Precious

Have you seen "Precious"?  It is an amazing film.  But don't be lulled into thinking it is a black story or an American story. 

Yesterday I had a conversation with a friend about this film & the fact that it is easy to see it as a black story or an American story or a poor person's story.  It isn't.  It is the story of far too many women & children throughout the world.  

Let me tell you my story.  Many years ago I worked in a women's refuge in South Australia.  I had just completed a social work degree but had been a registered nurse for about 10 years by that time.   I thought I had seen or heard everything.  But I was wrong.  

What I witnessed over the two years I worked in that refuge was the most gut-wrenching episodes of human cruelty & evil I have ever witnessed in my life.  As I told my friend, the first Christmas/New Year period I worked there, 16 children were in resident & of that 16, 11 were victims of sexual assault by a parent or step-parent.  The youngest @ the time was 18 months old & she had been regularly sexually assaulted by her father since she was 3 months old.  Then there was the mother whose 4 daughters were sexually abused regularly by her husband (their step father) - the oldest 16, the youngest 10. Dad was in prison, funnily enough for sex crimes, but mum wrote to him regularly, describing in hideous, explicit detail, the sexual activities she wanted them all to engage in.  Neither family were black, only one on welfare. There were others @ that time & over the two years I saw many more.

A few months after I left the refuge I went to visit a friend.  At the end of the visit my friend told me that day was the first in over 2 years she had seen me smile.  Working @ the refuge had paralysed my face muscles.

So don't be fooled or lulled into a sense that these things only happen in black families, poor families, welfare families: I assure you they happen in every kind of family, including "devoutly" religious families. 

If you haven't seen Precious - go see it.  And in the end remember - it only takes one out-stretched hand to help someone find their spirit & soul.