Make T-shirt for child abuse memorial project!

Hi! I don't usually wander into this part of the forums, but I just wanted to let you know about a child abuse memorial project I am attempting to start. I am asking interested people to choose a child from my Child Abuse Memorial webpage... or choose a different child they know of who has died from child abuse... and buy a plain white T-shirt in the size that the child would have wore at the age when he died. (For instance if you've chosen to memorialize a 2-year-old, you could buy a 2-T shirt. If you are memorializing an infant, you could buy a onesie, perhaps) Then with fabric paint or fabric marker, write on the front of the shirt the child's name, age, and possibly the circumstances of death (For instance, "Beaten to death by father") They could then decorate the rest of the shirt any way they wish, and send the completed T-shirt to me. I will contact churches and social service agencies in my area and ask them to display the T-shirts in their building on a clothesline for a week, to help spread awareness of child abuse. I will also ask other people in other areas to take the T-shirts and display them in their areas... the project could travel around the country if possible, and more T-shirts could be added as more people get involved. I was hoping that you could spread the word on this project and ask people to contact me if they're interested. I'm also going to be adding a page about it to my website.
Thanks for your help! Hope to hear from you sooN!

= Nicky (Angel) (http://pages.ivillage.com/tiedyeangel/)

 

Thank you for the link. I am in tears after reading about it, I was looking at the list of names. There are literally hundreds. I was completely unaware of just how many children are killed because of parental abuse/neglect. For God's sake! A freaking 2 year old was STABBED TO DEATH by her father! Her daddy! The one who's supposed to tell her she can't date until she's 16, and remind her to do all her homework, and be there at her volleyball tryouts, and drive her to her first dance, and see her graduate. People take it for granted when their parents bother them to do better in school or embarrass them in front of their friends. I'm forwarding this site to all of my friends.

 

But runs for cancer raise money for research and treatment techniques. No, it's not going to make somebody stop being abusive...but you never know, it might kick somebody into gear who's in a position where htey might be of help if they would wake up and do something.

 

Well, do you have a better idea? If you do, please share. In my opinion every little bit counts. You'd be surprised.

 

To Sunburst, Sunfree and Dilapidated ... Thank you for your words of support! If you would like to make a t-shirt, please let me know which name you choose so I can mark it on the site as taken. You're right, its such a horrible thing, and the names I've posted on the memorial page are only a tiny fraction of the kids who've died this way. Although a lot of the kids were killed accidentally by an angry parent who went way, way, way overboard, many others were deliberately tortured and murdered by their parents. It's horrid. And a lot of times, the parents are given very light sentences.

To Tortheviking... I understand where you're coming from. I have no illusions that this T-shirt project is going to put an end to child abuse. But it's also not just a way for me to pat myself on the back for doing a "good deed". I am 25 years old and have lived on the streets on and off for the past 8 years of my life, and I've seen firsthand a lot of horrible things done to children. I've known mothers who leave their children in crackhouses, with drug dealers as babysitters, while they go get high. I've personally stolen food tickets at a carnival to feed two children whose mother left them with me after she spent all her money on crack the night before and was going through DTs. I've worked in daycare centers where kids came to school with diapers that hadn't been changed in days, kids who threw up after lunch because their malnourished stomachs couldn't handle that much food, kids who had cigarette burns on their legs and who told about their fathers giving them bloody noses. And those kids were all very, very mild cases of abuse and neglect. So mild, that even when they were reported to DCFS, nothing was done to help them... because the system was too overloaded with more serious cases.
What I want first of all is for the T-shirt project to shock people into saying, "Oh my god, how can this be happening?" and maybe want to do something about it... do a little volunteer work with at-risk kids perhaps... or maybe for an abusive parent to see it and think, "My god, I could really kill my child!"
But what I also want is simply a memorial. The Vietnam wall didn't end all wars, but it did tell the survivors, "We care". It was the least that could have been done, but at least it was done. The kids who've died from abuse deserve to have their names spoken and remembered.

- Nicky

 

Exactly. It spreads what people don't know, then they know and may want to help, or an abusive parent may realize what they are capable of doing, or someone who knows about someone who hurts their child may realize "Hey, this kid could be KILLED, I have to do something". Like they said, every little bit helps.

 

Tor, that was below the belt. Jerk. Even I don't sarcastically mock abuse victims.

 

Tor, you're an asshole, you know that?

 

Dear Tortheviking,
Okay, I get the message. You don't think this is worthwhile, you think I'm a big poser or whatever, you think I'm melodramatic and full of shit and... what else... help me out here? That's fine, I'm not mad at ya. Never expected the support of all the people in the world. But my question is, why can't you just say, "Hmm, I don't want anything to do with that" and just leave it alone? Why try to hurt my feelings? What's the point of all that? I don't know you, I never said nothing bad to you ever. So what is the problem?

- Nicky

 

He's tor. That's the problem.

-Kate

 

Ah, fuck off.

 

Aaaaaanyway, getting back on the topic of helping...

 

This is why I don't post here anymore. People like you, Tor, who refuse to leave ANYTHING alone. Would it had been THAT difficult to NOT post here and let Angel try and do what she thinks is right? For God sakes man there was no reason for that shit...


Angel, you'll get a PM from me in the next couple days about this.

 

Well Tortheviking I ain't mad at ya... but I hope the less cynical members of the world will still see this thread and want to help!

- AnGel