Why Do I Scream at God for the Rape of Babies? - Softcover

Ford, Claudia

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1556435479 ISBN 13: 9781556435478

Publisher: North Atlantic Books, 2004

Synopsis

At the center of Why Do I Scream at God for the Rape of Babies? is the tragic story of a five-month-old South African baby named Vyanna who is left alone in a Johannesburg porn theater by her homeless mother and then gang-raped. The story's heart, however, is one of healing, courage and growing love that Vyanna's adoptive mother experiences from the moment she sees the little girl. Journal entries, letters to friends and South African courts, and memories weave together Ford's two-year chronicle of a most unusual—and rewarding—mother-daughter relationship.

About this title

About the Author

Claudia J. Ford has thirty years' experience in international development management and training, and has worked in most of the countries of Latin America, the Caribbean, the Middle East, South Asia, South East Asia, East and Southern Africa. Her specialties include health, family planning, HIV/AIDS, democratic institution building, and women's empowerment.

Ford is currently conducting research on transformation and gender equity, household economics, gender, poverty, and community-based natural resource management. She is a senior lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand. Ford is the founder and director of The Princess Trust, a South African charity that deals with the issue of infant rape and child sexual abuse. Ford lives with her family in Johannesburg, South Africa.

From the Inside Flap

In South Africa, over 15 percent of all reported rapes are against children under age eleven; 26 percent are against children ages twelve through seventeen. In 2000, fifty-eight children a day were raped or the victims of rape attempts. On December 2, 2001, in a ghetto porn theatre in Johannesburg, a five-month-old girl was violated and defiled gang raped and left for dead. Within two weeks of the transgression, little Vyanna would find herself in the care of her new mother, Claudia J. Ford. This short book is a love letter: a record of the suffering and ongoing strength of one miraculous baby girl; of the bonding between a mother and daughter who found each other in the most heartrending of circumstances; of the celebration of tiny successes and enormous strides in the aftermath of a brutal crime.

Infant and child rape are an unfathomable offense, so much so that it hurts to talk about it, gives us chills to read about it. Ford brings compassion and awareness to an offense that goes too often ignored or unreported. In the weaving together of journal entries, poems, epigrams, letters, and portions of scholarly papers, Ford sets out to leave a written testimony for her daughter and to lift the veil of secrecy as one step toward the prevention of such unspeakable assault. Sharing this story is an act of love, a project of faith, and, most of all, a declaration of the power of courage and hope.

Edition details

• Publisher: North Atlantic Books
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1556435479
• ISBN 13: 9781556435478
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 128