Crisis Centre facing another crisis as funds are cut

The Centre reaches out to the most vulnerable

September 19, 2018

T Worley 1 minute read

Carol Bradley and her staff at the Dundee Crisis Centre have seen first hand the terrible damage rape can do to a child.
Carol visibly shivers when she recalls the day the police brought in a two-year-old girl to the Centre after she had been discharged from hospital after being raped.
“She was still bleeding from her genitals and we had to nurse her. It was not clear if the police ever caught the perpetrator.
“The child was eventually taken into foster care.
“A child like that will be forever emotionally traumatised. The scars will never heal,” says Carol.
The Centre has also cared for a mentally disabled teenager who was raped.
“A person can be brought here for six months. After that, a foster family or relative must be found to where the person can go to. It is sad as sometimes people who have suffered horribly at the hands of others are abandoned.”
Other cases Carol recalls include a man raping his cousin and a nine-year-old boy who was allegedly sexually assaulted by his soccer coach.
“What scares me is that we see and hear so much of rape that society is becoming desensitised of this scourge.
“Even relatives of victims somehow seem to even accept that it is part of growing up in South Africa.
“If truth be told, rape lays waste to lives and anyone who has been through such an ordeal cannot function as a normal person without divine intervention.”
Disturbingly, the Social Development department has seen fit to cut the Crisis Centre’s annual grant by a third which will stretch their resources even thinner over a scarred society.