Kildare Woman Who Was Sexually Abused At Age Six Gets Behind CARI Fundraising Appeal

Children at Risk in Ireland is a national support charity for children and adults affected by child sexual abuse.

A Kildare woman who was raped as a young teenager is pleading with the public to get behind a major fundraising drive to raise emergency funds for CARI, (Children at Risk in Ireland,) a national support charity for children and adults affected by child sexual abuse.

CARI is experiencing historic levels of abuse as its waiting list has more than doubled to the longest it has experienced in its 33-year history, It grew by 115% during successive Covid lockdowns.

The charity currently has 254 children waiting to access its professional, child-centered therapy, support and advice service and estimates it will take five years to clear the list if it cannot fund and staff its service adequately.

One in five people in Ireland experience an incidence of abuse in childhood.

Child sexual abuse happens to children in every kind of family and community background, regardless of age, gender or race, and up to 90% of children will develop mental health issues by the time they are 18.

Johann Callaghan who lives in Co. Kildare said: “If I had received help when I desperately needed it, I may not have had to go through the years of hell I endured”.

“I had no body to turn to, no support, no help, no hope”. I needed the help CARI provides but I didn’t have CARI at that time," she said.

Those are the words of Johann, a survivor of Child Sexual Abuse as she recounts her harrowing tale of sexual abuse, rape and violence by a much older man who ‘love bombed’ the then young vulnerable teenager when she was just 16.

It was Johann’s second experience of having people who made promises to her, giving her sweets in return for keeping secrets.

“I was a little innocent of six years of age when I had my first experience of sexual abuse. They were young teenagers around 18 or so, had just been accepted into the Army and I looked up to them so much.

"They plied me with sweets, and I was putty in their hands. I was six, I was an innocent little girl and these guys totally exploited that. They sexually abused me, and I just couldn’t understand why these two ‘highly respected’ men lied to me.

“I didn’t tell anybody.  It was a big secret and I was good at keeping secrets. The only trauma I had experienced  at the time was that I was lied to by  what I thought were ‘good, decent’ men. It was only later, in my 20’s that I realised this was sexual abuse.

“My family life was chaotic; my Father was an Alcoholic and there was violence at home. I was one of six so there was eight of us in a three-bed house in Coolock and our family expanded then when my Grandmother, who had dementia, came to live with us.

"I felt unloved, I thought so many times ‘nobody loves me’, that’s a truly horrible feeling for a young person to experience. You feel like a feather in a hurricane, you’re not grounded or secure”.

“I was a sitting duck for anybody bad and cunning enough to exploit this, and unfortunately I did meet this kind of person," she said.

Johann  believes that if CARI had been around, it would literally have been a light in the darkness for her.

"I needed gentleness, kindness and understanding and most of all a safe haven. That’s what CARI does. I would urge the people of Kildare, companies and businesses as well  to please support CARI’s emergency public fundraising appeal," she said.

"If everybody gave even a little , it could do wonders.

"Children are at home in fear and pain when CARI has empty therapy rooms as it cannot afford more Therapists. Please ,please help them."

Johann joined Eoin Beatty on Wednesday's Kildare Today and spoke about the abuse she suffered, listen back to the full interview here: