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By TRACIE WHITE / Special
to the Mercury News
jiovanna
knows what it's like when her clients are waiting without any clothes
in a cold hospital bathroom.
They've been through a forensic process that lasts for hours. They've
given blood. Been photographed. Undergone a medical exam. Answered
questions in detail about the sexual assault that occurred just
a short time before.
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Counselors at the YWCA of Santa Clara Valley's Rape Crisis Center
provide items of clothing such as these to women who have been
sexually assaulted.
(Susanna
Frohman / Mercury News)
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And when the exam is finally over, they usually don't have any
clothes to wear home because the police have kept their underwear,
skirt or pants, sometimes even shoes, as possible evidence.
For Jiovanna, it was 5 a.m. before she could finally go home the
morning after she was raped. She'd been at Valley Medical Center
for four hours undergoing the forensic exam. She was waiting for
a pair of pants to put on.
"It can be very traumatic all over again, and humiliating,'' says
Jiovanna, 27, who is now a counselor in training for the YWCA of
Santa Clara Valley's Rape Crisis Center. "But the advocates made
it so much better.''
Santa Clara County law enforcement agencies record an average of
500 to 600 sexual assault cases a year and the Rape Crisis Center
counselors respond to each one, ready to help the victims through
the ordeal of the exam.
At the end of it all, when the victim is finally ready to go home,
the center's clothes closet can play a key role in helping the victim
regain some dignity.
But too often, counselors have trouble finding what they need in
the closet.
Victims of sexual assault are young and old, male and female, tiny
to extra-large. That means the YWCA needs to keep on hand a wide
variety of sizes in underwear, sweats, socks and shoes.
Jiovanna went home from Valley Med the morning after her attack
in a pair of blue sweat pants from the clothes closet. Hard as it
was, she's glad she went through with the forensic exam. Her attacker
went to jail for just four days, but she says it was worth it.
"At least I felt that I did everything in my power to make sure
that he was punished for what he did,'' she says.
Each donation
of $20 would go toward the purchase of clothing that would be
available in a variety of sizes when it's needed next.
For
more information on YWCA
in Santa Clara Valley, go to
www.ywca-scv.org.
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