BWR224: Group Little Rock's Experience at Huis Soetehoop

From the left: Jade, Mignon, Claire, Wilhelm, Sne', Lelanie, Natania, Lezanne, Isna & Alicia

The children at  Soetehoop at Ons Kinderhuis are all male and vary between the ages of 10 and 17 years old and are both English- and Afrikaans-speaking. The children in the group were sexually abused, physically abused or neglected and have or will be exposed to court proceedings. They had no knowledge of court procedures and roles of each person present in a courtroom.

Goals:

• To inform and teach the children of Huis Soetehoop issues on Law of Evidence.
• To educate the children in a fun way which would be easy for them open up, relate to and understand.
• To leave them with the message that they all have rights and are protected by our Legal System.

Visiting Huis Soetehoop was not compulsory, but Little Rock’s intention was to get to know the children, their needs and connect with them on a more personal level.

Background:

Because these are neglected children who have been abused and had no knowledge of the court procedures and roles of each person present in a courtroom, Little Rock decided on a play and donated a DVD of it to Huis Soetehoop as a memoir, but also as an educational DVD for future reference and hope.

It was shown to them at a “movie afternoon” - where we had snacks and drinks. Afterwards we had a session where they could ask questions and then we asked for their inputs and their interpretation of the play.

Inputs and questions from them were valuable and only now could one detect how much they needed such a session.

This experience has been a huge learning curve for the members of Little Rock and not only did we teach the boys, but we’ve also learnt from them. Little Rock intends to visit the house again in future and be of assistance to them where we can.

Having everything easy is not what counts, it’s what you make of what you have!