Our legal defense and social assistance center (known in Portuguese by the abbreviation “CICAF”) was born from our unique perspective of missions by looking at the various violations of the rights of children and adolescents in at-risk situations. Exploitation, sexual abuse, illegal adoptions, abandonment, and international trafficking of people and organs (especially disappearances) make up the scenario where our children and teenagers are living. In this way, the vision and mission of our Legal Defense Center become legitimate in the face of real demand. Shores of Grace Ministries’ Legal Defense Center (called CICAF) is part of the system of guaranteeing the rights of children and teens, and it operates with three specific branches: education of rights, defense of rights, and social assistance. The team is composed of 4 lawyers, 1 psychologist, and 1 social worker. Our goal is to defend the rights of children and teenagers who are victims of domestic and sexual violence in the municipality of Jaboatão dos Guararapes – PE, offering legal, social, and psychological support – completely free of charge.
We work with people in at-risk situations who have experienced many losses in all aspects of their lives. Sexual and domestic violence crimes destroy families because they are often committed against children or adolescents, and usually the person accused is someone very close to the family (and often the provider in the home), causing disturbances in all aspects of life. For this reason, there is a need to take legal action regarding criminal law, seeking the accountability of the person responsible for the crime and also the guarantee of the non re-victimization of the child or adolescent and his or her family throughout the entire process of the case. The need for legal action also occurs within family court, usually happening as a lawsuit in order to gain food, custody, or remove rights of a family member. Finally, action must also be taken among social services in order to receive assistance from the state to allow the families to receive benefits they need to support themselves in light of their current situations where many will not have a primary provider after pursuing legal action for their crimes.
In the area of education, we operate by conducting self-defense workshops in local communities and public schools in Jaboatão dos Guararapes – PE. The branch covering defense of rights is provided for by Brazilian law, which regulates the legal/psycho/social protection of children and adolescents whose rights are being threatened or violated. In the world of social assistance, we act as a non-profit organization, strengthening and preparing organizations and those working to protect children and their families. We also supervise how the government is carrying out what it promised to do or what the law guarantees, and initiate legal proceedings in cases where proceedings have slowed or stopped completely. In addition, our goal is also to develop an adoption center, where we will support families who wish to adopt on the legal side (helping to take care of whatever is necessary to speed up the process) as well as on the psychological side (offering support to the adoptive family and the adopted child or adolescent before, during, and in the first year of adaptation).
