YINCHUAN — When Chu Fengling asked a roomful of giggling second-graders one particular question, the class fell silent.

"What would you do if someone wanted to hug you, kiss you, or even touch your private parts?" Chu asked during the course of a public talk at the Chengguan No 6 Primary School in Pingluo county, Ningxia Hui autonomous region.

A few seconds later, answers emerged: "Run away", "Shout for help", "Call the police".

Chu praised the students but warned that if there was no one around when an assault occurred, their cries for help would not only go unheard, but also risked aggravating their abuser. "If there is no one around, you should stay calm and think of excuses to help you escape. If you really can't, quietly remember the appearance of your assaulter," she added.

The 41-year-old is a volunteer lecturer for Girls' Protection, a nonprofit program of the Beijing All In One Foundation. It was founded in 2013 to raise children's awareness of protection to help protect them from sexual assault.

In China, discussions of sex are still considered taboo by many. Parents are reluctant to talk to their children about sex-related topics, leaving children uninformed and more vulnerable to sexual abuse.

According to a survey conducted by Girls' Protection in 2019,78.2 percent of teenagers did not undergo adolescent sexual health education, and 15.7 percent had never received any sexual health-related education from their parents or teachers.

Some 223 cases of sexual assault against minors were reported in China in 2021 alone, with many more believed to have gone unreported.

"Sexual assault leaves a deep scar on both the child and the family. Our team is devoted to giving children the knowledge they need to protect them from sexual abuse," said Guo Rong, head of the Ningxia Sunflower Team, a local branch of the program.

With 37 volunteer lecturers, the team gives tailored sexual assault prevention courses to children and parents, and also offers sex education courses for adolescents. The teaching plans have been carefully designed by experts in child sex education, psychology and law, among other disciplines.

As of March this year, the team had given 2,100 public lectures to more than 100,000 people.

In the eight years since she joined Girls' Protection, Guo is happy that more people have come to understand the importance of their work, and that more schools and organizations are inviting the team to give prevention courses.

They have given sexual assault prevention courses across the country, training tens of thousands of volunteers.

In cooperation with government departments, the organization also trains teachers around the country how to lecture on preventing sexual abuse. Around 7.6 million children and 740,000 parents have benefited from the lectures. Online training and lectures have also been organized.

"No matter how much students remember from the course, they will certainly learn an important lesson about how to protect themselves," said Liu Ruifang, vice-president of the Chengguan No 6 Primary School.

Xinhua