Become the Griot!
Marian Hubbard Jefferson, MAC, LCDCI
Chair of the Board of Directors
Lift Every Voice Family and
Community Development Project
"We have all been affected; it's just that some of us don't know it yet...Tell the secret...Break the cycle...Become the Griot."
Part I
According to the Survivors Healing Center in California, 50 percent of the women who reported being raped in 1992 were under the age of 18; 19 percent were under the age of 12. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services conducted a study in 1993, which indicated that one out of three girls and one out of every six boys experienced sexual abuse before age 18. Marian Jefferson, 37, recalls when she became a devastating member of those statistics after being molested at age 8. The Dallas Examiner
Part II
Children who experience sexual molestation may experience depression, anxiety, eating disorders, unexplainable physical pain, sleep disorders and many other symptoms that may lead to lowered school performance, acting out sexually or aggressively, withdrawing from friends, family and activities, nightmares, alcohol and/or drug abuse and other self-destructive behaviors and eventually suicide or attempts of suicide. These symptoms may follow the child until they received professional treatment, even into adulthood. Something Marian Jefferson would soon discover for herself.
The Dallas ExaminerSurviving the shadows of incest.pdf
Even Me
It doesn't take a hero to change a person's life
To take away a person from their misery or strife
It doesn't take a hero to stand for right
To be amidst the darkness of the world a constant light
It doesn't take a hero to make or cause a change
To make a world a better and safer place
It doesn't take a hero to show a person grace
To say though they may have wronged you, you will walk the higher road in this race
All you have to do is find your voice, that inner part of you waiting to be left out
That part of us that is sometimes silent and which when used is so powerful
So very powerful that it can move mountains, help a stranger or even change to world
That part of us yearning to be let out is yet waiting for its chance to shine
For once that part of us is released; there we will find our invincibility
Every one can do this, even you and yes even me
Butterfly Grey, 16
Child Survivor
Copyright 2007
" >--
" > May God Bless You. And Yes, Even Me