"Broken" Duke University/Center for Documentary Studies

I watched a podcast/video called "Broken," which is a HIV education film from South Africa. In the video, a little girl, Dolly, is raped by her intoxicated father. The brother comes in and catches what the father has done to his sister and tries to help her. The father then tried to beat the little boy. Later that evening, the mother arrives home from work and questions Dolly why she has not yet cooked dinner. The girl burst out crying, so the mother asks the brother why she is crying. He explains to her that the father raped her, but the mother simply tells the boy to stop lying and asks the father did he rape Dolly. Of course, the father response is, "No, that is a lie," and that is the end of that.

So many parents ignore signs that a child is being hurt. In this case, the mother is actually told what the father has done, but she thinks because he simply says he didn't do it that he is telling the truth, despite the little boy's claim and the girl crying. The mother is so concerned with staying with the father that she ignores what she is told. The father is so busy drinking alcohol that he cannot see how he is hurting his children. The message of the movie is the children are our future, stop hurting them.