WE’RE FAILING OUR CHILDREN

THE article about the “house of horrors” children who’ve yet to receive counselling (YOU, 4 May) shows our judiciary system is lenient on criminals but hard on victims. Cases where children are the victims should be treated as emergencies but no matter how the cases are handled, children’s healing process must be prioritised. That counselling might tamper with their testimony should be of secondary concern.

Courts might think it’s better for cases to drag on to gather enough evidence but they don’t seem to consider the effects this has on child victims. We already have a problem of abused children who suffer in silence because they fear that should they report their abusers they might be killed or thrown out of their homes. Such children are hard to detect and support. But we must help those child victims whose plight we know of.

The future of any country is its children. The last thing we need is for them to adopt a rebellious manner as a result of being victims of abuse. PERCY MOFFAT, MAMELODI EAST TALK TO US • Email letters@you.co.za • SMS 36489 • Post YOU, PO Box 7167, Roggebaai 8012 Letters should be no longer than 200 words. Opinions expressed here aren’t necessarily those of YOU’s editorial team. We can’t undertake to reply to all letters. The sender of the winning letter receives R300.