Humanity Preservation Foundation is proud to announce its upcoming annual Orange Tie Affair. This fundraiser/cocktail party will take place on Saturday, April 10, 2027. Times will be announced. Proceeds from this event will benefit the prevention, education, and victim support of those living with abuse in the form of child abuse, domestic violence, and bullying. Unable to attend, but would still like to help out? No problem! After clicking the “Tickets” button, simply enter the amount you would like to donate and proceed to checkout. If you plan to take pictures or videos of the event while you are there, please use the hashtags #OrangeTieAffair and tag our Facebook page, Twitter or Instagram Account to show everyone a good time you are having and help spread awareness of our organization. Orange Tie Affair Event Information Ticket Price: $65 Purchase Tickets Attire: We ask attendees to dress semi-formal, preferably with an orange flair! When: Saturday, April 10, 2027 Time: to be announced Where: to be announced Don’t hesitate to contact by email, social media or by phone if you have any questions about this event.
Bullying – Will It Ever End?
Bullying. What is it? Everyone has their own definition but I think we can unanimously agree it isn’t a moral activity by any stretch of the imagination. Not just limited to classrooms, bullying occurs everywhere, whether it be in the workplace, within families, in Internet forums, amongst social groups and so on. Now, what do all bullies have in common? They are typically worse in groups. Isolate a bully and he / she becomes far less powerful and menacing. The explanation behind the group mentality is that their “groups” act as both a shield and an instigator. Similarities can also be drawn to the Internet where people say horrific things to one another as they sit behind the anonymity of their computer screens and virtual avatars. There is certainly a touch of evil to every bully but the real question is what makes someone a bully? I would argue that it stems from one or more of three root causes: fear, insecurity, and a lack of empathy. With the widespread increase in technology, social media and the narcissism that comes with it, there is an ever-increasing lack of empathy but the fear and insecurity that fuels bullying is deeply instilled in the psychology of anyone that decides to torment another person. According to The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), “anyone involved with bullying—those who bully others, those who are bullied, and those who bully and are bullied—are at increased risk for depression.” To anyone reading this article who has ever bullied anyone or who has plans to do so in the future, I plead with you to consider your actions and/or reconsider your potential future actions. It truly is a miserable pursuit and you are only harming yourself by doing so. One of my overall observations in society is that people often take their own lives as well as those of others for granted. What many people fail to think about enough is that none of us get out of this world alive; death has always been one of the only guarantees in life. Far too frequently, we treat each other like we are invincible and with this mentality only comes a lack of empathy, or apathy if you prefer the term. Only when we deeply analyze our own lives and what we humans are here for will we truly have more empathy for one another. We exist in one planet in one galaxy in an infinite universe, yet we continue to do harm to one another despite the fact that the survival of our species solely depends on co-existing with one another. As idealistic as all of this may sound, a way of life rooted in idealism is the only way we can improve the world and the lives of all our brothers and sisters. Thankfully, there is a great deal of good in this world and in the Humanity Preservation Foundation, I have found an organization that stands up for all forms of abuse without expecting anything in return. If you have been a victim of abuse or want to talk to someone about it, please reach out to us and if you forget everything you’ve read in this article, please remember that there is an abundance of good in this world and it’s always worth fighting for. As school returns soon, I look forward (perhaps naively I might add) to living in a world where bullying is a thing of the past. by Andrew de Burgh Andrew de Burgh is a contributing writer for the Humanity Preservation Foundation. He is a British filmmaker based in Los Angeles and just recently completed his first feature film, a sci-fi drama called “The Bestowal”. He is an avid soccer fan and supports Liverpool F.C.
