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| Heart to heart: Tinka Labuschagne, a senior education specialist, hugs a 10-year-old girl who has been sexually abused, raped and sodomised by her brother and two of his friends since age six |
Sexual abuse of children is an uncomfortable topic that many people choose to ignore in their everyday lives, but thanks to a South African photojournalist Mariella Furrer, through her new book 'My Piece of Sky', shines a spotlight on the young victims, offering an unflinching look at this global epidemic.
The 700-page volume features gut-wrenching images documenting the country's great scourge and
interviews with more than a dozen survivors who had been subjected to unthinkable acts of depravity. Check out the photos below.
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| Too young: Professor Lorna Jacklin, a neuro-developmental pediatrician, begins a forensic examination on a sexually abused 2-and-a-half-year-old girl. Asked to lie down for the checkup, the toddler spread her legs as she had been taught to do by her tormentor |
Susanna, Venus and Dylan are among the 17 survivors who are interviewed in the book. To protect the identities of the children, Furrer changed their names.
Susanna was 8 years old when she was initiated into a satanic cult where initiation activities included sexual abuse, gang rape and bestiality. As a result of the trauma she experienced, Susanna developed dissociative identity disorder and has over 200 identities, many of whom are self-mutilators.
Furrer supplemented the story with an image showing the legs of the survivor, who is now 24 years old, covered in cuts.
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| Visible scars: The mutilated legs of Susanna, 24, who at age 8 was initiated into a satanic cult where she was subjected to rape, sodomy and bestiality. As a result of the trauma she experienced, Susanna developed dissociative identity disorder and has over 200 identities, many of whom are self-mutilators. |
- Venus was also 8 when she was stabbed through her heart and lung, raped, sodomized, strangled and left for dead. The perpetrator was a family friend. Venus hid overnight in the bushes, unable to cry for help because of the strangulation. She managed to pull herself onto the road in the morning where she was eventually discovered by a neighbor and taken to hospital.
- Dylan was sexually abused from a young age by two of his male teachers. He grew up to be a prostitute and a drug addict, stole cars, lived on the streets, and was in and out of jail. At times he was able to turn things around, and for a while he was happily married, but it never lasted. In 2008, Dylan was arrested and told that he would spend a very long time in prison. The day of his arrest he hanged himself in his cell.
According to a 2009 report by Solidarity Helping Hand cited by Slate, South Africa leads the world in cases of sexual abuse targeting minors, with a child being raped every three minutes.
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| Hand in hand: A girl supports her friend, who was taken to General Hospital in Johannesburg in November 2002 after allegedly being raped during a school outing |
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| Chris is driven to the Police Child Protection Unit in Cape Town in March 2004 so that a social worker could try and get a statement from him as he was too scared to talk to the investigating officer. He never disclosed what happened, so the perpetrators never went to trial |
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| Traumatized: A young girl who was forced to play sexual games with a 9-year-old relative attempts to flee a doctor's room before a medical forensic examination at the Teddy Bear Clinic for Abused Children in Johannesburg |
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| Crackdown: Task team members prepare to raid an apartment in Johannesburg in 2004 where they suspect children are being forced into prostitution |
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| Gone: Volunteers from all over Pretoria are debriefed before beginning to search for Sheldean Human, a 7-year-old girl who vanished in February 2007 while playing with a friend |
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| Aftermath: A classmate of Sheldean Human weeps at her memorial in March 2007. The 7-year-old's decomposing body was found in a storm drain 15 days after her disappearance |
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| Taking a stand: Protests outside the court where Andrew Jordaan, charged with 7-year-old Sheldean Human's murder, is scheduled to appear |
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| Public outcry: Members of the ANC Women's League at the funeral of 3-year-old Sibongile Mokoena, who was raped and murdered in 2003 in Soweto |
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| Victimized: Friends and relative comfort Lebohang Mokoena, the aunt of a girl named Sibongile, who went missing while in her care in November 2003 in Soweto |
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