THURSDAY, 4.30PM
IN an effort to ease the trauma of reporting rape, Welfare Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi on Thursday unveiled a “rape crisis kit” to be made available at rural police stations and clinics.
The kit contains disposable underwear, a blanket, toiletries, a pain-killer and telephone numbers for rape councillors, Fraser-Moleketi said in Pretoria. “It also has a disposable bag for the victim’s dirty underwear, which can be handed to police without any evidence being destroyed,” Moleketi said.
Natalie Stockton of the National Network on Violence Against Women said if sponsors can be found, the first 1 000 kits should be distributed to rural areas in all nine provinces by January. “We decided to design this kit as many rural women live several kilometers from their nearest police station,” she said. “This kit should ease some of their discomfort.”
Stockton said the kit, which will cost about R120 to produce, is the first initiative of its kind in the world.
The network, a joint government and non-governmental organisation body looking after the interests of abused women, has also developed a first-aid kit for battered women. Stockton said the kit contains bandages, ointments and braces for broken limbs, among other things. This kit costs R80 to produce and the first 1 000 should also be available next year. “We expect there will be a great demand for both kits,” Stockton said.