“Let's take care of a safe childhood" - UCU Child Dignity Center opens exhibition in Warsaw

On October 21, in Warsaw, Child Dignity Center of the Ukrainian Catholic University together with partners St. Joseph Foundation of the Polish Bishops' Conference opened the exhibition “Recognize. React. Let's take care of a decent childhood”. The goal is to draw attention to the problems of violence against children. The installation is part of the international project “SAFEGUARDING. Child Safety in the Church Environment, initiated by the UCU Center for Child Dignity, and is taking place in Poland as part of the Childhood Without Violence campaign.

The opening of the exhibition took place at the Prześwit Cultural Center in Warsaw and began with a short briefing moderated by Father Piotr Studnicki, Head of the Office of the Delegate for the Protection of Children and Youth of the Polish Bishops' Conference.

Ivanka Rudakevych, Head of Projects and Programs at the Center for Child Dignity of the Ukrainian Catholic University, coordinator ofthe international project “SAFEGUARDING. Child Safety in the Church Environment”, Ivanka Rudakevych told how the center came up with the idea to create a course to protect children from violence: “We wanted to bring together Catholic Church experts from Central and Eastern Europe to create an online course because we have a common historical context. It is important for us to talk together about the fact that children in these countries need care and protection, and to share the experience of our countries in combating violence against children,” said Ivanka Rudakevych.

This is how the international project was born, which was developed by experts on the protection of minors from the Catholic Church in six countries: Ukraine, Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Croatia, and Hungary. Its components are an educational course that covers key aspects of preventing violence against children, as well as an exhibition with illustrations for the course that raises the issue of child safety.

The author of the project's illustrations, artist Ulyana Krekhovets, shared the story of the course's creation, how she searched for ideas to visualize difficult topics of child abuse, and why she chose the sketch as a form of image. The sketches for the course later became prints on more than 100 T-shirts. They tell different stories: of men, women and children we meet on the streets. Each of them has their own experience, which they wear like a T-shirt - there are those who had a happy childhood, and there are those who were abused.

“Art now is not only about beauty, but also about raising important social issues, and it is relevant in highlighting the challenges of society,” emphasized Ulyana Krekhovets.

The exhibition “Recognize. React. Let's take care of a decent childhood” aims to draw attention to the problem of violence and encourage people to think about what each of us can do to keep children safe.

Marta Titaniec, head of the St. Joseph Foundation of the Polish Bishops' Conference, spoke about the participation of Polish partners in the international project.

“Although the course was created for church workers, it goes beyond the church and concerns everyone who cares about the fate of children,” Martha Titaniec encouraged the participants to take the course.

Monika Saykovska, head of the National Coalition for the Protection of Children, summarized the opening. She said that the exhibition is part of the Polish national campaign “Childhood without Violence”.

The briefing was followed by a discussion panel “Decent Childhood”, which was attended by representatives of communities working in the field of child and youth protection. The discussion was moderated by Tomasz Krulak from the Catholic Information Agency.

Khrystyna Shabat, head of UCU's Center for the Dignity of the Child, said that the war in Ukraine has brought new risks, because children experience violence because of the war, which is Russia's weapon against us. But there is also violence that occurs against children and is not related to hostilities, such as domestic or sexual violence. She noted that the scale of such violence against children in Ukraine did not differ from that recorded in Western Europe. The head of UCU's Center for Child Dignity noted that children from Central and Eastern Europe have a similar attitude toward adults: elders are always right and should be listened to. It is difficult for children to fight for their own safety. Khrystyna Shabat emphasized that it is necessary to build standards of protection and teach children how to respond to various forms of violence.

Marta Titaniec, head of the St. Joseph Foundation, noted that it is very symbolic when representatives of different environments: the state, the Church and non-governmental organizations sit at the same table to discuss issues of child and youth protection.

Monika Sajkowska, Head of the National Coalition for the Protection of Children, spoke about the importance of nationwide campaigns to change the mindset of Poles about child protection. As an example of effectiveness, she recalled that over the past 20 years, the percentage of Poles who support corporal punishment has decreased by more than half.

Karolina Buchko, Head of the State Commission for the Prevention of Sexual Exploitation of Minors Under 15, spoke about the role of state institutions in combating violence against children and the importance of legal solutions in preventing and responding to child abuse.

The opening of the exhibition was an opportunity to share our experience in preventing violence against children with international experts. Thanks to the international SAFEGUARDING project, we are uniting with representatives of the Catholic Church in Eastern Europe to create a safe environment for children.

The course “SAFEGUARDING. Child Safety in the Church Environment” can be taken by anyone for free on the UCU Online platform. It will be useful for anyone who works with children.

Photo by Paweł Kęska

Reference:

UCU's Center for the Dignity of the Child works to create a culture where the dignity of the child is an unconditional value and promotes the formation of a safe environment for children in the fields of education, medicine, and the church.

The Center began its work in January 2021 at the Ukrainian Catholic University as a response to a request from the Synod of Bishops of the UGCC and His Beatitude Sviatoslav (Shevchuk) to create a center for training religious organizations and secular institutions in the protection of minors and vulnerable persons.

The mission of the St. Joseph Foundation of the Polish Bishops' Conference is to help those who have suffered from sexual abuse in the Catholic Church community by providing therapeutic, medical and educational assistance, responding to and preventing harm, and supporting similar actions of other organizations. The Foundation is also engaged in the development of a system for the prevention of sexual abuse in the church environment.