Shepherd Hill Unveils Foundation to Combat Sexual Harassment

Hamid  Ayodeji

As part of efforts to tackle the increasing rate of sexual abuse within the society, Shepherd Hill Baptist Church, (Sanctuary of Grace and Glory) Ikorodu, has announced the launch of its United Against Sexual Abuse (UASA) foundation, which is aimed at assisting sexual abuse victims and sensitising individuals on sexual violence acts. 

The Church revealed this recently in Lagos during the 25th wedding anniversary of Its lead Pastor, Dr. Israel Kristilere and Dr. Mary Kristilere, as well as the book launch of Reverend, Dr. Israel Kristilere. 

According to the Founder, United Against Sexual Abuse, Pastor Mrs. Mary Kristilere, the primary focus of the foundation is to fight and prevent sexual assault in the community. 

She said, “As a family and as a church, we should protect our own so that we do not fall into the hands of paedophiles. 

“It is not enough to just talk about these things in the home, thus, I wanted my life to be used as a platform to stop it from happening to others.

She explained that one of the reasons the act is still in prevalence is that some members of the society commit to blaming games and shaming victims which discouraged victims of sexual harassment to speak up. 

“Nigeria needs to get to a point where victims are not shamed. Most of the time in cases of sexual abuse is that we shame the victims and play the blame game. 

“Questions like, how did she present herself? What did she wear? shouldn’t be the main focus of people when such violent criminal acts are committed. 

“So that the victims know that even if they have a fault, society can back them up, get them the needed justice and ensure it doesn’t happen to somebody else. I believe with this more victims will have the confidence to come out.”

She further explained that sexual abuse is not only about females, “but male children are also abused from time to time and we should be focusing on preventing abuses and on the other hand, helping victims who have gone through such experiences.”

Kristilere advised that parents and guardians must be enlightened so they can play the primary role of protecting their children from abuse and this enlightenment in the sense that they should know when they make their children vulnerable to abuse.

“Parents should have it at the back of their hearts that everyone tends to become an abuser if presented with the right environment because sexual abuse is a kind of opportunity and 90 per cent of sexual abuse is carried out by members of the family, neighbours, uncles, aunties, people who live in our homes and even your house helps, and one of the reasons it happened was because parents were very trusting around these people,” she added. 

“On our part, we are ensuring that the foundation would be partnering with other organisations in existence to get necessary justice, through advocacy with the government, and ensures the laws be enforced so to serve as a deterrent to other people who may be following that part.”