[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 5]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 7262]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




  RECOGNIZING DARKNESS TO LIGHT OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA DURING 
                 NATIONAL CHILD ABUSE PREVENTION MONTH

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. HENRY E. BROWN, JR.

                           of south carolina

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, April 29, 2008

  Mr. BROWN of South Carolina. Madam Speaker, as you know, April is 
Child Abuse Prevention Month. I would like to take this opportunity to 
tell you about an organization in my home town of Charleston, South 
Carolina that was started just eight years ago to prevent one of the 
most horrific aspects of child abuse: child sexual abuse.
  Statistics show that one in four girls and one in six boys will be 
sexually abused by the age of 18. Further, 90 percent of child sexual 
abuse offenders are in an authority position over the children they are 
abusing, making it difficult for children to speak out or confront the 
abuse.
  Ms. Anne Lee of Charleston founded Darkness to Light\TM\ in 1999 with 
the core belief that adults should be responsible for the care and 
protection of children. Darkness to Light seeks to reduce the incidence 
of child sexual abuse by shifting the responsibility from children to 
adults. Their Stewards of Children\TM\ training program teaches adults 
to prevent, recognize and react responsibly to child sexual abuse. It 
was recently named ``Crime Prevention Program of the Year'' by the 
National Crime Prevention Association.
  This training program is being utilized by youth-serving 
organizations, as well as individuals and businesses who want to 
respond to the epidemic nature of this problem. Darkness to Light also 
offers Stewards program in a fully interactive, on-line format.
  To date, over 120,000 adults in 47 U.S. States and territories--as 
well as nine foreign countries--have completed the Stewards of Children 
training. I commend Anne Lee and all of her colleagues for creating 
this important child protection program, and I encourage you all to 
visit the Darkness to Light website at wwwD2L.org to get the necessary 
information to protect children from child sexual abuse.

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