JOHANNESBURG - The potential foster parents seated in the lounge of the Colonial-era house in Parktown, Johannesburg, can’t help staring at the teenage girl bouncing past them.
She’s striking, with long, blond hair, a wide smile, azure eyes and a vivacious personality. She greets the strangers confidently.
"She was sexually abused by her father with her mother’s agreement, from very, very young,” Director Trish Heslop said in the privacy of her office.
“As a little girl of about 5, she was deflecting abuse from her [three] younger siblings. She took the brunt of it — sexual abuse, emotional abuse, physical abuse, beaten with a stick. …”
Heslop explained that child welfare authorities removed Jessica — not her real name — from this brutal environment when she was 8.
“She was put into foster care, where she was again sexually abused, by her foster father. Again she was removed and put into various places of safety. Then she came to us, because some of her behavior was hard for her very religious foster family to bear," Heslop said. "But fortunately she’s a child with great resilience, and a child who’s smart.”
Jessica, now 15, is one of an estimated 4 million children younger than 16 in South Africa who’ve suffered sexual abuse, said Heslop, quoting data from various sources, including the police.
Despite this statistic, and research by the country’s Medical Research Council saying half the nation’s children will be sexually abused before age 18, Guild Cottage is the only specialist residential treatment center for such traumatized youngsters in South Africa.
“Of the horrific numbers of children that get harmed in this way, we only have the funding and facilities to help 18 children at a time,” Heslop said.
The residents are age 7 to 16.
“Most of the sexual abuse is incest. And most of the kids we have here are children who have been sexually abused within the family. Most of those are stepfathers, mother’s new partner, sometimes brothers, grandfathers, uncles, neighbors,” Heslop said.
Over the years she’s dealt with many tragic cases, and she said many of those children were always on her mind, even though they’re adults now.
“The first child that crops up in my mind is a little girl we had here from the age of 7. Her earliest memory — and memories only become concreted in when you’re about 3 years of age — was of being prostituted by her mother," Heslop said.
She said the child’s mother would sell her daughter to men for sex.
Heslop emphasized that sexual abuse knows no boundaries, adding that residents of Guild Cottage were from diverse backgrounds.
“It crosses every economic, religious, class, cultural boundary. So we have children from very wealthy homes, we have children who live in the shacks in townships; we have children who come from very religious backgrounds,” she said.
Unlike the majority of abused youngsters in South Africa, who are condemned to lives of suffering, Jessica received help at Guild Cottage to overcome her past.
This includes psychological counseling and environmental therapy, through which experts taught her independence, responsibility and appropriate boundaries, behavior and life skills.
The cottage’s psychologists and other therapists forge very close relationships with girls like Jessica in an atmosphere of trust, caring and love.
But Heslop said Jessica “almost didn’t make it.”
After arriving at the cottage about three years ago, and following initial intensive counseling and therapy, Jessica was placed in a school.
Heslop said because of Jessica's history, and her desire to fit in with her new peers, she almost destroyed herself.
"In her first year in high school, because she tries to please, she got involved in some of the drugs that were around, and we got her into rehab," Heslop said.
Jessica said she’ll never forget the staff of Guild Cottage for their patience, and for forgiving her for her mistakes.
“I’ve messed up a lot and they gave me chances. They’ve loved me and they’ve always been there,” she said, looking at Heslop with affection.
Jessica’s now thriving, Heslop said.
“She values education enormously. She is involved in sports in school. She is just a girl who works so hard … and she is prepared to succeed at whatever she does. She studies. … And the school loves her because this is a child who’s polite, she’s respectful; she’s a good role model for the other kids," Helsop said.
Although Jessica hasn’t forgotten the “bad times” and how “worthless” she once felt, she’s now an assertive young woman determined to succeed.