Special Children's Advocate, Cayman Islands-based Carol Graham will address the Women's Leadership Initiative (WLI) Child's Month luncheon to be held at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel on Thursday, May 28.

This special luncheon is part of the WLI's ongoing effort to raise funds to defray the cost of child protection/upliftment projects.

According to Pat Ramsay, WLI chairperson, "Carol Graham's visit could not come at a better time as we grapple with the issue of safeguarding our children to protect them from all forms of abuse. We are grateful that she can come and share her breadth of experience and best practices with us."

Wide breadth of experience

A child protection activist, Graham specialises in the prevention of sexual abuse of children. She is also concerned with the healing process and policy and procedure development for the protection of children. Renowned in the Cayman Islands for her work as programme coordinator of the Cayman Islands Crisis Centre, Graham is an American who has tremendous experience in the field of child protection.

A former child protection social worker and family reunification officer, she has also acted as a court-appointed special advocate representing the interests of children in court and as a mental health case manager for severely emotionally disturbed children.

She is a certified facilitator and the trainer for the Darkness to Light Stewards of Children Programme. Darkness to Light is a national non-profit organisation and initiative located in Charleston, South Carolina, in the United States. Its mission is to reduce the incidence and impact of child sexual abuse so that more children will grow up healthy and whole.

Through funding from the Cayman Hedge Funds Care, committee of hearts, Graham has courageously brought the Darkness to Light Stewards of Children programme to the Cayman Islands and it has been extremely successful. Thousands of adults have been trained to react responsibly to child sexual abuse, and the child advocacy group Child Safe Cayman has emerged from it.

Graham spends some 60 hours per week teaching adults how to prevent, recognise and react to child sexual abuse. WLI hopes to inspire the fire of urgency in Jamaicans to go out into the community with courage and be "stewards of children".

Tickets to the luncheon cost $3,500 and are available at the Pegasus Gallery.