A Litany of Tragedies at the intersection of cultural practice and law Listening to Patricia’s story, one is struck by the string of tragedies this young girl has had to endure in her life. She was orphaned when her mother died and she never knew her father. Her grandmother, Piwai then took over her care. At 14 she was then subjected to rape by a man she regarded as her grandfather, resulting in her falling pregnant. While she told her great aunt, what she got in return was disbelief and further abuse. When she eventually worked up the courage to tell someone outside of the family about her ordeal, she still had to contend with the community attempting to use customary processes to resolve the issue, including first reporting to the chief before making a report to the police. All this time, vital time was being lost, time when medical intervention could have saved Patricia the agony of carrying a pregnancy that was the result of rape. When she was eventually reunited with her grandmother, it was to find that her grandmother was about to use customary norms of refusing to have anything to do with her in order to force the people who had abused her to come forward and explain what they had done to her granddaughter, known in Shona as kuramwa. This was done little realizing the traumatic effect it would be having on the young girl who was now having to sleep in police stations because her relatives refused to have anything to do with her. On-Going Counseling and Psychological Support to Victims and their Families is of Vital Importance While one might be tempted to blame Piwai for her reaction, one has to remember that faced with a shocking and upsetting situation such as the rape of her granddaughter and in the absence of alternative support and coping mechanisms, Piwai fell back on those customary norms and practices that to her were familiar. This is because the reality is that for most people, interface with the criminal justice system is still largely unfamiliar and therefore remote. Patricia’s story perhaps best illustrates the vital importance of on-going psychosocial care and support not just for victims of sexual violence but also for their families and caregivers. A lot of reliance is placed on the caregiver to support and provide on-going care to the victim but rarely is counseling support provided to enable them to cope with not just the victim’s issues, but their own feelings of anger, guilt and fear among others. It is therefore important that caregivers be considered as a vital group that has to be targeted in any support interventions for any victims of abuse. 25 21