Season 4's debut of Please Step In summed up in a tweet:
Parenting. Poverty. Prostitution. Pressure. #PleaseStepIn
— Sbu Mpungose (@SbuMpungose) July 11, 2017
Twenty-one-year-old Theresia Mashaba wrote into the show asking for an intervention. She said she was involved in transactional relationships to get money to survive, money her mother would ask her for.
Are you guys watching #PleaseStepIn ??😫😭 I feel so sad for this girl😓she prostitutes herself to support her Family and the mom doesn't care💔 pic.twitter.com/7hcQMb3Tye
— Palesa 🌸 (@PalesaBlue) July 11, 2017
While these situations are complex, here are a few places young women in Mashaba's situation can reach out to for help, emotional and otherwise - because no young person's circumstances should force them to sleep with men to survive:
- Lifeline offers free, confidential telephone counselling, rape counselling, trauma counselling, Aids counselling, and a range of other services - 0800-012-322.
- Childline offers ssistance from trained counsellors for abused children, young people, and their families - 08000 55 555.
- Child Welfare South Africa is for child protection and child care and family development. Neglect or abuse of a child can also be reported here - 0861 4 CHILD (24453).
- People Opposed to Women Abuse (Powa) offers Gauteng-based organisation offering shelter, counselling and legal support to women in abusive relationships, rape survivors, survivors of incest - 011 642 4345/6:
- Stop Gender Abuse offers crisis counselling for women who have been raped or abused, advice and support for people wanting to support women in need of help, legal and other options available for abused women and rape survivors - 0800 150 150:
It was also revealed on the show that Theresia was raped at 15 - by her stepfather - and her mother asked her to keep it quiet. The case was later withdrawn.
Any abuse victim has rights, and if you know of someone who has been abused, here are their rights and places they can go to for help.
And although the urgent intervention required for such cases requires a multi-stakeholder approach, it's always heartwarming when South Africans rally together and offer to help:
#PleaseStepIn can Some1 help me find Therisa. I don't have much but I want her to know there is hope. Pls DM me with her contact's 🙏🏾🙏🏾
— Sade Langa (@hugstablesade) July 11, 2017
Wow 💔 no I need to do something 😭😭😭 my heart can not take it. Guys please help me find Therisia 💔 #PleaseStepIn
— BusinessBabe (@Yolenda_Posh) July 11, 2017
@Mzansimagic can you assist us , some of us are looking for Theresia . We want go help #PleaseStepIn
— TheRealJ💕 (@jeany0509) July 12, 2017