Montreal-area woman raising awareness about child sexual abuse

This story deals with sensitive matters.

If you need help, call Kids Help Phone free of charge at 1-800-668-6868 or text CONNECT to 686868.

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A young girl with a terribly difficult childhood is now a woman hoping to inspire others by sharing her story of survival.

Quebecer Elisa Montecalvo is a survivor of sexual abuse who has suffered in silence for years.

“I must have been maybe like six, seven years old back then,” said Montecalvo.

She is now sharing her story, looking to give others like her a voice, whole also raising awareness about child sexual abuse.

“When I was a child living in Italy, I was abused by four members of my family. My mother and her three brothers. And later, when we came to Canada, I was also abused by my father.”

Child sexual abuse leaves behind serious psychological wounds that drag on into adulthood.

“These kids grow up with burdens on them and put burdens on themselves because they have no one to speak to,” she said. “They don’t want to break up the family by seeing what was done to them. But they are suffering every single day. And the burden of guilt, it’s the biggest hurdle to overcome because it never goes away.

“Until I was 10 years old, I did not know that what was being done to me was wrong, because they told me they were doing this to me because they loved me. With the exception of my father, my father always hated me.”

“How I found out that what was being done to me was wrong at every level, the nuns at school said that our body is not to be touched in any sexual way by anyone. Because of their age and their innocence, children cannot fully understand they’re being abused and do not have a full awareness of what is happening to them.”

This is why Montecalvo deems it essential to break the silence. She did it by writing a book “Three Strikes, and I’m still standing.” She’s working on getting it published.

She also started a Facebook page with information and resources on how to recognize sexual abuse and ask for help.

“I’ve created the Facebook page called Protect the Children, and it’s going to be a tool that will help parents to actually have little steps on how to go about talking to the children.”

Montecalvo would like to see more prevention done in schools as well.

“There should be a program, something similar to the tool that I’m talking about, to speak to the children, to let the children know at a very young age that their body is theirs and it’s sacred. And no one but no one has the right to touch it.”