“The Pope is on their side”
The Vatican has expressed “shame and sorrow” over the sexual abuse of at least 1,000 children by more than 300 Catholic priests in Pennsylvania, and has said Pope Francis is “on the side” of survivors. The grand jury report, nearly 900 pages long, was the result of one of the largest US investigations into sexual abuse in the Catholic church. It detailed both the scale of abuse and the extraordinary lengths the church went to conceal and protect the perpetrators. “Victims should know that the pope is on their side. Those who have suffered are his priority, and the church wants to listen to them to root out this tragic horror that destroys the lives of the innocent.” The statement is part of fresh efforts by the Vatican to get on top of a wave of sexual abuse scandals and cover-ups. The pope was personally damaged by his denunciation in January of abuse survivors in Chile who drew his attention to cover-ups by senior figures in the church. Francis was later forced to apologise and launch an investigation which resulted in the resignation of five bishops. He will face further pressure on a papal visit to Ireland next weekend, when survivors of sexual abuse will demand he take institutional responsibility for the church’s failures. Read the full article: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/16/vatican-pennsylvania-sex-abuse-scandal-children-pope-response
New Kentucky Law Strives to Aid Neglected and/or Abused Childre
The author states a Kentucky law has “good intentions” but is burdensome for school districts around the state because the law requires child abuse and neglect background checks of public school personnel, student teachers, contractors, and parents on school based decision making councils. A letter from the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services, which is responsible for processing the checks, is required to verify a check has been completed. Prior to the new law, criminal background checks were required for all school system employees and school volunteers. Now, the background checks include a state social worker’s substantiation of child abuse or neglect. Although some may consider this law to be an unnecessary headache, it may just be the extra step needed to find and help hurt children in need of aid. https://www.google.com/amp/amp.kentucky.com/news/local/education/article215775035.html
Art 4 A Purpose
A shout out to Art 4 A Purpose, a similar organization like us. empowering children and their communities to recognize child abuse and get help through art. Art 4 a Purpose invites the community to view its annual Cake Decorating, Coloring and Art Contest on display at CoMMA through Thursday, June 28. The organization is using the event to further its mission of using the arts to raise awareness of child abuse. Artists, photographers, writers and coloring artists from across Burke County, NC have submitted works that seek to educate the public of the trauma of child abuse and the need for preventative efforts. The exhibit can be viewed anytime during CoMMA’s regular business hours. CoMMA is located at 401 S. College St. in Morganton, NC and can be reached at 828-433-7469. Art 4 a Purpose is located at 3522 Baptist Camp Road in Connelly Springs NC and can be reached at Art4aPurpose@gmail.com or 828-475-2881. For more information, visit www.Art4aPurpose.org . Read the full article here: http://www.morganton.com/gallery/art-a-purpose-cake-decorating-coloring-and-art-contest/collection_2496dc1a-6ff9-11e8-af7f-13f04cac116a.html#3
Law Enacted in NY Town to Curb Bullying
Around a quarter to a third of American students have said they’re bullied at school, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. A main problem with this is many parents and guardians are unsure how to respond to bullying incidents—regardless of whether their kids are the victims or the perpetrators. North Tonawanda, a town located in western New York, instated a new rule on October 1 that allows parents to be fined $250 or be sentenced to 15 days in jail if their child violates city laws two or more times within a 90-day span. City laws include rules against breaking curfew and bullying, which means parents in North Tonawanda can now go to jail for their kid’s cruel behavior in school. “We hope to never need to use this law but it’s there in extreme cases,” Greg Woytila, superintendent of North Tonawanda’s city school district, told ABC News. “But we need to do a better job and we are continually trying to do that.” Whether or not you live in North Tonawanda, bullying is a topic that needs to be discussed. If you are unsure if your child is a bully or being bullied, look for signs that they may be lashing out at others or seeking affirmation—then work to correct that behavior, seeking outside support if you need it. Read full article: https://www.simplemost.com/law-says-parents-could-go-jail-kids-bullying/
What Is Medical Child Abuse?
A New York Times Opinion piece from 2011 dives into this important, but not wildly covered, issue. The term “medical child abuse” dates from the mid-1990s, as a condition related to Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a mental disturbance in which a parent induces illness in a child to get attention. It has caught on with doctors over the last decade. But what constitutes “unnecessary medical care” — the heart of the test for medical child abuse — is vague and subjective. After all, doctors often disagree with one another when it comes to the diagnosis and treatment of complicated conditions. FEW things are tougher for a parent than dealing with a child’s serious medical condition, particularly if it is complicated and hard to diagnose. The parent has to make hard choices about treatment, navigating conflicting advice from doctors or even rejecting one doctor’s opinion and seeking another. Recently, the situation of these parents has gotten even harder. Some doctors and hospitals have begun to level a radical new charge — “medical child abuse” — against parents who, they say, get unnecessary or excessive treatment for their kids. That this care is usually ordered by other doctors hasn’t protected parents from these loaded accusations. Although most of these cases have nothing to do with real child abuse, credulous child welfare officials have too often supported the doctors, threatened parents with loss of custody, and even removed kids from their homes — simply because the parents disagreed with the doctor’s plan of care. Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/12/opinion/sunday/the-new-child-abuse-panic.html
Hands Off!!
