Citipointe International Care and Aid - SHE Rescue Home

HOME OF HOPE | TRANSITION HOME

Reporting period: August 2014

General Updates:

School Holidays:

During the July-August school holidays, the girls had a couple of fun holiday outings! The zoo was a big hit and they were excited to be able to see animals they had learnt about in real life. The cheeky monkeys kept everyone laughing! At the water park, the girls enjoyed the giant water slide and flying fox and had lots of fun splashing around in the heat.

New Girl:

This past month has been an exciting month as we transferred another girl over from the SHE Home .Below is her story

SHE 20 – 9 years old

This precious girl is 9 years old and studies in Grade 2. She has been living in our care since 2013. She came to live in our care after a referral through her cousin, who is a reintegrated girl from the SHE program.After finding out about her cousin’s sexual exploitation and being able to share what had been happening in her own life,her own abuse was reported to the police and we have been working with her since that time She visits her cousin on family visits and enjoys time with her mother and three other siblings.

Her mother is very transient and moves from one home to another depending on her financial situation. As a result of this instability it is not yet safe for her to return home to her family as these factors create a higher risk for sexual exploitation.Another safety concern we have is that her mother has an unstable relationship with a man. She has shared that to help her mother settle down, she would like to buy a house for her when she grows up. Her mother is also a part of our Family Assistance Program and makes over 400 bracelets a month and sometimes she is able to make some customised bags for some additional income.

It was hard for her to transfer to the Transition Home as she really enjoyed staying at the SHE Home, but with the support of her counsellor and house mother at Home of Hope, she is slowly adjusting to this change and enjoying the additional freedom. Each morning, she rides her bicycle to the SHE Home to meet the other girls to go to school together.

She enjoys beading and her favorite food is fried chicken with ginger. She has many ambitions -a factory worker, doctor, singer and now she wants to be a police woman in Australia! She has also shown significant improvements in her English and has been translating for some of the other students in her class! She loves to read and had memorized a whole book and recited it out to her teacher.

Girls Updates: / SHE P01 – 18 years old
She has settled into the new Home of Hope very well. A massive change is that she has started taking a tuktuk to her life skills school all on her own without her housemother! This has been a significant achievement as we are working with her towards independent living. As a result of having polio and a fever when she was young that caused physical and intellectual disability, she has limited control over her left arm. She continues to see a physiotherapist for this and this has helped significantly with completing everyday tasks.
/ Staff Daughter – 15 years old
This 15 year old girl stays in the Home 5 days per week as her mother is the full time carer for the girl with disabilities. She stays at Home of Hope as she would be at risk if she is home unsupervised while her mother works in the Home. She has built good relationships with the girls she lives with and follows the same routine as the girls. They have also been helping each other with homework and enjoying fun activities together such as cycling and art and craft.
/ SHE T02 – 15 years old
She was very excited on a recent overnight family visit as she got to play with her siblings! They rode together on a boat as it floods in her area during wet season. She didn’t see her mother as she had moved homes and they haven’t been in contact. However, she always enjoys seeing her siblings who stays with her auntie, which is her favourite part of family visits.
She is unsure what she would like to do for vocational training. In the meantime, she wants to complete her studies and hopes to achieve high grades. Her social worker will work with her to explore vocational training options.
/ SHE T03 – 13 years old
This girl really enjoyed her 2 week family visit which was part of her reintegration trial. She helped her father catch fish with the fishing equipment and boat we have purchased for the family and enjoyed playing with her siblings and children in her community. She was sad to return to SHE after her visit but she will be returning home to her family very soon when the family becomes more financially stable. In order to promote financial stability, the family will be joining our Family Assistance Program and start some sewing projects. This will help the family with skill development and produce regular income.
We also gave the family some rice during her 2 week visit to ensure that everyone in the family had enough food to eat while she stayed with them.
/ SHE T05 – 13 years old
She is very excited about a Men’s Team coming to build a house for her family at the end of this month! After the house is built and her mother settles in, this precious girl will be ready to return home to her family. Her social worker will support her and her mother with settling into the home by working on life skills with them. Her counsellor has also been working with her on trafficking prevention and safety planning.
Her mother has been a part of our Family Assistance Program since April 2014. She has been making approximately 400-500 bracelets per month and is earning a stable wage. She had fallen sick with Typhoid this month and hasn’t been able to make as many bracelets as she did in previous months.
She enjoys doing origami and loves to eat deep fried chicken. When she grows up, she would like to be a teacher.

Report Prepared 19th August 2014 Citipointe International Care and Aid | SHE Rescue Home Page 1 of 3