Weekly Links 4º ESO —57

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This week we have been working with this video: "Bikers against Child Abuse" (BACA).

And here is the transcript:

— We're not your average people

— You know these guys mean business

— We're all across the United States

— We're the only organization in the world right now that does what we do.

— We're a nonprofit organization that works with children who have been the victims of physical, sexual,  or mental abuse. We want to empower these children not to feel afraid of the world in which they live. Once children are empowered, they can start to heal. We work with the child to remove their fear. When their fear is gone, that's when we know our job is done.

— When we say we will do anything to protect children, whatever that means, we mean it.

— We've got one guy 6-foot-10 in our organization we call him Tree.

— "Yeah, I stand out quite a bit."

— To the kids he is an absolute protector.

— "They feel pretty safe when I'm around."

— The first introduction for a child to our chapter, we'll take in force the entire chapter, we have 25 motorcycles rolling down the road. The neighborhood wakes up real quick.

— It's like amazing. The kids, are, you know, they're shy, they don't know what to think when they saw those  crazy biker guys showing up in all pretty scary looking ugly people.

— But after a few minutes they really start to open up to us. We develop that initial friendship.

— "I am Tree, How are you?"

— We get their own road name, they've got a patch on the back of their vest.

— "You're part of our family now, and that means we'll always be here for you, then whenever you need us, you're afraid, you call us."

— And then we assign two members to those children that will follow up on a weekly basis.

— "Now you got a bunch of brothers, you know, some of us are prettier than others."

— In court we had our kid, the judge asked "Are you afraid?" and she looked up the judge and said "No." And he just said, "Why not?" She goes, "Because my friends are scarier than he is."

— A BACA child is four times more likely to testify in court than a child who is not part of our organization.

— It is personal for me because I've been through abuse, in and out of foster homes, in and out of the system. Nobody believed me. Nobody seemed to care. It's a hell that I wouldn't wish it on anybody.

— Here in Arizona, the child is directly related to child abuse one up twenty percent last year, so the problem isn't getting any better.

— We need to wake up. The system needs to change, to put it that way. To be able to stand up, you know, for a child and say "No. Nobody's gonna hurt you anymore. You can stand up and be proud of who you are. You're not at fault.

— We're not playing wild hogs here, and if someone who would hurt a child doesn't take us seriously, well, that would be a big mistake.


Have a nice weekend.