Meet Donay

Let’s Play it Safe

When we send our children to school, we expect that they will be in a safe environment. However, bullying on the playground has become more prevalent with every generation and not every school is able to monitor and prevent this; not even the most privileged facilities can offer the vigilant protection our children deserve.

Sadly, when Donay (12) reported an incident to her teacher, no action was taken and her mom, Denise, was not informed. A boy had kicked her while she was playing, and the poor girl writhed in pain as he ran away. But because children are so resilient and eager to get back to the business of playing, Donay soon returned to her game and did not even think of telling her mom.

It was only the next day when Denise noticed her daughter’s injury and discovered the horror of the attack and she rushed Donay to the Emergency Centre at the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital where dedicated staff lovingly tended to her and comforted the traumatised young girl. The child who kicked Donay so hard that he broke her ankle, has not yet been reprimanded. But for Denise, the priority now is to help her daughter heal. Donay’s physical injuries will be taken care of at Red Cross, and her healing will take time. The Children’s Hospital has social workers who will help this family cope with the trauma and help heal the emotional damage inflicted on an unsuspecting child, in a playground that should have been a safe space.

Donay will have to return to the Children’s Hospital to monitor her progress and she will require physical therapy to heal well. For children like Donay it will be difficult to feel safe in a playground again. The Therapeutic Playground planned for the Children’s Hospital will set out to reconnect ill and injured children to safe playing and happy healing, the significance of which cannot be described in one simple sentence but will be evident in the laughter that some of these little ones have almost forgotten. The sadness and disappointment in Donay’s voice as she talks about the boy who kicked her is a stabbing reminder that children expect only kindness, and for her to be so disillusioned at such a young age brings only heartache into our world.

With your help, we have an opportunity to change this, if only by creating a safe space in a good place. Because of you, we have the opportunity to bring joy into this world.

The Therapeutic Playground is exactly the kind of interactive healing that children respond to because play is so natural to them. There is every chance that the same boy who hurt Donay will at some point be hurt himself, and he may very well need the safety and nurturing of this Therapeutic Playground. The Children’s Hospital has one aim: to care for all our children, and to help them heal in every way.

Donay will be wary of going onto a playground again, and perhaps even of other children. But she, and others like her, will learn of safe spaces and they will know of healing play, because the Children’s Hospital will create that space and provide that healing.

When you donate, 100% of your donation goes towards the planned Therapeutic Playground – you are helping children like Donay heal better and faster.