Volunteers 'Protecting Girls' Collectively Win CCTV Netizens' Choice Award

A volunteer representative [3rd L] of the 'Girl Protection' program is presented with the Netizens' Choice Award. [CCTV]

The volunteers of the 'Girl Protection' program were honored with the Netizens' Choice Award, presented by the China Central Television (CCTV) in Beijing on December 4, 2014.

"They give children lectures on sexual assault and safety, promote the development and improvement of corresponding laws, and explore long-term strategies for the protection of children," said the committee of the CCTV's 2014 People in the Rule of Law Awards.

Since its establishment in 2001 by the CCTV, the People in the Rule of Law Awards has been recognizing people of all professional backgrounds who have made outstanding contributions to the promotion of rule of law in China. This year, the event added a new award to its slate: the Netizens' Choice Award, which allows netizens to vote for its winners online.

Proposed by Deng Fei — an activist engaged in a number of charities and projects — the "Girl Protection" program was established by 100 female journalists across China on June 1, 2013, China's annual Children's Day.

The program aims to raise awareness for the prevention of sexual assault among children, for the protection of children, and for keeping children away from sexual assault.

To date, the program has held free lectures in 20 provinces and municipalities across China, distributed 120,000 "how to prevent sexual assault" handbooks, trained 1,000 volunteers, and benefited over 100,000 students.

The volunteers emerged from a pool of 24 candidates after being selected for the award by online voters.

"More efforts should be made to give 'Girl Protection' lectures in more schools," said Sun Xuemei, head of the program and journalist of Beijing Times.

"The volunteers are unable to give lectures in every school in the country. The government, we expect, will realize that it is urgent to teach young children how to prevent sexual assault, and will cooperate with us to make it a regular course," said Sun.

CCTV holds an evening gala to unveil the winners each year on December 4 — formerly China's Day of Publicizing Rule of Law and now, as of this year, officially known as Constitution Day.

(Source: women.org.cn/Translated and edited by Women of China)