Stop Child Abuse Now (SCAN) - 2596

Tonight's special guest is Ross Stewart from Auckland, New Zealand, who suffered from various kinds of child abuse both in and out of foster care. "Now more than ever I find that I am being re-traumatized every day by such events as it may be a spoken word, a news media item that is constantly being re-lived in my mind for which I have had to seek counselling for to assist in coping with the horrors I went through as a child." He goes on, "It effected my life in so many ways even to this day as it’s a cruel life sentence which I don’t ever want to happen to any other kiwi child, whether it be male or female." Then came foster care. "At aged 18 months old I was removed from my biological mother by the New Zealand DSW (department of social welfare) and placed in foster care homes until finally ending up with a foster family that decided to adopt me at age 7. My memories of the various foster homes were of mostly psychological abuse and some physical abuse which consisted of beatings for bed wetting, these situations continued when adopted. Ross continues, "Aged 8, I was sexually abused by a neighbor's daughter who sodomized me and even raped me many times. At age10, I was sent to a special Government institution for disturbed children where I endured more abuses committed against me by a man who was my dormitory house master. I spent over two years at the hands of the house master's whim even in his quarters each night until I was released back to my adopted parents as being adjusted to lead a normal life."