When Zoe was taken into care at the age of 13, she thought she was
finally going to escape from the cruel abuse she had suffered
throughout her childhood. Then social services placed her in a
residential unit known to be 'a target for prostitution', and
suddenly Zoe's life was worse than it had ever been before. Abused
and ostracized by her mother, humiliated by her father's sexual
innuendos, physically assaulted and bullied by her eldest brother,
even as a young child Zoe thought she deserved the desperately
unhappy life she was living. 'I've sharpened a knife for you,' her
mother told her the first time she noticed angry red wounds on her
daughter's arms. And when Zoe didn't kill herself, her mother gave
her whisky, which she drank in the hope that it would dull the
miserable, aching loneliness of her life. One day at school Zoe
showed her teacher the livid bruises that were the result of her
mother's latest physical assault and within days she was taken into
care. Zoe had been at Denver House for just three weeks when an
older girl asked if she'd like to go to a party, then took her to a
house where there were just three men. Zoe was a virgin until that
night, when two of the men raped her. Having returned to the
residential unit in the early hours of the morning, when she told a
member of staff what had happened to her, her social worker made a
joke about it, then took her to get the morning-after pill. For
Zoe, the indifference of the staff at the residential unit seemed
like further confirmation of what her mother had always told her -
she was worthless. Before long, she realised that the only way to
survive in the unit was to go to the 'parties' the older girls were
paid to take her to, drink the drinks, smoke the cannabis and try
to blank out what was done to her when she was abused, controlled
and trafficked around the country. No action was taken by the
unit's staff or social workers when Zoe asked for their help, and
without anyone to support or protect her, the horrific abuse
continued for the next few years, even after she left the unit. But
in her heart Zoe was always a fighter. This is the harrowing, yet
uplifting story, of how she finally broke free of the abuse and
neglect that destroyed her childhood and obtained justice for her
years of suffering.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
(2)
