'I was 17 and had no home, no money and no food'

A London-based charity champions the rights of children trying to escape abuse. David Cohen sees how it stops homelessness

- David Cohen

WHEN Mina was hospitalised for feeling suicidal, she was given antidepressants and discharged after a few days - but she refused to go home to her parents. Since primary school, the softly-spoken 17-year-old had endured regular vicious beatings from her father, who whipped her when he got angry-and she wanted out.

"My mum and dad both did physical abuse but mum mainly left it to dad," said Mina (not her real name). "He would lose it and hit me with a belt or slippers, mostly on my arms or legs, but sometimes near my face. The smallest thing would trigger him -my grades, who my friends were, my boyfriend being from a different culture and I would cower in the corner until mum got him to stop. The next day I would go to school all bruised and try to hide it. Once I had cuts down my arm. My mother's advice was to pull down my sleeves so nobody would notice."

Mina asked social services in her outer London local authority to take her into care, but with child protection costs spiralling since the pandemic, they turned her down and Mina had to sofa surf at school friends' homes. "I had no money and no clothes and had to borrow things to wear from my friends whose parents fed me," she said.