“Because I thought at least someone would pity me
and pay attention to me.”
After her mother committed suicide and her father was found to be preying on young girls, Chelsea was taken out of her father’s custody. In September 2019, she was eventually placed in HCSA Dayspring Residential Treatment Centre (DRTC). During her time at HCSA DRTC, Chelsea resumed attending secondary school and was also put through a structured holistic programme that included Emotional Regulation (ER) drills and behavioural education.
Chelsea has since graduated from the programme and is now waiting to enrol into a polytechnic. In the future, she hopes to be able to work with children and teenagers who have suffered from the same experience she’s had. “I want to give back to the people who have raised me and shaped me so well,” she shares. “I also want to be the kind of person that the kids need, the kind of person that the staff in HCSA DRTC were to me; people who were my safe space and will listen to me.”
*Name has been changed to protect beneficiary’s identity.