Story of Joy @ Christmas

Story of Horror becoming story of Joy

Philip Stoneman less than a minute ago

Every so often, a case comes along that shakes one to the very core. The case of little L is one that has affected not only members of her community, the staff at iThemba but members of the community at large. I remember thinking how great is the depth of evil in society, but then was encouraged at the overwhelming response to the plight of Little L. For those of you who had not heard of the story of Little “L”, here is a brief outline of her story released on the 12th November:
On the 5th November, a little girl of approximately 5-6 years of age was bought into our centre for examination.
A neighbour in Etwatwa, heard small mewing noises coming from a shack in her neighbourhood. The police were called in to investigate and upon opening the shack door were horrified to find the little girl, tied by her ankle to a table drinking out of a bowl and gnawing on a bone. Here they found little "L" Little "L" had no sense of balance, could not walk and was not potty trained. She had even been eating her own faeces at her shack
Her moods swung from uncontrollable laughter to violence; her knees, elbows and ankles were covered in hard callouses. Our counsellor placed a doll in her hands which she threw away, she did not respond to any form of maternal affection... " L" displayed inappropriate promiscuous behaviour during the forensic examination, which also proved to be positive. The mother "Little L" was supposed to have trusted and depend on for a normal childhood was the very same person who ripped her innocence away from her. The mother has since been imprisoned and is awaiting trial. A week later, Little “L” came into our centre with the lady providing her care: there is such a turnaround. When I met her, she was unable to talk but grunts and tries to talk in limited syllables. I gave a her a teddy bear and put my arms out. She was helped toward me as she cannot walk on her own, and hugged me. she held me tight.. afterwards I was quite emotional and had to walk away to hold back the tears. Then she played with one of our counsellors’ ..laughing! This story of Horror is slowly developing into a story of joy and healing.
Thanks to David O Sullivan and 702, we were able to raise awareness of the challenges Little “L” faces. Thanks to a caring community , we have pledges of clothing, food and nappies and about R12000.00 towards Little “L”. In addition, to these pledges, Doug Jones of Makro pledged a three year supply of nappies and food toward Little “L” as well as a seed donation of R10 00.00 towards her special needs. There are a number of other Donors who we will mention on our website and say thank you.
Yesterday, two of our counsellors’, Rosina and Kelly visited her at home and took some of the goodies dropped off for her at our centre. She remembered Rosina and even said the name of one of the other counsellors’ that had helped her….as if asking where she was. She has so much potential and with love and care she will grow into a woman that has survived a horrific ordeal as a child, but has survived nonetheless. The cycle of violence has been broken, she has learnt love through the care of the people around her.
Because of her, together with the support of the donors for Little L, Makro and with the assistance of the Change a Life Trust we will set up a “Little L “ Victim Support Trust Fund, that will not only ensure that all of the monies donated for Little L will be used for her special needs, but that in future we can provide specialist care and assistance to other victims of crime who may need this specialized care in addition to the care provided by iThemba. Your support will not only offer Hope (iThemba) to victims but will Change A Life.

Philip Stoneman
Director

(011) 422-4107
073 270 3375
philip@traumasupport.org.za 

www.traumasupport.org.za 

if you would like to donate to Little L,
Nedbank Benoni 190 342
Ithemba rape and trauma support centre
Account: 190 3511 909
REFERENCE: “Little L” Victim Support Fun

Will History Repeat itself...?

Preview: Will History Repeat itself...?

In 2009, during the 16 days of activism, reports of abuse against women and children are alarmingly high and shocking. The increase of these cases is not in itself a bad thing: we want statistics to go up, it means women and children feel safer in reporting. However, the negative is that abuse is  still happening. The only way that we can change this trend on a long term basis, is by improving the collection, collation and presentation of evidence from the point of the crime scene to court and beyond... In other words, improve the system used to assist victims of abuse. 

Read the article below written in 2006, and comment on further suggestions to improve the system supporting victims of abuse.

The redeploying of the Family Violence and Child protection and Sexual Assault Unit members has seriously undermined the fight against sexual violence, The message sent out by the SAPS to rape survivors was that they are not important enought to warrant a specialised unit. Although members were redeployed to hotspot areas, there has been a vacuum of experienced investigators in other areas. Inexperienced investigators are being assigned abuse cases, and so certain cases are not receiving the best possible attention.
Investigators are under resourced and under staffed. Even in this age of electronic technology, investigators do not have adequate access to equipmentsuch as laptops / internet that would assist their investigations.

SAPS members are not receiving adequate training in the handling of rape and sexual violence cases, and the so-called Victim empowerment services available at police stations are ineffective due to insufficient training of volunteers, inadequate management structures implemented and a high turnover rate of victim empowerment volunteers due to burnout.

Another contributing factor to poor service delivery is not so much the department responsible but more the system used to assist rape survivors medico-legally.

Unless rape survivors are bought to iThemba, or other NGO's for the Forensic Assault Examination, survivors are taken to either a private healthcare facility or a provincial hospital. Regardless whether the service received at these facilities is good or not, the environment is not always the most supportive for a rape survivor. At any casualty or emergency room, priority cases will always recieve priority!  A Gunshot or cardiac arrest patient will always be seen before a rape survivor unless the rape survivor has serious injuries: medical staff cannot be faulted for that. Once the Medico-legal examiner is available to see the rape survivor, the collection of evidence and filling in of the justic form J88 is not always going to be prioritized; There is not always sufficient time available for the filling out of forms to be 100% accurate. There have been cases when forms have been incomplete, not unusual on a busy friday night.

So, what is the solution?

In order for survivors to receive the optimal treatment they deserve, we need to see the resetablishment of a specialised unit dealing with sexual and physical abuse comprised of experienced investigators working in conjunction with one stop rape crisis centres dedicated to supporting rape survivors both emotionally and medico-legally. As part of this approach, regular communication with role players such as the regional courts,prosecutors, and social welfare workers would need to take place. A system whereby greater care is taken in respect of the careful gathering of forensic evidence, greater communication between police investigators and the prosecutors would contribute to higher conviction rates. Such centralisation of services would also foster better community awarenes and education and begin to lower the rates of sexual violence.

I might sound like an alarmist, but unless we start re-developing our approach to sexual violence against adults and children, we may find that we are sitting on a social time bomb. The effect of sexual violence on our children and women will be felt in years to come if these survivors do not begin to receive the care they should receive both emotionally, psychologically and medically. It is time for us to act now!

                                    Philip Stoneman