Saturday 25 April 2009

The silent peaceful march in acknowledgement of abuse survivors across the world went ahead today as planned. It was, surprisingly, well attended approximately a hundred people were there. I know the Belgian White March had up to 300,000 marchers with a population of over 11 million. I’m not sure how that all works out statistically but for Jersey standards today’s march was well attended. It did what it said on the box - it was silent and peaceful.

One of the main objectives of this march was to highlight the very hidden world of paedophilia and child abuse that is rife in society all over the world and to say the good people of Jersey are not going to rest until it is stamped out and the guilty are brought to justice.

I will leave this Blog short, naturally there are political and Police issues that seriously need addressing involving child abuse but I shall leave that for another day. Today is a day of recognition (not sympathy) of all abuse survivors and their families.

I took very little video footage and decided not to interview anybody as my primary purpose of being there today was to offer some support however small.

Dr Mark Forskitt, himself a Care Leaver, though I believe escaped abuse, kindly gave a speech in the Royal Square and I shall leave the last word to him.

6 comments:

  1. Whether they were there in person or spirit, a big thank you to all the good people of Jersey who gave their support to the peaceful protest march. You can stand proud.

    Keep up the good work!

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  2. Thankyou so much for this video VFC and others too - notably your interview with the notorious Mario Lundy.

    For ex care leavers like myself who live outside Jersey it is a valuable insight into what is going on "at home". I have seen no coverage over here in UK as yet so the photos on Stuart's blog and your input have made me feel very much part of yesterday.

    All power to you and everyone who was there.

    Proud Survivor

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  3. I am writing a few words just to say thank you to everyone who helped in organising yesterdays silent, Peaceful March and especially to Rico, VFC, the administrator for JCLA and to all those bloggers who helped to spread the word. We were blessed with glorious weather and true to our word; the march was very silent and peaceful. The turn out I think was good for Jersey so a big thank you to all those that were there either in person or in spirit, my guess is that there were between 100 and 120 people there but trying to do a head count was near impossible as everyone kept moving on keen to talk to the next person. I found the atmosphere quite surreal if not a little humbling, complete strangers talking to each other as if they had known each other for years sharing their thoughts and showing compassion. But they all had one thing in common and that is, abuse, of any nature, must not and will not be tolerated and must be stopped now now.

    To the two elegant, shall we say, mature ladies on route, you put a smile on my face and helped make my day not to mention putting my small white ribbons to shame! These ladies were wearing hand made white ribbons on their lapels measuring about 5inches and they were not afraid to show their support as they waved us on our way so thank you.

    And finally to Mark, in true form once again your choice of words were eloquent and in no way derogatory so thank you for ending the March with the same dignity and grace as it started, SILENT AND PEACEFUL.

    Carrie

    Thank you VFC for the video of the speech

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  4. This now must become a yearly event. With a hundred people there for the first one that will inspire the more frightened supporters to come out. Look forward to watching this grow.

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  5. Well we must have been standing next to you filming as I can hear my daughter's in your video!

    Keep up your good work - where would we be without you!

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  6. My interview with Channel TV failed to highlight my most important comments such as the treatment of my son and the other children from Les Chennes in the 80's and the ones who have died, and - whether you like Stuart Syvret or not you have to admit things would not have got this far without him, and so on.... No all they showed was my sister was in HDLG! Totally missed the journalistic part....

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