This is why we celebrate all of the girls’ little victories.
Girls come to the SHE Rescue home traumatised from their experiences of sex trafficking and exploitation. This trauma often leads to serious mental and emotional health issues that need time to heal and restore.
Victims of sexual abuse often struggle with feelings of fear, worthlessness, severe guilt and post traumatic stress disorder. This trauma can manifest in many ways. Many girls don’t care about their own personal hygiene when they first come into our SHE Rescue Home. They don’t bath or shower, they continue using rags during their periods instead of hygiene products supplied, they can fear being seen by doctors and getting help for illness.
This is why we celebrate anytime a girl begins to shower regularly. It is a simple sign that she is starting to look after herself. She is starting to value not just her health, but her own life.
Sadly this is just one of the many difficulties survivors face.
We have seen many manifestations of girls trauma over the past decade. Everything from violent outbursts, refusing to talk, hiding, desperate acts for approval and highly sexualised behaviour. Human traffickers normalise violence, fear, manipulation and sexual behaviour as the only way to relate to other people. Our counsellors and house moms work together to teach and help rebuild the girls’ relationships with themselves and others.
Every girls case is different and no two girls are the same.
One girl even experienced a great deal of additional trauma during her time at the police station after being rescued. Due to the complexities of her case, the only safe place for her was the SHE Home whilst we helped her mother arrange a safe place for both her and her daughter to live in the future. Her mother asked us to take her into care once she learnt the perpetrator was being released on bail, leaving the daughter extremely vulnerable if she returned to home as the perpetrator knew where they lived.
When the SHE Home staff drove the girl to the SHE Home, she screamed for her mother during the entire drive. Although she had experienced unfathomable sexual trauma she was unable to recall some of these experiences, a process known as dissociative amnesia. But the memory of being separated from her mother was in the forefront of her mind.
She initially experienced severe anxiety and high sensitivity, especially around our staff as she was afraid of never seeing her mother again. With time, counselling and regular visits from her mother, she began to feel safe in the SHE Rescue Home.
Within a few months, she was able to recall traumatic experiences and allow her counsellors and housemothers to help her navigate the storm of emotions she was traversing. She is now reintegrated to a home we built in a new community for her mother and their family. After overcoming so many hurts, fears and traumas it is heartwarming to see her thriving at home with her family.
