PT campaign: Why these children need your help this Christmas

But for Luke (13) and Olivia (9) home was a living hell.

It was the one place they longed to escape because behind closed doors the two children faced an almost constant tirade of physical, emotional and sexual abuse.

The brother and sister from the Peterborough area, whose names have been changed to protect their identity, are two of hundreds of children who have already been referred to our Dear Santa 2021 campaign to receive a present they have chosen on Christmas Day - kindly purchased by you, our readers.

We have again teamed up with Peterborough-based charity Embrace Child Victims of Crime to adopt their annual Christmas gift appeal which last year provided gifts of choice for 1,132 children harmed by crime.

Anne Campbell, chief executive of Embrace Child Victims of Crime, said: “All of the children we support have faced often unimaginable horrors in their short lives, through no fault of their own.

“The flexible recovery services we offer aim to give them and their families what they need to rebuild their lives.

“Dear Santa is our way of giving children who have suffered terrible trauma a reason to smile on Christmas Day. We hope people will give generously and make their Christmas wishes come true.”

Many children idolise their daddies but Olivia and Luke were petrified of theirs - never knowing when he would next attack.

The family were referred to Embrace CVoC for support and through their counselling sessions found the strength and courage to make further disclosures about the sexual, physical and emotional abuse they had faced.

Their mother was so traumatised by what had happened she also received parental support from the charity to help her rebuild her life. And the therapeutic team were able to help the family access longer-term support to get their lives back on track.

Luke and Olivia have asked for gift vouchers from Dear Santa because this year they’d like to go to the shops and choose treats for themselves.

It is all part of their healing because previously their monster dad had bribed them with toys to keep quiet about the horrendous abuse he was inflicting on them.

Ms Campbell said that sadly Luke and Olivia’s story was not unique.

She said: “The Coronavirus pandemic and the lockdown restrictions meant that many children were trapped at home with their abusers with seemingly no way of escape. “We saw a four-fold increase in cases of children affected by domestic abuse in the past year and we also saw a rise in cases of children affected by sexual abuse.

“Our services never stopped during the restrictions.

Although we were temporarily unable to provide face to face support we were able to develop our online and telephone services to ensure we could support child victims of crime whenever and wherever they needed it across the UK.”

How you can help the appeal

Every child who is referred to Dear Santa 2021 chooses at least one gift they’d really like to receive from Santa this Christmas up to the value of £35.

Embrace CVoC makes these gifts available for you to buy through its website.

Santa’s elves will then gift wrap it for you and ensure it gets to the child who wished for it in time for Christmas.

You can purchase a gift for a child harmed by crime directly from our Dear Santa Wish List at www.embracecvoc.org.uk/dear-santa-2021.

The Dear Santa Wish-list is an on-line shop of gifts from dolls and Lego to gift vouchers and fidget toys.

Each item is listed with the recipient’s age, region they come from and the crime that has harmed them.

If you cannot find a gift you’d like to buy you can also donate any amount to the appeal and we will then buy gifts for you.

We are also looking for businesses to support our appeal

If your company would like to support our campaign contact [email protected].