Abuse, harassment, discrimination and exploitation are too-frequently heard words in the news these days in the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic with statistics drawing a grim image of the status quo in the country. Sex trafficking of underage girls, a 300% increase in cybersex crimes against women and children, 17,000 child pornography video uploads in just a month and a significant increase in complaints and reports on abuse cases across the island. ESTER is a youth advocacy organisation that aims to counter abuse and exploitation in Sri Lanka through mediums such as education, advocacy and awareness.
ESTER’s Founder, Sashi Schaffter, is a law graduate with a background in human rights law and work experience in human rights research and investigation in the UK and Sri Lanka. Sashi created ESTER as a safe space for victims and survivors of abuse, harassment and bullying. In an interview with the Daily Mirror Life, Sashi talks about ESTER and their work.
Q What made you start ESTER?
After completing my legal education in the UK, I moved back to Sri Lanka and I knew I wanted to work in Human Rights law and was thinking of the best way to bring about meaningful change here. With the pandemic and the lockdown, there was an alarming increase of cases of abuse being reported in the country and I wanted to respond to that and that’s how ESTER came about.
Q Despite the increase in these cases, it’s a topic that’s swept under the rug so often with a ‘if it didn’t happen to me, it’s not really my problem’ attitude to it. Why is it so important to advocate for better action?
That’s actually one of the main reasons why I started ESTER.
Many victims and survivors of abuse always have a question of – what then? What can they do? I thought, if I was facing this, I would feel very alone. It’s difficult to reach out for help when you don’t know who to go to and it becomes that much harder when they are a child or a teenager, especially if they feel like they can’t talk to a parent or teacher about this because they are afraid of blame or shame. So, what can I do to make people feel supported? With ESTER, we aim to work through different mediums to counter abuse; from legal advocacy and working with different stakeholders and institutions for better justice and policy reforms to challenging stigma, building awareness and supporting mental health.
A horrifyingly common issue in Sri Lanka is the non-consensual sharing of intimate images and if the individuals in those images are underage, that’s veering into dangerous territory – that is child pornography or child sex abuse material.
QWhen it comes to countering abuse and exploitation, especially in terms of justice, what can Sri Lanka do better?
There’s a lot we can do in terms of law reform. Something that is really simple that needs to be done and that would solve a lot of problems, would be to introduce a sex offenders’ registry. It makes it easier to track down offenders and protect children. During lockdown in 2020, there was an incident where a baby was brutally raped and it was later revealed that the perpetrator had a history of committing sexual abuse. Where we fail, in terms of justice, is that if we kept a track of these repeat offenders, we could prevent them from committing these crimes again and again. Now, it’s not to say that we haven’t advocated for it – the National Child Protection Authority has made proposals on this, but unfortunately, nothing has come about yet.
QHow important is it to challenge certain stigmas and biases associated with these topics?
When you are advocating for better action and responses for cases of abuse or harassment, we can’t lose sight of mental health and the stigma and biases surrounding these circumstances. Victims and survivors of abuse face a very tough mental struggle and feelings of isolation and depression which may lead to suicide. What it comes down to, eventually, is removing some of the negative stigma associated with abuse and making it acceptable to seek help during hard times. This is very important especially for boys and men because this stereotypical view of men having to be tough and strong all the time, not being able to show emotion and the idea that “boys don’t cry” is really, really harmful because it leads to pent up emotions and suffering in silence. Men have higher rates of depression and suicide and one common theme is that their friends and family never knew something was wrong. We need to tackle mental health stigma and labels and make it acceptable to reach out and get the help needed.
QA lot of the work needs to be done on a very grassroot level such as unlearning certain behaviours. What’s the easiest place to start?
I think even just teaching young people about relationships, about values such as respect, empathy and trust can go a long way. A horrifyingly common issue in Sri Lanka is the non-consensual sharing of intimate images and if the individuals in those images are underage, that’s veering into dangerous territory – that is child pornography or child sex abuse material. This is an issue that can be fixed if children were taught at a young age about trust and respect in a relationship. No one ever wants to talk about how to have a romantic relationship, you are just told not to and that’s not practical. If you teach children simple values, it goes a long way.
QHow can people get involved with ESTER?
Right now, we are focusing on building ESTER and we are open to volunteers. Anyone who wants to offer their support and get involved in the work we do is very welcome to click the link in our Instagram bio
(@ester_org) and join us. Whatever skills you can bring, we will find a place for it.
We believe that anyone, regardless of their background, can bring about positive change in their own sphere of influence.
Instagram: ester_org
