The Tree Clinic and Bobbi Bear

Ok. Here we go, as some of you may have noticed, this blog is pretty late! I have a feeling this is gonna take a while so get your snacks ready!!

Last Wednesday we went around the other projects, and it was great seeing the work, effort and love that goes into them. They are all so different from the Dream Centre. We don't work with children for a start! First stop was the Tree Clinic. It was amazing, simple as. Beside the main road there's a patch of grass with a huge tree, under which women, children and occasionally men gather weekly so support each other. These people are the poorest of the poor and often wake up early and walk hours to arrive. They sing, pray and receive whatever the volunteers can collect, sometimes it's nothing but they still come. Helen was really upset at seeing a boy who had been hit by his mother's boyfriend so hard that the left side of his face was completely swollen. There was also the cutest little thing who we thought was a 6 month old baby – maybe because of malnutrition, maybe because of Aids - he was actually 2 years old. It was strange seeing a tiny tiny person with a full set of baby teeth! He was being looked after by his 13 year old sister as his mother died.

I sound like such a girl here but when he laughed it was amazing!! And he loved kissing the Love Bug (see pictures!) hehe. I think these women do fantastic work, if only to bring people together to share problems. There was a bucket going around for a family who couldn't afford to retrieve their daughter from the mortuary to bury her. It cost R4000 – about 250 pounds. Everyone put something in, even if it was 5 cents, because they know that when they need help themselves, everyone else would rally around to help.

Went to Bobbi Bear, a charity for abused children. They collect evidence against rapists and paedophiles and take them to court, often waiting for hours at hospitals and police stations with the child. I was not prepared for how I would feel listening to the woman talk about 2 or 3 out of thousands of similar stories.

An 18 month baby was left at the bottom of the Tree, she opened the blanket and in her own words “her tiny vagina fell open”. She had been raped and died of internal injuries. An 18 month old baby. In South Africa, it is quite widely believed that if you have sex with a virgin, your Aids will be cured.

Another story. A husband was convicted of raping his young daughter. Bobbi Bear receives a call from the wife saying “you killed my husband, he's threatening to hang himself”. He actually did. But hang on, your husband raped your own daughter and you think nothing of that?! She, like many others, place more importance on keeping their husbands than protecting their children.

In order to not traumatise the child as much as necessary, Bobbi Bear gives the child a bear and a pen, and soon they start drawing on what happened to them. The bears are covered entirely in ink. One that I saw affected me a lot, someone had written, “cut piece of my hair”. Why??? Because the child hasn't gone through enough?!


God I just took a break from writing because I started crying again. Again, I can't even begin to describe how it felt.

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