• Child abuse in the UK - the facts
• Information about sexual abuse and its impact
• Helpful books about sexual abuse. How to cope and survive
• Information to help partners of victims and survivors
• Web Resources and support groups
• Mental health problems resulting from abuse
• Bullying - how to stop it
• Domestic abuse and its consequences
• Racial abuse - recognising it and what to do about it
• Child abuse and the Catholic Church
• Child Abuse and the Salesians of Don Bosco
• Useful links to other web sites
• The law and child abuse victims

Publications

Picking Up The Pieces - A survival guide for victims of childhood sexual abuse - published 15th August 2008

Written by Graham Wilmer and fellow survivors, this book will be of real help to survivors, counsellors and all other professionals working with victims of child abuse. 'Picking up the pieces' answers all those difficult questions - like how to tell someone that you have been sexually abused; who to tell; what will happen next;where to get help and what type of help is available. It includes first hand information on how sexual abuse affects children and their development, and unique insights into the mental health problems that often occur later in life, resulting from abuse. It also includes an up-to-date, comprehensive review of the criminal and civil law in England in relation to victims of abuse, and the moving and disturbing accounts of more than fifty survivors of child abuse - voices of courage, who have told their stories here, many for the first time ever, to help other victims understand that they are not alone and they can recover. Picking up the pieces will be published on 15th August 2008. If you want to order more than one copy, contact us at lanternproject@yahoo.co.uk for a discount.

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Proud To Be Me

An invaluable survival guide for victims of childhood sexual abuse. Essential reading for all victims of sexual abuse and those who look after them.

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Proud To Be Me II

A brilliant new survival guide for victims of domestic abuse. This powerful book will be of real help to anyone who has suffered domestic abuse, as well as GPs, police officers, social workers and all carers working with vulnerable people.

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Conspiracy of Faith - Fighting for Justice after Child Abuse

Disturbing, inspiring and very moving. Graham Wilmer's story of his traumatic childhood experiences and his struggle to expose the truth and fight for justice. "One of the best written books I've read about the impact of child abuse" Peter Garsden - Vice President - Association of Child Abuse Lawyers.

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Picking Up The Pieces - A survival guide for victims of childhood sexual abuse - published 15th August 2008

Introduction

I am a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, an experience that blighted my life, but made me who I am. I am not alone, although for most of my life I thought that I was. I know now that what happened to me has also happened to many others. It is still happening today and it will happen again tomorrow and the day after that, to children not yet born, unless we do something to stop it.

The facts are hard to believe - one out of every four children in the UK has been abused. 38% of girls are sexually abused before the age of 18. 16% of boys are sexually abused before the age of 18. The majority of these children are abused by a member of their family, or by someone they know, yet only 5% of all cases of abuse is reported to the police. In the so called 'less developed' nations, the numbers of children being sexually abused is so large that it is simply not calculable with any degree of accuracy.

As a species, we are unique - we have the ability to think, and therefore to choose what we do, an accident of nature that separates us from all other animals on the planet we share. Yet the scourge of child abuse that has ruined the lives of children for centuries continues to do so with impunity. Why? What is it about the human condition that allows this awful evil to persist, and why is still so difficult to talk about the problem openly?

To help you understand the damage sexual abuse causes, I have collected together here some of the many stories told to me by those who, like me, chose not to remain silent any longer about what happened to us when we were children, despite the further difficulties that disclosure also created.

What you are about to read is true. If you are a survivor of child abuse, you will recognise everything that is written here, as your own story will be the same. If you are not a survivor, you will understand the pain that these children underwent at the hands of those who were supposed to love and protect them. You will also feel the weight of the crushing burden we were forced to carry for most of our lives, until we finally found the courage to speak out, releasing the guilt, disgust, shame, fear and anger that we have carried for so long.

Graham Wilmer

Founder - The Lantern Project

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