GIRL (4) SUFFERS GRUESOME DEATH - Mariana Balt
Lowvelder 5 OCTOBER 2004
NELSPRUIT - On Thursday a four-year-old girl died in town as a direct result of rape.
Ms Barbara Kenyon, CEO of Grip, told Lowvelder that the girl, who was raped early in September, was brought into the Grip office early on Thursday morning. "When she arrived at our office at 7:30 she was in great pain. Her very slender little body was covered with fresh razor blade incisions over her arms, chest and back. She was also vomiting profusely and her mouth and teeth were a brownish colour," Kenyon said.
According to her, the child’s parents had consulted a traditional healer for help after the rape because she had nightmares, sweats and didn’t want to eat. "This was customary and in accord with parents in that culture wanting to help their child," she added. "Her symptoms were typical of post traumatic stress suffered after rape." The fact that the alleged rapist is a neighbouring underage boy (15), and thus could not be removed but remained in the custody of his parents, exacerbated her trauma. The girl was immediately taken to the hospital by Kenyon where, despite the doctor`s efforts, she died at about 11:00. The actual cause of death has yet to be verified. One possibility is that the traditional medicines were too strong or reacted negatively with the pharmaceutical medicines given as protocol for rape survivors. "Her death, however, remains a direct result of the rape and not negligence of the parents, who, in their own way, tried to get help for her," Kenyon said.
"It is heartbreaking to deal with mainly children under 14 being abused and their childhood rights destroyed," Kenyon continued. "Looking at her face and knowing she had decided life was not worth living, that she no longer wanted to live on this earth because we had all failed her..."
"I now feel guilty that we didn’t pick up the fact that they sought help from a traditional healer, but they denied it to the end, even lied to the doctor when questioned on the medicine given to her and the razor-blade incisions.
Unfortunately we have no right to undress a child to check on this during our routine follow-up visits. It is a mute point of how far we can investigate and how far - legally - we are entitled to react."
Fortunately most survivors who go through Grip’s system of total holistic care, actually do survive - however scarred - to function as contributory members of society.
Still, children lucky enough to survive with their lives, are often doomed to a bleak future. Research has shown that 75% of those who were abused, may become sexually active and promiscuous due to the abuse.
But Grip, faced with this enormous problem, is in a precarious financial situation. Top management has left due to the lack of finances and Kenyon, who established the organisation about four years ago, now has to do the work of at least three people. "Still, we have a great success rate due mainly to our terrific team of volunteers and defusers, who now work for zero financial rewards," she says. "They do it because they have interacted face to face with the most vulnerable of persons. I am so humbled that they still will continue all services, at a personal cost to them-selves, for the continued services to remain intact."
Grip staff and volunteers receive only a meal and a bus ticket when they are on duty. Only the costs for the survivors of domestic violence or rape are budgeted for by the organisation, which is fully dependent on donations.
One of Kenyon’s wishes is that the local community would realise the seriousness of the problem in our area. "It is not a Gauteng problem, the same things we read in their headlines are happening here," she says. "Were it not so, why have three out of four courts in Nelspruit been dedicated to only sexual offence cases...?"
