12/19/97 - 1396

Letter from Germany

USA (VNN) - Letter from Parivadi das:

All glories to Srila Prabhupada !

Referring to Bahudaka s shocking article on the statistics of child abuse in the United States and in India, I would like to add the following :

In Germany Iskcon has been relatively free from such evils as child abuse. In the 28 years of Iskcon s existence in Germany there has only been one abuse case. Even that is of course one case too much and very sad. The case was immediately reported to the police and brought to court.

Considering this I feel it is safe to assume that the statistical rate of abuse cases for Iskcon in Germany lies significantly below the average statistics in society.

Iskcon Germany does not intend to ever create its own school in this country. Iskcon Germany has created a well-functioning Abuse Prevention and Advise Team and deals with such issues very openly. A similar low average of abuses is true for most Iskcon communities in all of central Europe.

I also assume that Bahudaka Prabhu`s bad experiences in the US are an effect of a period in Iskcon which has been largely overcome, due to Iskcon in the US having moved from a community oriented society to a more congregation oriented society in which parents do not hand over their responsibility for the children to others and are largely self-sufficient in their life style.

Compared to the high amount of violence at American schools it may also be assumed that the present Iskcon schools are safer than so-called normal schools, in all respects.

Paul Augsburger
Maiwiese 3
55767 Birkenfeld
Tel. +49678240536
Fax. +49678240525
e-mail: parivadi.hks@com.bbt.se