Diary : 7 July 2011 (Child Rescue)

3 months ago, a shy and quiet girl was brought to our field office with a distraught mother seeking assistance. She claims that the step-father has his eyes on the daughter and she was afraid that her daughter will be raped.

We interviewed the child in depth, but nothing came up. Nothing in her statements helped to confirm the risk that the child was facing. So, we without any solid evidence, we could only assist thus far. Only advising her to seek help if problems occur.

Recently, another villager reported that this very same child was again at risk of being raped. We quickly took this piece of information seriously and got the village head to arrange for an urgent meeting.

Today, the mother brought her child to the office. This time, the little girl was not only quiet, but visibly scared; her hands were cold and trembling. It was only after a long while before she started to open up; telling us that her step father will go to her room once in a while to peep at her sleep.

When we probed further, she told us that "once in a while" meant that he came into the room around 10 nights in a month when her mother was not around ! That's a staggering once every 3 days !

She told us of how the father occasionally slip his hands on her thighs while she froze in fear and pretended to sleep. And many days she would be so scared of sleeping alone that she will run to the neighbour's house to sleep.

That was when we decided that the situation calls for us to extract this child into safety.

She suddenly looked up at us and spoke up for the first time without being asked....

She said in her soft voice.. "He told me that he would give me money if I allowed him to fondle my breast, but i didn't"

That was the final straw. Our team quickly arranged all the paperwork and extracted this poor child from her home that very same evening.

After whisking the child into the safety of our vehicle, my staff looked at the child and asked her "are you happier now that you're safe?" She replied in her soft, shy voice...."very... very happy"

What a day !