Citipointe church's 'Hope and Resilience Test'!

Many thanks to former church members for your thoughts, your memories, your observations and for passing on to me segments from the Citipointe newsletter such as the following:

At the beginning of January, we had the wonderful opportunity to reintegrate one of our precious SHE Home girls back to her family. She was so excited to go home and her journey had reached the perfect stage for her to be able to return to live with her family and community.

Srey came into our care in Sept 2011 at 14 years of age. When she first came into our care she felt ashamed, guilty, worthless and self-hatred due to being a prostitute. She had low self-esteem and symptoms of depression. She no longer has guilt about prostitution and said to her counselor that she wants to look forward to the future and learn from her mistakes. She said that she had asked God for forgiveness and has also learnt to forgive herself.

Previous to coming into our care, she mentioned that she had no knowledge of STDs or HIV and had never used protection. She is now happy to have knowledge of these risks. She said that she has also learnt a lot about relating to other girls and has also learnt a lot about forgiveness.

Srey has now been able to identify a number of strengths about herself including that she is good at sewing and hairdressing and is very creative. She is also brave, friendly and finds it easy to get along with others. She also said that she is very positive and has an open heart to others.

Through her counseling assessments Srey has improved in daily functioning, depression symptoms, post trauma reactions and has reduced shame. Her hope and resilience scale is now 100% compared to being very low when she first came into our care.

During her time in our care Srey started sewing school and is continuing this after reintegration. She is very talented at this and has made some incredible creations! Her mother is hoping to sell some of her creations from home.

There have been great changes in the family as well and the family have worked towards creating a safer family environment. Her mother spoke to social workers about feeling regret about not being able to care for her daughter in the past, but that she will now work towards being a good parent towards all her children.

Some questions arise:

Why was Srey prostituting herself at the age of 14? Was it because she wanted to buy consumer goods that she could not afford? Or was it because she was from a very poor family and could find no other source of income to help support her parents and siblings?

In a country such as Cambodia I suspect the latter; that it was poverty and not a desire to buy the latest iPad that led Srery to sell her body. In which case why does she need God’s forgiveness? Why does she need to forgive herself? (One could also ask why it is that a loving God brought into being the circumstances that left her little choice but to prostitute herself – but that’s not relevant here.)

Who has Srey learnt to forgive? Her mother because she forced Srey into prostitution? Probably not, as Srey is now back with her mother. Or has Srey learnt to forgive her mother for being so poor that Srey had little choice but to prostitute herself?  Or her mother for not being able to protect her from whoever was responsible for Srey prostituting herself.

If Srey is now safe from the conditions that led to her prostituting herself this is a good thing but I (and the person who sent me this) want to know more.

Is Citipointe now providing Srey’s family with income support to make it unnecessary for  Srey to work as a prostitute? Or has Srey’s counselor – who has achieved the remarkable feat of getting rid of Srey’s feelings of guilt in 15 months (she could make a fortune in the US!) believes that Srey’s ‘journey has reached the perfect stage?’  ‘Perfect stage’? What is ‘the perfect stage’? This reads like pop psychology of the worst kind.

As for the reference to Srey’s “hope and resilience scale” now being 100%”, what on earth is a ‘hope and resilience scale’? A test” Who administers it and gives the person taking the test a rating? Or does the ‘counselor’ just make a subjective judgment? This in psychobabble and raises serious concerns about the kind of counseling Srey received or that any of the girls at Citipointe’s She Refuge Home receive!

Are these the same Citipointe ‘counselors’ who have decided that  Rosa and Chita are better off living in an institution than with the family that loves them and that they love? If Chanti was to take the Citipointe ‘Hope and Resilience Test’ I am sure that she would get 100%!