I was abused by a priest beginning at age 5. Raped and impregnated by same priest while still in elementary school. Miscarried. Lost the baby, my innocence and my childhood. Endured several surgical procedures while still in elementary school and continuing throughout my first year of high school. Final result…a total hysterectomy. No children for me ever. I would forever carry that undeniable void. It is a life long pain, a loss that I grieve daily. Mother kept ‘my secret’? My ‘dirty little secret’? To this day I still do not know what my siblings were told about ‘my dirty little secret’. I do not know what my own father was told. The Silence was Deafening. At 15….a nun enters my life. She was 36. A nun paid attention to me! A nun. A holy woman. A woman of God. My whole young life all I wanted was to be a nun. I wanted to be holy. For a young catholic girl in the 60’s…this was a dream come true. She paid attention to me! She listened to me. She told me I was smart and interesting and pretty. She seemed to care. She told me she cared. She told me she loved me. She sent me love letters. She warned me not to show them to anyone. I did not understand. I hid them but I wanted to shout it to the world. I kept those love letters as a teenager would forever hold onto the remnants of their first crush. Sister Pedophile was my first crush. She proceeded to teach me about sex. 15/36. Fifteen! Thirty six! She groomed me. I told her about the priest and the rape and the miscarriage. She told me, “he was a sick man and it wasn’t his fault” and then she took me under her wing and into her bed. She gave me Librium and Valium. She gave me gifts… and time. She fed me alcohol. She drugged me to make me more compliant in the bedroom. I was scared. I was naive. I was virginal in this aspect. She told me the pills would help to relax me. Her needs often exceeded the bedroom. She demanded attention in obscure places; the back seat of the convent car, dark balcony seats in movie theatres, elevators in NYC, her relatives homes, a friend’s swimming pool, her parent’s own bed, and highway motels on Route 17 in Bergen County, New Jersey…in the middle of the school day… 20 minutes from my parent’s home. She took me out of class in my catholic high school. She was a nun. She was a school Principal. No one stopped her. She took me to the Meadowlands and taught me how to bet on the horses. I was 15 and 16. She introduced me to the lights and excitement of Atlantic City and extravengant hotel rooms where we would stay behind closed doors for entire weekends. Enjoying yummy fluffy snuggly bath robes, 24 hour room service, a bar in the room, huge soft clean beds with crisp white pressed sheets and a million pillows, AND… a Privacy tag that hung on the outside knob of our bedroom door. How could I not thank her? She offered me the world and asked only for my body. With an ocean view, this is where she taught me how to please her. She always wore a medal of the Virgin Mary during sexual encounters… and sometimes her veil and ring. I still have the veil. It was confusing. She took advantage of my age and natural desire to please and to be liked. She abused me. She used me emotionally, mentally, physically and sexually. She destroyed me Spiritually. She toyed with my young feelings. She promised, cajoled, pressured and lied to me. She stole my Innocene, my Future and my Faith. She broke me while at the same time telling me she was my Savior…saving me from a dysfunctional family. She put a wedge between me and my family. I lost my siblings, parents, cousins, aunts and uncles. But worst was the loss of my niece and nephews. She told me I could not date boys. She told me how to wear my hair and who I could hang out with. She isolated me. She destroyed me for her own sexual gratification. I was her toy girl. (But, according to her belief regarding the pedophile priest… it wasn’t her fault… she was a sick woman?) But it was very much her fault. I was still a kid. It was the Stockholm Syndrome for me. I was so emeshed with her…I would have died for her. She did an exemplary job at grooming. No doubt she had prior experience. She was polished at the Art of Teen Grooming. She was accomplished. (Practice makes Perfect) I was most definitely not the first notch on the belt of the rosary beads that circled her waist. She was practiced and crafty, manipulative and sneaky. She isolated me from my friends and family. No one intervened. Her ‘religious congregation’ knew, yet did nothing to curb her perverted appetite. She took me into convents up and down the east coast of the United States and across International borders into Canada. We drove from Florida to Nova Scotia and back to New Jersey several times over the span of 12 years. I slept in convents and motels up and down the east coast. (I could write a book on the things I saw and heard.) Always entering the convents through the backdoor and up the back staircase to the second floor… passing others nuns who would literally turn their backs as I entered, (blind eye deaf ear defense) and again as I exited the next morning. I was ripe for the picking. The Pedophile Priest had prepped me well. Over the years, I sought out four nuns in her community and begged them, through my tears to make her stop. I read them a heartbreaking letter
