The 16-year-old girl who ran away from home because of her mother and step-father’s alleged drug addiction, is believed to have run away because she did not want to live like her parents.
A member of the group Wild Wild Guardians spoke to the Addie about what happened.
This man, who due to the sensitivity of the case, does not want to mention his name, says Wild Wild Guardians (Guardian) is a group of volunteers that actively works against child abuse to give children a chance at a good life.
He says a member of a local community policing forum called him about the girl, whom he found wandering in the streets of Nuffield on Sunday afternoon.
The CPF member took the girl to a place of safety as her parents, as well as her 13- and 11-year-old half sisters and 7-year-old brother disappeared after she left home.
The guardian who spoke to the Addie says he met the girl on Monday when he, as well as the police and social workers, visited her home in Strubenvale where they lived for four years.
The girl, who started Grade 10 this year said she, as well as her siblings stopped their schooling this year.
She stayed with other people for a year and went to visit her family during school holidays.
It was during this year’s first school holiday, after her mom said she could not go back to these people, that the children’s schooling stopped.
Because there was never food in the house, she had to beg from neighbours to feed herself and siblings.
The Guardian says the girl was never assaulted by her step-dad, but she alleged that her mother, who apparently has cancer, was beaten up several times while she and her siblings were present.
It was during this visit that the girl said to the guardian that she walked away from home because she did not want to live like her parents.
The Guardian says during the group’s visit to the girl’s home, she showed them her bedroom, where she slept on a bare mattress, without sheets.
The house, the man says was dirty and unkempt.
There was almost no furniture, nor any trace of food or that meals were prepared.
Rubbish, broken bottles, papers and dirty clothing were piling up everywhere and especially in all the corners of the house.
Even some of the built-in cupboards had rubbish and paper in it.
The Guardian says this looked like a home where children were abused because drugs ruled the parents’ lives.
