A victim is anyone who has suffered harm or loss as a result of crime.

Victim empowerment is about making it possible for a victim of crime to heal and move on from the crime with the least possible harm or loss. It is the process of making sure that the victim is empowered to contribute to a process of restorative justice, by entrenching internationally accepted basic victims’ rights as agreed by the United Nations.

These rights include the right:

• To be treated with respect and dignity
• To offer information
• To receive information
• To legal advice
• To protection
• In certain circumstances victims also have the right to compensation

All government departments involved in the fight against crime have a role to play in empowering victims. Many non-governmental and community based organizations add their particular skills and resources to the delivery of an empowering service to victims of crime.

Victims of crime suffer some or all of the following: loss of goods, physical harm, mental distress, trauma, bereavement, disorientation, fear and anxiety. Perhaps this range of effects explains why no one is equipped to deal alone with the results of victimization.

EVERYONE can play a part:

If someone you know is a victim of crime, try and behave in a way that helps entrench the rights we have outlined.

Family and friends can play an important support role; employers can give a victim time off for counseling or to attend court; protection and practical help is often best provided from within the community.

You can also become more formally involved, through the Community Police Forum Trauma Unit.

We are fortunate in Honeydew that we have a Trauma Unit, which is run by a number of professional volunteers. This unit provides trauma debriefing to victims of crime in the Honeydew Precinct area.

To avail yourself of this service please contact the unit on 082-448-9337.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank ALL the trauma counselor volunteers, who give of their time to help our victims of crime.

When the Lord made EMT's and Paramedics, he was into his sixth day of overtime when an angel appeared and said, "You're doing a lot of fiddling around on this one."

And the Lord said, "Have you read the specs on this order? An EMS provider has to be able to carry an injured person up a wet, grassy hill in the dark, dodge stray bullets to reach a dying child unarmed, enter
homes the health inspector wouldn't touch, and not wrinkle their uniform."

"They have to be able to lift 3 times their own weight, crawl into wrecked cars with barely enough room to move, and console a grieving mother as they are doing CPR on a baby they know will never breathe
again."

"They have to be in top mental condition at all times, running on no sleep, black coffee and half-eaten meals. And they have to have six pairs of hands."

The angel shook her head slowly and said, "Six pairs of hands...no way."

"It's not the hands that are causing me problems," said the Lord, "It's the three pairs of eyes a medic has to have."

"That's on the standard model?" asked the angel.

The Lord nodded. "One pair that sees open sores as they're drawing blood and asks the patient if they may be HIV positive," (when they already know and wish they'd taken that accounting job.) Another pair here in the side of the head for their partners' safety. And another pair of eyes here in front that can look supportively at a frightened person and gently explain that their spouse of many years has departed this life."

"Lord," said the angel, touching his sleeve, "rest and work on this tomorrow."

"I can't," said the Lord, "I already have a model that can talk a 250 pound drunk out from behind a steering wheel without incident and feed a family of five on a private service paycheck."

The angel circled the model of the medic very slowly, "Can it think?" she asked.

"You bet," said the Lord. "It can tell you the symptoms of 100 illnesses; recite drug calculations in its sleep; intubate, defibrillate, medicate, and continue CPR nonstop over terrain that any doctor would fear...and still it keeps its sense of humor. This medic also has phenomenal personal control. He can deal with a multi-victim trauma, coax a frightened elderly person to unlock their door, comfort an assault victim's family, and then read an article in the daily paper about responders being too slow to locate a house (a house which had no street sign and no house numbers.)"

Finally, the angel bent over and ran her finger across the cheek of the medic. "There's a leak," she pronounced. "I told you that you were trying to put too much into this model."

"That's not a leak," said the Lord, "It's a tear."

"What's the tear for?" asked the angel.

"It's for bottled-up emotions, for patients they've tried in vain to save, for commitment to that hope that they will make a difference in a person's chance to survive, for seeing an accident victim walk again, for the family time they will miss while serving the community, for life."

"You're a genius," said the angel.

The Lord looked somber. "I didn't put it there," He said.