The Girls

It has taken much longer to get to know the girls well - you really have to earn their trust first - but when you do you quickly realise that behind the tough exteriors are sweet, vulnerable, loving girls in desperate need of love and support and someone to care about them.

It is impossible to imagine how traumatic it must be as a female to survive street life with all its dangers. Some of the girls I have met are permanently high on glue, almost detached from reality. This has obviously become their only way of surviving this horrendous existence.

The girls have led me by the hand round the streets of Durban showing me the places they go - places I would never dare go on my own yet who is going to worry if they will be safe? There are no parents wondering if they are alright.

Most of the girls take pride in their appearance and like to keep themselves looking nice to the point that you may not at first realise they are living on the street until you notice the bare feet or get close enough to smell the glue. Some of them are mothers and of course many of them are HIV positive.

Last week I was working with the team trying to support one girl towards getting treatment for HIV. This can be a long process and unfortunately this girl looks very sick. Her beaming smile and uncomplaining nature hide a very sad story. She gave birth to a baby girl a few years ago and managed to get accommodation in a shelter so that she could raise her daughter away from the streets. The couple who were running the shelter took the baby for themselves and pushed her out of the shelter telling her that she couldn't support the baby and chased her away any time she tried to visit her daughter.

Before this girl can get treatment she needs to get an official ID card (required by all SA citizens). When she eventually gets this she then needs to get her CD4 count checked and depending on the result may be eligible to commence ARV therapy ( not everyone who is HIV positive in SA will receive treatment). To begin treatment whilst living on the streets is almost impossible and she will therefore have to find a shelter to stay in. There are so many hurdles to cross before this poor girl can get the medical treatment she deserves not to mention the intense ongoing psychological support she needs as a result of the traumas she has endured.

This situation is just so heartbreaking and this girl is just one of many struggling to literally survive.

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