An interview with Kathy Blevins

Kathy Blevins could tell by the tremble in the child's voice that she was worried. The girl had been sexually abused, but what she seemed most worried about was the myth she had been told: That the abuse could prevent her from having babies someday. "That's when I realized the things kids carry around, and we don't know what they're thinking," said Blevins, co-founder of the Southeast Missouri Network Against Sexual Violence.

Blevins has spent the past 16-plus years helping thousands of sexual abuse victims in Southeast Missouri, most of them children. It's a vocation Blevins nearly passed up.

The Chaffee , Mo., woman was working as a nurse practitioner in 1994 when a colleague told her there was a need in Cape Girardeau for someone to examine children who had been sexually abused. Blevins was reluctant. But her colleague persuaded her to observe an interview with a victim. It was then Blevins realized that with her pediatric experience she could help, and she began doing sexual assault forensic exams on her days off.

Eventually, she became part of a coalition of community members who brought a rape crisis center to Cape Girardeau. SEMO-NASV incorporated in 1997. Once operating on an all-volunteer staff, the organization today employs 22 full-time staff members who have provided medical exams, counseling and forensic interviews to some 7,000 victims.

In her position as forensic nurse director, Blevins examines victims and conducts recorded interviews, one on one, to find out what happened. "One of the things we try to do is make sure the children know they're OK, their bodies are OK and that whatever happened to them is not going to affect who they are or who they become," she said.

READ MORE ABOUT BLEVINS IN THE SPRING 2011 ISSUE OF FLOURISH MAGAZINE, COMING FEB. 7.