Child Abuse Prevention Walk
Stepping out against abuse

About 75 people walked in the Child Abuse Prevention Walk on Thursday on Highway 264 in Ganado. Starting at the Mustang Station in Burnside, Ariz., they walked nearly five miles to Sage Memorial Hospital. — © 2009 Gallup Independent / Brian Leddy

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Staff writer

GANADO — The community of Ganado, Ariz., was challenged on Thursday to consider how its children should be cared for and to consider ways residents can support each other in preventing child abuse.

It was all part of the 2009 Child Abuse Prevention Walk and Fair sponsored by the Navajo Nation’s Division of Social Services-Ganado Services Unit in recognition of Child Abuse Prevention Month. Tribal social workers organized the event, which included a walk that started at Burnside Junction and ended at the Sage Memorial Wellness Center. Inside the center, the fair featured a lunch for participants, information tables about social service programs, and guest speakers.

“The goal behind it is to bring awareness to child abuse and neglect,” said Marie Jim, Ganado’s social work supervisor.

Because children can’t defend themselves from child abuse and they can’t speak up for themselves, Jim said, “We’re the voice for those children.”

Although people often view Social Services negatively, Jim explained, she and her co-workers are trying to get out the message that Social Services should be viewed as a resource for parents who are struggling in their role as parents.

Mary Spencer-Iyua is a Ganado social worker who works in the Promoting Safe and Stable Families Program. In addition to parenting training, she said, there are a number of other resources available nowadays to help parents.

Cycle of abuse

According to the social workers interviewed, child abuse and neglect is a common and serious problem on the Navajo Nation.

“We deal with it every day,” admitted Paul Long Sr., a senior social worker from the Fort Defiance Family Services Unit.

“It’s a 24/7 thing.” For the month of April, Long said the Fort Defiance office received about 93 reports, with about half being child abuse or neglect cases and the other half being elder abuse or domestic violence cases. Alcohol abuse is a factor in the majority of cases, Long explained, particularly in the first week or two after people receive their monthly checks.

Jim said the Ganado office investigates about 30 child abuse and neglect reports each month. Citing the three main factors of alcohol abuse, domestic violence in families, and drug abuse, Jim said she believes child abuse and neglect has increased during her lifetime because of rising substance abuse problems and instability in families.

Children who are abused and neglected tend to have low self-esteem and a lack of interest in school, Spencer-Iyua explained, and often run away from home and become involved in delinquent behaviors. As they become adults themselves, she added, they tend to suffer from depression and alcoholism.

How individuals parent their children is based on how they were parented when they were children, said Jim. As a result, the patterns of child abuse and neglect continue from one generation to another unless the cycle is broken.

Loss of traditions

In Native American cultures, a lot of discussion has centered on the effect Indian boarding schools have had on Native families, parenting skills, and child abuse.

Many children reared in boarding schools had little contact with their parents and grandparents. “That’s where they learned their parenting,” Spencer-Iyua said.

Dean Roan, a senior social worker from Ganado, said the boarding school era caused many children to become disconnected from their homes, families, land, culture, and language. That negative affect, he said, can still be seen generations later in specific families and in the tribe as a whole.

Long, however, has a somewhat different perspective. Not all boarding school experiences were negative, he said, including his own. Long credits his own professional success in life to having been a resident in Gallup’s old Manuelito Hall while he attended school in Gallup.

“I really appreciate how disciplined it was,” Long said. That discipline, he explained, was similar to the strict discipline he received while living with his very traditional Navajo parents.

During Thursday’s Child Abuse Prevention Fair, Long gave a talk about traditional Navajo child rearing teachings. He believes many young Navajo parents haven’t been taught the value of such teachings. One such traditional idea is that children are on “loan” to parents and must be properly cared for by their families.

Necessary changes

In spite of the high numbers of child abuse and neglect on the Navajo Nation, Jim said tribal social workers do have some successful outcomes with their cases. Citing the recent example of a local father who took responsibility for his actions and made necessary changes in his life, Jim said some parents do become motivated to change.

Sometimes, Spencer-Iyua said, the shock of having Social Services remove their children from their home is the necessary push that some parents need.

The detainment of children from their homes is also difficult on social workers, Roan admitted. It’s something he never had to deal with during his graduate level training, he explained, but it’s something he faced once he began working in Ganado last November.

“Over here was the real deal,” Roan said. However, when faced with the reality of child abuse, he explained, social workers have to protect children and keep them safe.

The Ganado community has many families that have problems with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, child abuse and neglect, domestic violence, and alcohol abuse, she said.

They would have benefited from the messages of the Child Abuse Prevention Walk and Fair if they would have been there to listen, she said.