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Courtney Weatherburne
For many kids, the playground is their favorite place. Children delight in running around and having fun. While it is a cheerful and pleasant scene, it is disturbing to think that predators may be lurking, watching from a distance while others may be among them in their homes and classrooms. Children are vulnerable and the childhood they have a right to is under threat everyday.

One of those threats is commercial sexual exploitation of children or CSEC for short.

Lliani Arthurs, Director of Dept. Human Services
"It is the sexual exploitation of children by an adult and it is normally accompanied by the payment of either cash or some in kind benefit, those benefits can include the provision of a meal, provision of food for the family, it could be payment of school fees, it could be the provision of basic needs purchase of telephones etc."

It is one of the worst forms of child abuse. In the UN Convention on the Rights of a Child, article 34 states that children have the right to be free from sexual abuse. Article 36 also states that a child has the right to protection from any kind of exploitation. And, article 19 states that a child has a right to be protected from being hurt and mistreated in body or mind. It has been 30 years since the UN Convention on the Rights of a Child was signed and CSEC was finally recognized as a criminal offense in Belize in 2013.

Aside from legal reform, organizations like the Youth Enhancement Services had already been doing community outreach. In their 30 years, they have assisted 1,500 teen moms and disadvantaged girls through their various life skills and parenting classes. But YES Executive Director Karen Cain, says that 6 out of every 10 girls that attend their sessions are victims of some form of sexual abuse.

Karen Cain, Director, Youth Enhancement Services
"By the time we were doing those work with teen moms and young girls we realize quickly that a lot of our girls were being sexually abused, raped we had some in exploited situations like the Sugar Daddy syndrome and so we were very concerned."

And that concern led to the launch of number of anti-sexual violence campaigns between 2004 and 2010. But beyond those campaigns, CSEC is a complex issue and poverty is at the root of it, where parents may actually prostitute their child, reducing him or her to a sex slave:

Karen Cain
"You know mothers turn a blind eye and actually sacrifice their children."

"So that child becomes the lifeline and the mother holds that child almost accountable to see that the money comes in so that is a lot of pressure on a child as well."

But is the money worth the child's lifelong trauma? Child Development Foundation's Executive Director Diana Shaw says their counsellors have encountered first-hand the severe impacts of sexual abuse.

Diana Shaw, Executive Director, CDF
"There are two main results of any kind of sexual trauma, there are the physical results and there is the emotional and psychological results. The younger the child is, the stronger the effect is on them physically so we have had cases of young children being sexually assaulted and who develop serious physical complications not just during childhood but during their adulthood years. We have girls who were raped at the age of 6 or 7 who then later developed STD's because the person had an STD and this resulted in lifelong complications preventing them to be pregnant, requiring lifelong medical treatment."

As it relates to the emotional trauma, the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Council - established in 2013 also provides counselling to victims to mitigate the emotional aftermath of abuse.

Michelle Segura, Focal Point, A-TIPS Council
"We have a specialized social worker that deals specifically with children because of the nature of the crime and you have to be trauma informed, we prioritize cases with children and that is why it is so important to have specialized persons in the forefront supporting and protecting children."

And within that A-tips council is a specialized police unit that was formed early last year. The officers are trained to investigate human trafficking and CSEC cases. The police unit commander chose to remain anonymous to protect child victims.

Voice of: Commander, A-Tips Police Unit
"We have had referrals made and these come from anonymous information through the human development webpage, we get referrals from the human services offices, when that is done we conduct preliminary interviews to assess whether the person is a potential victim and whenever we sight elements or potential, or if the person is a potential victim we place them in a safe protection, or request from the human services to assist us with that. And we conduct successive interviews until we are able to establish that is a victim and then get a statement from that person."

The A-tips police unit works closely with the Human Trafficking Institute. The institute provides regular training to law enforcement in Belize:

David Fillingame, Special Counsel, Human Trafficking Institute
"We have been working in Belize for the last 2 to 3 years and our goal is to help empower police prosecutors, judges and the Government of Belize to fight human trafficking by prosecuting traffickers so we focus on teaching techniques for prosecution driven investigations that are centered around victims and what is best for the victims but that will also bring a result that will bring conviction against traffickers."

But, it's not that easy. The conviction rate is low in human trafficking and CSEC cases:

Diana Shaw, Executive Director, CDF
"There is a lot of opportunity in our community for pedophiles and perpetrators because they do not feel that they will get caught, the justice system is slow so they feel there is a window where they will be able to hurt somebody or do whatever they want to do and still try to get away from it so they don't feel that strength of deterrence to stop."

And the cases keep piling up. For 2018 there were 429 reports of sexual abuse cases.

For January to August 2019, there have been 295 reports of sexual abuse and assault cases countrywide and like last year, Belize City has the highest numbers.

Diana Shaw, Executive Director, CDF
"This is a very serious issue because it is so wide-spread. We have encountered this in every community that we have done sensitization and community outreach in."

"What we have seen is that the numbers are not going down."

But what is even more disturbing is the victim blaming on social media - which discourages victims from reporting and emboldens the perpetrators:

Diana Shaw, Executive Director, CDF
"There is a huge problem of victim blaming, every single time there has been an incident where the girl was gone missing which is a CSEC situation or a girl who has been sexually abused, 95 percent of the people who comment on the story blame the victim, blame the girl, they say things like she wants a man, she is hot, she is looking for somebody and if she was my daughter I would beat her up and punch her up and things like that. Victims live in the society, they see those stories people tell them those comments, they go to school and they hear their friends talking about things people say on social media."

Lliani Arthurs, Director of Dept. Human Services
"You don't get a sense of empathy of, mehn, this child may be going through difficult circumstances how can I support her?"

That's the question we all have to ask ourselves. How can we help and not further harm children? Parents have the ultimate responsibility to keep their children safe from any danger. When they fail, then, institutions have to intervene. But in some cases, it just takes one person in the community to speak up, and save a child.

So far for October, we have reported on 5 cases of child sexual assault. Obviously those are the ones that get reported, sadly, there are so many that don't.