regarding the social media response to Cardboard Kids.
It all starts with the Cardboard Kid giveaway at local malls over the weekend. People have a few weeks to decorate them, then they can scatter them throughout the area in the hope that the cute characters are then uploaded via social media and go viral.
Childsafe is targeting Facebook, Twitter and Instagram with the hashtag, #cardboardkidsSA.
For complete details on where to get a few Cardboard Kids and about Childsafe, visit cardboardkidsSA.com and childsafe-sa.org.