Wellington march focuses on child sexual exploitation

The march on September 13 was organised by the Saint Nicholas Children’s Trust and came after similar marches in Nelson and Christchurch earlier this year. The Wellington march started at Te Papa and continued along the Wellington waterfront. Marchers included MP Greg O’Connor and Wellington mayoral candidate and former cabinet minister Andrew Little.

The Saint Nicholas Children’s Trust was founded last year by Angela Francis, a parishioner at Our Lady of the Bays Parish in the Tasman District. Ms Francis said the Wellington event took place to raise awareness of child sexual exploitation.

Mr O’Connor, a former Police Association president, said that child sexual exploitation is “very real”.

“It is omnipresent in our communities. Only by raising awareness of it will we be able to protect current victims and, importantly, future victims,” Mr O’Connor said.

“I was in the Police for many years, and I worked in the area of child sexual abuse investigation,” Mr O’Connor added. “I hate to say it, [I noted] the normality of the offenders – the fact that those offenders . . . were often quite well thought of by those in the community. Unless we have an awareness of it, the possibility that it might be existing, then it will continue to happen”.

A child suffers child sexual exploitation every eight seconds around the world, said Ms Francis. And that includes New Zealand.

She said that this is an issue that is not spoken about. “People are not comfortable – we talk about child poverty, we talk about child cancer, but this is just a little bit more difficult for people to get their heads around.”

The Saint Nicholas Children’s Trust has been promoting its work within the Church, including to the New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference.

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Video of Silent March in Wellington (Saint Nicholas Children’s Trust)

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