As parents, we face some unpleasant truths about the world we live in. In the US, one in three girls and one in 10 boys are victims of child sexual abuse. The FBI and the DOJ estimate every 68 seconds a child gets molested in this country. But these are just the reported cases. According to the FBI and the DOJ, over 90% of instances of child molestation are not reported. Over 350,000 underage children are reported missing each year in the United States with a 16% average growth annually. The US and Western Europe have become the No. 1 markets in the world for child pornography, pedophilia and sex trafficking, eclipsing the drug trafficking markets and affecting millions of children every year regardless of where they live, their parents’ income, race, religious beliefs, political persuasion or the size of the community in which they live.
Parents can be empowered to protect their children
These statistics can seem daunting and scary. But there are proven ways to help parents keep their children safe. One of the most effective programs in children’s personal safety is based right here in the North State. Grandmaster Farshad Azad, owner of Azad’s Martial Arts Center in Chico, has used his 50 years of experience in personal protection strategies, teaching and training parents of underage children in anti-predatory skills and self-defense instruction, to design C.A.P.E. (Children Anti-Predator Education) systems, an online and in-person training program available to parents and their children worldwide. “I have trained officials such as the US Federal marshals, FBI, Secret Service, members of the Executive Protection teams, Drug Enforcement Agency agents and local law enforcement and have brought all this information and training together and made it practical for kids,” Grandmaster Azad says. “Previously, my trainings have been in-person and in groups. Now people are more open to online training, so I have made these life-saving skills and tools available to parents and their children worldwide.”
Parent involvement is the key to keeping kids safe
The C.A.P.E. program can be accessed at capechildsafety.com and includes a series of free short courses as well as more in-depth paid courses “packed with cutting-edge information,” Grandmaster Azad says. “This is not a simple self-defense or just a martial arts class. It is a comprehensive program to educate parents and children to be emotionally, mentally and physically prepared to deal with a child molester, child abductor or sex trafficker when their children are targeted.”
Parent participation in C.A.P.E.’s programs is key to their children’s success. “If a parent buys a course for their child to take but doesn’t get involved and learn the material and work with their child, it’s never going to work,” Grandmaster Azad says. “A child will not be able to learn calculus if you buy a calculus book and give it to your child and say ‘Here, read this book to learn calculus.’ They need someone to guide them, to walk through it with them. Parents need to be involved with teaching kids CAPE’s strategies of how to spot predators, what to do when they find themselves in the ‘threat zone’, what to do when they are kidnapped and to prepare them mentally, emotionally and physically to deal with any situation without scaring their kid. Parents need to know this information to successfully watch over and protect their children. C.A.P.E. systems will help you master all these skills.”
Children can learn how to react appropriately in emergency situations
C.A.P.E. courses teach parents and children life-saving skills and tools, so they know what to do if someone physically grabs them or tries to take them away. Parents also learn the most common ways and not so common ways children can be abducted. Courses are tailored for different age groups. “Kids 4 or 5 would deal with a predator differently than 14- or 15-year-olds,” says Grandmaster Azad. “Through C.A.P.E.’s in-person training, seminars and workshops or online pre-recorded courses, masterminds, challenges, live coaching sessions and specialized training, parents learn the critical tools and information needed to train their children to stay safe when their kids are targeted by predators.”
Grandmaster Azad tells of an instance a few years ago in Yuba City when he provided anti-predator training to a group of martial artists parents and children. A few weeks later, he heard from one of the parents who told him that her son and some of his friends, ages 6-12, who had taken the training course he had just taught, were walking in a mall parking lot and a pickup truck pulled up alongside them. As the pickup truck was still moving, a man in the back of the truck grabbed one of the young children by his backpack and pulled him into the bed of the truck. Instead of freezing or screaming, his friends ran after the truck and grabbed the child off the truck. The truck driver quickly drove away after the unsuccessful abduction attempt. “The kids reacted appropriately and used C.A.P.E.’s strategies correctly to save their friend because they had been prepared mentally, emotionally and physically how to react in sudden and frightening serious situations,” says Grandmaster Azad.
Parents and kids can learn to spot threats, take appropriate action
Statistics show that 90% of perpetrators know their victims well. Often, they are very close to the family. C.A.P.E. addresses this threat by educating and training parents to know what to look for and to use the street strategies designed by Grandmaster Azad to keep their family safe from predators.
C.A.P.E.’s first level training for parents and kids, called Tigers vs Rabbits, is designed for all underage kids to identify their mental and emotional vulnerabilities and turn them into powerful strengths. “The Tigers vs Rabbits course will prepare your children with an unstoppable mindset and powerful fundamentals to respond to any serious threats,” says Grandmaster Azad.
“Our main goal,” he says, “is to provide CAPE’s specialized street-proven strategies to parents and kids and arm them with the crucial knowledge, critical skills and powerful tools they need to identify possible threats, take preventative action and react appropriately. We will equip you with practical abilities to effectively teach your children how to protect themselves from dangerous people who they may encounter in person or who are a click away from contacting your kids.” Grandmaster Azad says. “C.A.P.E.’s programs have also proven extremely beneficial to survivors of child molestation and sex trafficking, helping to heal through learning to be empowered and to regain their self-confidence and control to keep themselves safe.”
For more information and to access all the courses offered in the C.A.P.E. program, go to CAPEchildSafety.com.
Posted in: Recreation & Sports, Youth & Teen
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