Sensitive content
This site contains sensitive content that includes references to sexual violence.
Latest
Why the G7 must prioritize childhood sexual violence: A survivor’s call from Jamaica to the world
As a Jamaican survivor of clergy sexual abuse, I write this not only from the place of deep personal pain, but from a position of global purpose. I am the Founder and CEO of Faith Has Feet, an international organization on a mission to create community-based solutions that combine grassroots advocacy, survivor leadership, and policy reform to safeguard children from sexual violence wherever they may live, learn, or worship. We are not only advocating but building avenues to justice, healing, and protection for every child. To date, we have 12,000 youth engaged in Nigeria on a mission to heal and end childhood sexual violence.
World leaders will gather in Canada for the 2025 G7 Summit this June, amid immense global uncertainty. The agenda includes critical global priorities: peace and security, economic stability, climate change, digital transformation, and democracy. And yet, absent from this list is one of the most pervasive and devastating human rights violations of our time: child sexual violence
What the data tells us
The 2023 Violence Against Children and Youth Survey (VACS) from Jamaica—a country I call home—reveals the scale of the global emergency:
Jamaica’s VACS is a nationally representative survey of 13 to 24-year-olds. It found that more than 1 in 3 females (35.7%) and over 1 in 5 males (22.5%) have experienced sexual violence.. And yet, only 10% of youth who are sexually abused ever access professional support or services.
"Worse, half of those who do seek help turn to pastors or religious leaders—some of whom are, heartbreakingly, the very perpetrators of harm."
In a nation where faith plays a central role, the betrayal of trust by spiritual leaders inflicts a deeper kind of wound and demands bold, systemic redress.
A sad, disturbing reflection
These statistics are not anomalies. Jamaica is not an isolated case. It is a mirror. And what we see in that mirror are reflections of global trends that must move us to act - from the United States to Uganda, from Jamaica to Japan.
What we know is that child sexual violence contributes to cycles of poverty, mental illness, HIV/AIDS vulnerability, and intergenerational trauma. It fuels migration crises, destabilizes education systems, and undermines faith in institutions—from schools to churches to governments. It is a silent epidemic that directly intersects with every issue on the G7 table—health, security, human rights, and economic development.
"And yet, even as the scope and scale of the challenges and youth facing children globally increase, G7 leaders are retracting from global leadership by slashing foreign assistance budgets and upending longstanding partnerships to tackle some of our biggest challenges, including child well-being."
This is a moment to sustain and grow leadership, not to retreat from leadership, especially on issues impacting future generations that know no borders.
Ending childhood sexual violence must be elevated to the political
On May 19, 2025, I had the immense honor of being invited to the White House for the historic signing of the Take It Down Act, a powerful new law to protect children from sexual exploitation in digital spaces. The act is more than legislation—it promises that child protection is a national priority.
But that promise cannot stop at U.S. borders. If we are to dismantle the global machinery of child sexual violence—whether online, in places of worship, in conflict zones, or within families—we must elevate the issue of child sexual violence to the level of the G7 agenda.
A survivor’s plea to the G7
To the leaders of Canada, the U.S., the U.K., Germany, France, Japan, and Italy: child protection must not be a footnote—it must be foundational. I urge you to:
- Include Child Sexual Violence on the G7 agenda as a global public health, safety, and human rights crisis.
- Support international survivor-led initiatives and National Survivors Councils, including those working in high-prevalence regions like the Caribbean and Sub-Saharan Africa.
- Invest in community-based prevention, trauma-informed services, and accountability mechanisms for institutions that perpetuate or conceal abuse.
- Partner with faith-based organizations, not to shield them, but to hold them accountable and reform them as spaces of genuine safety.
As a survivor, I speak with the weight of lived experience. As an advocate, I speak for the countless children whose voices are still silenced. As the founder of Faith Has Feet, I speak with resolve: we will not stop until every child walks in freedom and safety.
Now it is time for the G7 to walk with us.
