Sindi
A defenseless little girl, a heartbreaking story. Bad to read, hard to write, but so much worse to live through. We are all upset when we tell you about Sindi, our little big girl.
Sindi's mother is HIV-positive. She has no parents and when she got pregnant, her boyfriend left her. Bobbi Bear volunteers helped her as well as they could, but Sindi's mother had been infected for a long time, and during her pregnancy there were no anti-retrovirals available. Because babies still have antibodies of their mothers in their blood, HIV/AIDS-tests are unreliable for little children. There was still hope that little Sindi was healthy, but this hope was roughly swept away when she was raped at age 2. The perpetrator was HIV-positive.
Thanks to donations of Uthando and partner organization Be More, among others, Sindi was treated by Bobbi Bear and her mother was taught to read and write. Together they participated in a program that taught Sindi's mother about coping with HIV/AIDS and administring medication. Everyone was crazy about the sweet little girl and help was offered by countless people. Step by step, Sindi got better and she visibly flourished.
Last week Sindi - now six years old - was raped three times by a neighbor. The volunteers of Bobbi Bear worked tirelessly until the middle of the night to have the perpetrator arrested. After which his 21-year old son showed up to resume his father's practices. The second time in a week, Sindi was treated for the consequences of sexual abuse.
At Bobbi Bear, Sindi is surrounded by love and care, but the new infection and the trauma result in a big setback. We are crushed when we think of Sindi, our little big girl. We want to write how completely devestated we are, until we realize she is.