Pennsylvania Family Support Alliance: Another Resource Protecting Children From Abuse
April is Child Abuse National Prevention Month. During April, Pennsylvania Family Support Alliance (PFSA) undertakes a multi-tiered effort to encourage Pennsylvanians to get a clearer picture of the tragedy of child abuse and what role they can play in preventing it. PFSA believes that every citizen in Pennsylvania has a vital role to play in protecting our children. This center is designed to help you do just that! It’s a complex problem and the child welfare system is also complicated. They want to help you understand the issues, communicate with key legislative leaders and use your voice to ensure the safety of our most precious state resource – our children. PFSA has been honored to work with members of the Task Force on Child Protection, the House Children and Youth Committee, the Senate Aging and Youth Committee and members of PA’s General Assembly to strengthen our Child Protective Services Law and advance efforts to keep PA’s children safe from child abuse. It has been an extraordinary time and the changes made will spare countless children from immeasurable harm. It has been a time of walking the talk and putting the safety of children above the convenience of individuals, institutions and organizations. We applaud the efforts of everyone who played a role in these changes; changes that collectively are steps toward changing our state’s culture toward how children are valued. On average, more than 30 children die in Pennsylvania each year as a result of child abuse, most at the hands of a parent who gave them life. We need your help to turn this around; we simply can’t sit by when the equivalent of one elementary school classroom of children are killed annually. Join us in the fight to protect PA’s kids – they need you and so do we! PFSA also work with legislators to bring their prevention message to citizens in their legislative districts. They recently met with constituents of State Rep. Kathy Watson in her Bucks County district to discuss changes to the CPSL, background checks and clearances and their community-based prevention program, the Front Porch Project. They help shape, move and improve public policies to protect our kids. They’re a visible presence on Capitol Hill, leading the charge on laws requiring mandated reporter training and comprehensive background checks for educators, and championing PA’s long-needed package of bills revamping our state’s child protection laws. Learn about their history of championing improved protection for children, current policy debates and legislative initiatives: http://www.pa-fsa.org/Prevention-Month
Take Back The Night!
The Humanity Preservation Foundation (HPF) was honored to speak at Rowan College Burlington County‘s “Take Back the Night” event. This took place on Tuesday April 24, 2018. The event was coordinated by the “Service Learning Students” (pictured). At Take Back the Night, president/co-founder of HPF, Rhett Hackett, spoke to a group of students and faculty. He told his personal story of child sexual abuse, his appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show, and consequently the launch of Humanity Preservation Foundation. His presentation included the topic of their recent campaign “HandsOFF” as well as the launch of their victim support project “PULSE.” PULSE app is available for download on android devices. Afterwards, Mr. Hackett participated in the “walk” around campus which is part of the Take Back the Night tradition. This walk represents a promise made by students and faculty that sexual violence isn’t going to be tolerated on college campuses. It encourages victims of sexual abuse to report it, speak up, and know that you are not alone. With the launch of their HandsOFF campaign, HPF has committed time to implementing awareness and resources across colleges and universities. HPF acknowledges that with so many acts of sexual and domestic violence happening at the college level, it is important that everyone does all they can to minimize the number of events. It is also important to understand the impact abuse has on those victimized. Additionally, Mr. Hackett stated that working with this age group, the next group to have children and become parents, will encourage them parenting differently then previous generations. In order to stop sexual and domestic abuse in future generations, we must start now with today’s youth. Learn more about Take Back the Night: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Take_Back_the_Night_(organization)