Acknowledgment

The first step in the healing process is acknowledging to yourself, and feeling acknowledged by others, that a crime has taken place. One way to do this is to talk about it in the broader context of violence against women and children. This is one way to help the healing process in society, as well as in your own life.

Filmmaker Cathy Henkel explains: "One of the major things I have learnt about healing is that a person who has suffered trauma needs to be heard, to be believed, not to be blamed and to be understood."

Journalist Charlene Smith, who played a key role in the film THE MAN WHO STOLE MY MOTHER'S FACE, has led the way in raising the profile of sexual assault in South Africa, by speaking up about her own attack and getting articles published in the mainstream media.

Charlene says, "[Writing my articles] started encouraging an unbelievable amount of changes in society. Private hospital groups [introduced] Rape Care Clinics, [along with] specific packs for rape survivors after they were raped, because after I was raped at the District Surgeon’s office there wasn’t toilet paper so I had to wipe myself with a sanitary towel; they didn’t have soap for me to wash the blood off my hands so we now have packs that rape survivors get with clean clothes and basic toiletries so you feel good. We now have specialised Rape Courts. There have been all sorts of changes that that article helped to start and that other people moved forward and continued with."

Likewise, Cathy's film has helped raise the profile of sexual assault in South Africa and around the world. But Cathy points out that, although the story plays out largely in Johannesburg, it is not just a film and web site about South Africa.

"This crime could have taken place in any country, and the young, white teenager who carried out the assault could live anywhere. South Africa lends a unique quality to the circumstances, but it is a universal story about the aftermath of trauma and the need for some form of justice."

Thoko Majokweni, an advocate with South Africa’s Special Director of Public Prosecutions, agrees: "I hope that the reception to your film is such that it encourages women and children, whom-ever has been raped, even a man who has been sexually assaulted, to come out and report and trust the system and assist the system to have their case dealt with to finality."

While not everyone has access to the media, there are other ways you can help raise the profile of this crime by talking about it.

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