Shelter for child survivors of abuse in Malaysia

Childhood is a crucial time when the experiences we have and the lessons we learn all help to shape the adults we become. At WAO’s Child Care Centre (CCC) we know all too well that the environment in which children live plays a critical role in how they flourish and develop at this important time of their lives. We also uphold the principle that very child has the right to a standard of living adequate to the child’s physical, mental, emotional and social development.

Yaminy (pseudonym), aged 13, and her 3 siblings first came to WAO in September 2017 with their mother after suffering physical abuse by their father. Having endured 11 years of being physically and emotionally abused, as well as a broken jaw as a result of the abuse in September 2017, their mother found the strength and courage to seek our assistance for redress.

While their mother’s medical, legal, and emotional needs were taken care of, we also worked to ensure that Yaminy and her children’s physical and emotional needs were addressed with regular visits from licensed mental health professionals, as well as ensuring that they had access to education while their school transfer applications were being processed. As we recognise that moving children to a new location often disrupts their education, we hire experienced homeschool teachers to minimise the effects of the disruption as well as to normalise their lives as much as possible.

During the first three months, the homeschool teacher who taught Yaminy and her siblings expressed her concern for their wellbeing as they were unable to catch up in her class due to the language barrier as they only spoke Tamil, also as they were displaying symptoms of poor anger management and behavioural problems. Yaminy and her siblings were identified as having special needs and received extra support at homeschool. They experienced traumatic events during the period that they and their mother experienced physical abuse and their new living arrangements exacerbated those issues.

It was also observed that the children were being aggressive with each other, and this often led to some of them needing urgent medical attention. As such, we ensured that they had a counsellor whom they could converse with in Tamil and who was committed in playing a crucial role in their recovery by providing one-to-one counselling and designing a care plan for the children. After healing from the broken jaw and obtaining an approval on the school transfer applications, their mother took the first step to stabilise her life and found a job in January 2018. Her plan was to find a safe place for her to eventually support Yaminy and her siblings.

In February 2018, Yaminy and her siblings’ counsellor reported a significant improvement with regard to the children’s wellbeing, and this improvement was visible. Also, as we also uphold the principle that children have the right to participate in their own protection and decisions on their wellbeing, Yaminy and her siblings were already able to form whole sentences in English and Bahasa Malaysia as a result of their request for extra tuition classes in these subjects. Their mother realised her plan to find a safe place for her children, and took her children to their new home. Unfortunately, the perpetrator, Yaminy and her siblings’ father, found them in their new school and also where they were living. Thus, Yaminy and her siblings had to be moved back to the CCC, while their mother found another place to stay in the interim. Between February and May, this unfortunate incident has occurred twice, therefore, their mother decided that the best safety plan for her children is to stay at the CCC and that she will revisit the reintegration plan in July 2018.

Yaminy and her siblings are progressing exceptionally well at the CCC, where they are now supportive of each other and of other children, and eagerly participate in volunteer activities, as well as in school and after-school tuition classes. They have also built meaningful positive relationships with their peers and the volunteers who visit them at the CCC. The staff and volunteers at the CCC continue to support Yaminy, her siblings and their mother while they find their footing to start a new life.

This story has given the staff and volunteers at the CCC an opportunity to step back from the day-to-day and think about our roots, achievements, challenges and future, and how our funders have a key role in strengthening our to support survivors like Yaminy and her siblings, for which we are grateful and thankful for.