Healing & recovery

"My greatest achievement has been that I have learnt to trust people again. I am learning to like, even love, humanity, society, life itself." - Laura Henkel, grandmother, university student and survivor of sexual assault.

"One of the things that I do now, since I was raped, is I tell people a lot how much I love them. I’m pleased that I do it now because I know that when I die, hopefully I won’t have left anything unsaid." - Charlene Smith, journalist and survivor of sexual assault.

As journalist and sexual assault survivor Charlene Smith tells filmmaker Cathy Henkel: "You cannot underestimate the power of the human spirit or the desire of people to heal and to help other people heal. I believe that you heal by helping others, so if we can create a network where my 'payment’ from rape survivors or people with HIV [that I help] is that they help other people... so you start a process, that’s all you do."

Bongani Linda, a theatre director and campaigner against sexual assault, adds, "Once you allow yourself to be a victim, then you’re giving power and victory to the perpetrator, because that’s exactly what they do. When they rape they want to destroy, they want to assert their power, they want you be at their mercy. Do not allow it to happen. Stand on your two feet and say, 'I will not be a victim. It has happened, but I’m not going to allow it to destroy me and I’m not going to keep quiet about it.'"

Find out more...

Acknowledgment
Helping someone
Support groups
The role of counselling

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