Social media promotes abuse awareness in Peninsular Malaysia
Virtual discussions consider other forms of abuse: self-inflicted and financial.
Southern Asia-Division (SSD)
[Malaysia] Not all missions in the Southeast Asia region were able to conduct the usual enditnow® Emphasis Day program in their churches COVID-19 lockdown during the pandemic. However, Peninsular Malaysia Mission devised an innovative virtual program.
An Abuse Prevention Awareness campaign was conducted online for the entire month of August 2020 in Peninsular Malaysia. Informative social posting was shared via social media channels each day through WhatsApp and Facebook.
Rarely identified and discussed, two types of abuse, Financial Abuse and Self-Abuse, were the topics of two seminars conducted via Zoom and shared on Facebook Live. Panelists for the Self-Abuse seminar were regional ministry leaders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the departments of Youth, Health, and Women's Ministries, as well as guests from the local church in Malay Peninsula.
From the statistics of who viewed, engaged, commented, shared, and clicked, we reached about 1.8k people. This is quite encouraging as we reached many more people than if it were done the "normal" way. We thank God for opening the way for us to share this important message.
The Seventh-day Adventist worldwide church observes enditnow® Emphasis Day each year on the fourth Sabbath of August. The Church departments contributing to the resources prepared for this special day are Children's Ministries, Education, Family Ministries, Health Ministries, Ministerial Association, Women's Ministries, and Youth Ministries.
Contributed by Debbie Saul-Chan, Women's Ministries director for Southeast Asia Union Mission
Published in Mosaic newsletter, 2021 Q1, winter issue