One in every six girls in the United States and one in four boys is molested during childhood, according to the National Institution of Justice Report.

Victims of child sexual abuse heal with counseling and support

EL PASO – She fidgeted, playing with her hands and biting her nails, making very little eye contact as she sat on the sandy ground of the park piling the sand as if making a small castle. Before today, she had never told anyone what had happened so many years ago. “Walking through the front door I knew it was going to happen again. I knew I had to stand there and feel his wrinkled cold hands with that one stiff finger, waiting for me.”

Catalina, now 23, was molested as a child starting at age seven by her grandfather.  She asked that her real name not be published.

Acknowledging Child Abuse is First Step to Defeat it

EL PASO, Texas — The two-year-old girl was found beaten to death in an apartment on the East side of El Paso, along with her badly beaten four-year-old brother. “The four-year-old brother survived,” said Al Velarde executive director of the Child Crisis Center of El Paso. The Center is trying to get the community involved during Child Abuse Prevention month to help spread the message that “spanking and hitting a child is never the right response,” Velarde said. All through April everyone in the El Paso area can show their support to abused children by tying a blue ribbon to their car antennas or by wearing blue on Fridays. “Like these children many others are still suffering the hardships of living in homes with domestic violence and poverty,” said Laura Morales, an employee at the center.