Courage Is a Triumph of Human Spirit

By Shelley Strachan
News Mail
January 28, 2014

http://www.news-mail.com.au/news/courage-is-a-triumph-of-human-spirit/2153239/


THE royal commission into the institutional responses to shocking child sexual abuse at Salvation Army homes in the 1960s and '70s heard evidence on its first day yesterday from the Gympie court house.

A key witness who now lives in retirement in Kilkivan was one of the young boys who suffered unspeakable, prolonged abuse.

Incredibly - and it's a testament to the human spirit - his courage and resilience were not utterly destroyed at the hands of, in particular, one depraved monster left in charge of the young boys.

It is not easy to stay calm and rational when you are confronted with the brutal reality of what some humans are capable of.

The Salvation Army has already paid $1.2 million in compensation and acknowledges its response to the abuse as the "greatest failure in the history of the Salvation Army in Australia".

That is likely to be cold comfort to the victims.