Brave Boy’s Fight for Justice

Mamsy, a First Responder from GRIP'sHazyview Police Station Care Room, helped a young 9 year old boy Survivor who came to report that he was being sexually abused during the month of July. The Survivor was brought in by his Grandmother. This poor child was being sexually violated by his uncle. The young boy explained that it was not for the first time he has been raped. He can remember his uncle ‘hurting him’ 3 times on 3 different occasions. His grandmother had started noticing a change in the young boys behaviour – money started vanishing from her purse and the child started to play up at home. The Grandmother eventually caught her grandson digging in her handbag. When the Grandmother questioned the child, he confessed that he had been stealing her money to buy sweets and things to make him feel better as he didn't know what to do and felt so sad and confused about his uncle’s abuse. The young boy has been threatened by the uncle who said that he would kill him and his grandmother if he ever spoke up about what was happening. After intaking the Survivor and counselling him and his mother, Mamsy went to the charge office to ask the SAPS Officer to come take Survivor' statement in our child friendly care room. The Police initially refused to open a case as they would not believe the young boy and said that there was insufficient evidence. This is an ongoing challenge and a reason why we feel so strongly about having GRIP representatives at as many Police Stations as possible. Mamsy advocated on their behalf of the child Survivor - she did a sensitization session with SAPS and reminded them of the Survivor's rights to open a case and be referred to the hospital for forensic examination and medical treatment. She insisted that they proceed with the case and fill in the required documents. SAPS opened a police case and the Survivor was transported by the Police to Matikwana Hospital with his Grandmother – which also has a GRIP care room. The child had indeed been sexually abused and by the end of July, the perpetrator was arrested. The Survivor was not coping well with the trauma that he went through - not only was he have behavioural problems, he was having nightmares and struggling to sleep. GRIP offered him and his Grandmother psycho-social support and they have been attending counselling sessions with our in house Social Worker Agreement. Both the Survivor and his Grandmother are doing better and we continue to support the family.