Report Activity No. 2: ESCAPE

End Sexual Abuse of Children with Awareness via Public Education or ESCAPE is one of the programs that was held by Psychology Interactive Club (PSYCHIC), UTM with the cooperation of the Johor Women's League. It was conducted in physical right before pandemic Covid-19 came along. My friends and I joined this program because it seems fun while we learned about child abuse. I think there are lots of reports made because of child abuse nowadays and the number is quite worrying.

          The objective of the ESCAPE program is to increase awareness of the child abuse issue itself. As we know, There are many forms of child abuse, including neglect, physical maltreatment, sexual abuse, exploitation, and emotional abuse. From what I have learned through this program, 3 Graduate Attributes are focused on. Firstly, communication skills. We need to be able to communicate well as a team when participating in the event. Without well-developed communication skills, it is difficult for us to talk to each other to solve some problems. Effective communication skills can help us to gain mutual understanding in a group. Next, the program focused on thinking skills in the Graduate Attributes. Thinking skills are required for us to process the information and make decisions. We are put into some scenarios with problems that are related to child abuse cases so that we can come up with the best solution to solve them. Lastly, leadership and teamwork skills. Since we work in a group during the program, good teamwork skills are important to focus on the goals that we want to achieve. Every member has to contribute their efforts fairly because it is our responsibility as a team. We also have to support each other to do our best in every game.

          ESCAPE program provided us with a variety of games or checkpoints. Each checkpoint has information that we can learn and applied in our daily life. For example, there is one part of the game where we have to solve a puzzle. Thus, by learning to recognize the early signs, we can make a huge change in a child’s life.

As far as I am concerned, this type of program is a great experience and enjoyable. It also allows us to become closer to one another through teamwork. We are all working together to succeed in the games. I had a great time meeting new people and participating in this adventure as it helps me to communicate better. This activity allows students to gather useful knowledge about public education to raise awareness about the problem of child violence. Furthermore, this program helps me to boost my self-confidence, I will become more willing to try new things as I started to believe in myself. Also, I discovered that being nervous or making a few mistakes in the activities is not as bad as I would think. And as the progress worked, I gained more trust in myself, which will ultimately help me avoid taking any chances that will have big negative consequences. I would participate in an activity like this in the future.