WOW members participate in and learn from confrences about child abuse

Preventing Child Abuse

The Worldwide Organization for Women (WOW) is an ardent advocate in protecting women and children from abuse. The President, Susan Dayton spoke at a seminar for childcare and parenting advocates in Western New York. She encouraged them in this vital role of support for fathers and mothers with children and families at risk.

The Worldwide Organization for Women was active in four other major conferences in Salt Lake City in October and November 2008 addressing abuse: Power in Prevention, Prevent Child Abuse Utah, Critical Issues Facing Children and Adolescents, and The Drug Endangered Child. These major conferences are held annually and draw attendees from other parts of the United States and from other countries. A board member from the Worldwide Organization for Women attended each conference. Also, a Worldwide Organization for Women board member participated on the conference planning committees of three of the conferences and presented two workshops at the Power in Prevention Conference.

Abuse of children comes in multiple forms. Domestic violence is present in far too many homes. Research shows that domestic violence is more prevalent among cohabitating couples (than in married couples) and in homes where substance abuse is present. As cohabitation rates and substance abuse rates increase, child neglect, and child physical and sexual abuse increases. The most dangerous person in a child’s life is the mother’s boyfriend. Cases of infant and child injury or death are disproportionately caused by the live-in boyfriend.

Pornography use increases rates of sexual assault on women and children. The U.S. Department of Justice released a report stating that child sexual abuse had risen 5,171% between 1976 and 1996 which was attributed directly to pornography use. The rate today is much higher as the internet has brought pornography into the home.

A statewide study in Utah showed that by far, parents are overwhelmed with parenting and desire help. Parents who are low functioning don’t know how to nurture and thus neglect their children, producing developmental deficits

(speech and other cognitive delays). Parents who are over functioning and routinely over control their children or rescue them from their problems, create a form of developmental abuse in their children who do not learn choice and consequences and are thus handicapped developmentally.

The culture of a home teaches the child his or her world view. Children with high numbers of family risk factors are almost certain to enter into delinquent behaviors. The Search Institute (www.search-institute.org) has a program called The 40 Assets. The higher the number of assets in a child’s life, the lower the risk for delinquent behaviors. Parents can be taught the assets and helped to increase them for their children.

Gang membership is rising in the U.S. and the age of initiation is lower. Children are being recruited to gangs in elementary school. Also, more members within gangs are engaging in criminal behavior, substance abuse, and promiscuous sexual behavior than ever before. Prominent gangs have held off branding their members (tattooing) and have them join the armed services, usually the army or marines, to be sent to Iraq where they are trained in urban warfare. The US military is finding gang graffiti on Iraqi buildings and are nonplussed by this new problem of inadvertently training gang members in advanced warfare. These gang members then return home and help train other gang members.

Alcohol use by teens is widespread. The difference today is that children are using alcohol at younger and younger ages and drinking more. Binge drinking is beginning in elementary school grades. The new technology of brain imaging (functional MRI scans) is opening doors of understanding into brain addiction. Because of the plasticity of the developing teen brain, alcohol affects an adolescent’s brain differently than it does an adult brain. If a child begins drinking before the age of 15, he/she has a 40% chance of becoming alcohol dependent. However, if the age of onset of alcohol use is delayed until the legal age of 21, that percent of addiction drops to 5 to 7%. Research shows that lowering the drinking age would greatly increase underage drinking, DUI’s, and addiction rates. Density of alcohol outlets also increases underage use. Continuing to add bars and retail alcohol outlets, increases our children’s access to alcohol as well as crime: physical and sexual assault, disorderly conduct, and domestic violence. Alcohol kills more teens than all the street drugs combined. Alcohol is present in the 4 ways teens die: homicides, suicides, automobile crashes and accidents. Alcohol causes an increase in unwanted sexual activity.


Fetal alcohol syndrome is a tragic result of alcohol consumed during pregnancy and causes life long debilitation to the child. The community must send a consistent message that underage drinking is NOT a teen rite of passage, that it is illegal and a very dangerous behavior for a developing teen brain. Parents need to set clear no underage alcohol use rules in the home and monitor teen activities.

Over the counter and prescription drug abuse is a brand new drug trend in our country. All drugs are cyclical, but OTC and Rx drug abuse is new and growing. The new drug dealer in town is the home medicine cabinet.
Parents are urged to monitor their medications, clean out their cabinet and dispose of unused medications and watch their credit card statements for internet purchases. Teens who abuse narcotic pain medications (opioids like Lortab, Percoset, Vicodin, Oxycontin, Oxycodone) are at risk for switching to street heroin, which is cheaper. Parents, who never in their worst nightmares would think they could have a child addicted to heroin, are finding that horrible dream coming true.

The internet is a fertile hunting ground for pedophiles seeking sexual encounters with children. Children enter chat rooms not knowing that the people they “converse” with are not whom they portray themselves to be. Parents need to teach children not to give out identifying information and better, to develop real relationships with other children rather than cyberspace relationships. Computers should not be in children’s rooms but in a well trafficked area where the monitor is visible to passing parental eyes.

Violent and sexualized media is having a negative effect on our children. Children are denied their innocent childhoods when they are exposed to images that are beyond their ability to process. The American Academy of Pediatrics issued a report stating that violent images on television and in video games are directly linked to children’s violent behavior. And sexual acting out is linked to increased sexual content on television and in video games.
Studies show that video games and online gambling can be equally addictive as drugs. Parents must limit internet use and monitor video games for inappropriate content.

Poverty and hunger exist in our country as well as in many other parts of the world. Malnutrition, lack of vaccinations, clean drinking water, and prenatal care are causing illness and premature death among our children.


The world today has many dangers for our children. Let us as parents, resolve to reduce the stressors in our lives, eliminate harmful behaviors, and strive to raise our children in a healthy manner. Let us as community leaders resolve to provide support and education to parents and create a safer world for our children in which to grow and thrive.

Abbie Vianes, MA
Professional Counseling
Expert in substance abuse and parenting issues
Executive Board Member of the Worldwide Organization for Women

WOW participated with WWSF in the November 17th worldwide effort to look at these isues. Read about the WWSF and their conference on Child Abuse prevention at www.woman.ch./children/1-coalitionimpact.php

World Mental Health Day - October 10, 2008

Friday, October 10, 2008 is the World Mental Health Day. Afton Beutler, VP International Affairs for the Worldwide Organization for Women is Co-convener of the Women's Human Rights for Health group,. She will speak about the World Health Organization Launch of this new mandate. It is exciting for WOW to be a part of this important issue. University interns Martha, Tyler and Samuel are working in Geneva on the following: DCI Conference in Paris; the panel at the Human Rights Council on the role of women in agriculture and sustainable development; and Afton and Samuel are on the planning committee for the upcoming Conference on the World Food Crisis. There will be a panel on the new mandate by WHO about alchohol on October 23rd and Afton has been invited to be one of the speakers on the social aspects of alcohol. We appreciate Afton and our interns in Geneva and know they all work hard to make a positive difference in the lives of women throughout the world.

Worldwide Organization for Women Annual Meeting builds more "Bridges"...

The Annual Meeting of the Worldwide Organization for Women brought women from around the globe together in August 2008 to review the past year and plan activities which support the group's focus on improving women's lives.

The Executive Board meet early in the day and later joined members at a local restaurant for an informative and productive program and luncheon.

Attendees enjoyed a DVD presentation about the bridge project completed in Nigeria; a report from VP International Affairs, Afton Beutler on her work in Geneva; and an overview of the FACTS program by Nancy Anderson.

Carol Ugochukwu, WOW Africa Director, reported earlier this year at a showing of the documentary at the Millcreek Library, that the Akwugo Bridge over the Eze River has led to extraordinary changes for this region. We enjoyed watching the presentation and hearing about the continuing progress as a result of our involvement. (More information and a book, "A Bridge Across the Atlantic" is available on our website.)

Afton Beutler reported on the work in Geneva of student interns from several universities, and the many conferences and meetings they have all attended such as the celebration of the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Paris and the 9th Session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Nancy Anderson explained current issues with the FACTS (Family Accountability Communicating Teen Sexuality) program sponsored by the Utah Health Department and a grant from Worldwide Organization for Women. She shared statistics which show the positive impact this message has on students and parents around the state, as well as a significant impact in Africa.

It was a very enjoyable and productive day. Friendships and committment to make a difference were renewed and will lead to bridges of understanding and accomplishment in the upcoming year!

Yearly Worldwide Organization for Women Meeting

The Annual 2008 WOW Meeting & Lunch

Saturday Aug 16th
11:30 am to 2:00 pm

Marie Callendars’
7200 S and 900 E

Murray

We encourage each of you to invite a friend or two who may be interested in working with us.

Reports will be given on:

Interns and work in Geneva,
" The Trek" in Switzerland &
Current work on issues concerning women.

This will be a chance to renew your membership and spend time with women interested in supporting women and their positive force for good worldwide.

Please RSVP As soon as possible so we know who to expect.
wow@wowinfo.org

Carol Ugochuku from Africa to speak about bridge project and new book.

The Worldwide Organization for Women is pleased to host Carol Ogochuku an organization member from Africa, who is in the United States to discuss the new book about the bridge project.

We invite you to join us Wednesday May 28th at 7:00 pm

at Millcreek Library 2266 Evergreen Ave.

(just west of 2300 East and approximately 3500 South.)

We are sure it will be an informative and enjoyable evening.

New book published about bridge project.

Worldwide Organization for Women humanitarian project

Akwugo Bridge in Nigeria.










In 2006/7 WOW organized the building of a bridge for a community in Nigeria. It is still being used today and blessing the lives of this African community. The bridge was built by the men of the village. It changed the lives of many. Ike Ugochuku has written a book about the amazing things that happened when the people of his village started to believed they could do such a wonderful thing. Carol Ugochuku is a member of WOW and continues to help the women of her village. The bridge is named after her. See a picture of the women from Carols village on our web site wowinfo.org

Side Event at the United Nations CSW

WOW co-hosted a side event with Conchita Poncini (bright pink) from Geneva. The topic was women and the value of their un paid labor. Work on the issue has been ongoing and significant additions were made by our WOW intern while in Geneva. BYU was gracious enough to fly him to New York for the presentation. Carl Brinton is second from the left. His paper, Macroeco Homeics: How households Satellite Accounts Can put the "Home" Back in Economics, can be found soon on the WOW website wowinfo.org. Jannise Jannson from Sweden also presented information about her country, and the difficulty to choose mothering at home over work in the labor force.

UN Commission on the Status of Women 2008 NYC

We attended the UN CSW meetings in February. Here is the troop: Kate Sonne, Amy Choo, Susan Dayton, Gwen Higley, Afton Beutler, Melanie Roundy and Suvi Hynyen. We had a terrific time meeting women from all over the world and learning about the work they are doing to make things better for women. We all went home inspired by others and knowing we can make a difference.