Guess how much...

I love you...

On Wednesday this past week I got up at the crack of dawn... left the house in the dark to meet with Monique Strydom at the Bellville Police Station.  I was not too sure what I was getting myself into, as I was asked to go and represent the Connect Network, I am currently working for.

I stood outside in the cold waiting for her in the parking lot... I knew what she looked like but not sure that she would be able to recognise me.  I felt like a bit of a stalker :)

Once she arrived she walked me through the police station like she owned the place.  A few police women met and greeted her with the greatest of affection and then me too... simply because I was with her?

Next we were ushered into a room full of police who were getting awards for all sorts of wonderful things they had done for the area we live in.  After a photo shoot for the newspaper with the police, we loaded into cars and headed off the Karl Bremner Hospital.

I got to drive with Monique... I had the first opportunity to ask why I was here.  She had inspired the police women's network to pick up one of the Connect Projects and knit beanies for a charity.  We were on route to go and deliver these over 100 beanies to children and babies in the hospital with a few of the heads of police.

We got a royal tour around the hospital.  Looked in and spent time with the kangaroo mums who had tiny babies that were premature on their skin to grow them.  Amazing and deeply touching to see mom being honoured as incredibly valuable to her child.

Then we walked over to the Thuthuzela centre.  The facility at this hospital where rape victims can come and get a one stop shop help.  See a nurse, doctor, policeman, counsellor...  They do not have to sit in long queues and wait for hours...after they have stood in a police line and...

A counsellor could show us around on Wednesday and we got to ask all our questions and see every part of this facility because thankfully there was no rape victim that day.

 The thing that blew me away surprisingly was the amazing murals on the walls.  They were all taken out of the Sam McBrateney book Guess How Much I LOVE YOU'.  I was deeply touched by this... it made me all emotional... the whole experience was overwhelming.  I asked the staff of the centre if they know the story and if they have the book.  They said no...

I learnt that day that we need these facilities because of the current crisis in our system like children who have been raped that have to sit in government hospital waiting rooms for hours as doctor after doctor ignores them, because the doctor does not want to go to court...

I learnt that the most frequent visitors to these centres are 6-12 year old girls, but boys, men and women come too.

I learnt that getting funding for these centres and the building of more of them is extremely difficult to come by...

I learnt that there is often a shortage of the kits needed to take the evidence...

I got back in my car and realised that the reason I had got so emotional by the mural was because I wish that the PAPA bunny in that book would be how every single rape victim is received and loved back to life.  That they would encounter love and care... the "nurturing heart" of God.

We need to build more of these centres in this nation where we have such high incidences of rape and especially child rape... Centres like this will help the criminal be convicted as the whole process is sped up.

My heart is for all rape victims to know just how much God loves them because of the way they are loved by caring humans!  I am going to start this week by going to drop the book off at the Tutuzella Center.