Success Stories
Meet the Malawian communities we impact.
I Am Sharing Blessing’s Truth
“All in all I told my truth and it set me free”
— Malawian Woman
I was only 13 years old when I first saw it, frightened and shocked I could not move. All I did was stare with my mind running wild. Come and touch he said, I still couldn’t move, I didn’t understand what was happening and why he was asking me to touch him where my mother always said was a private. Slowly he moved away from his working desk and walked towards my chair with his flyer wide open and his manhood hanging loose from his trousers, he grabbed my hand and forced me to hold onto his manhood. All I wanted to do was run but I felt trapped and helpless, suddenly there was a knock at the door which caused him to jump away from me and walked back to his desk, I sat there just staring at him, a few seconds I asked him for transport money, without saying a word he opened one of his drawers and handed me a 500 kwacha bank note and told me to let who so ever was knocking in, I nodded and left.
As I walked to the mini bus rank I kept telling myself that what had just happened was not real, with the fear of bursting into tears in public as my heart felt like it was on fire, with so much hurt and so much anger, at that moment I was angry at everyone, I had heard stories about him before, all the girls at the house had told me he was a monster but I chose not to believe any of them, I did not believe he was capable of hurting anyone, well not this way at least. I needed to talk to someone about it and so I got on a mini bus and travelled to my aunt’s place to explain what had just happened to me. Upon arrival, I found my two older cousins preparing lunch, and without wasting time, I told my cousins what I had experienced and to my surprise their responses were not comforting and this lead me to thinking that they did not believe a word I had told them. Nevertheless I decided to head back home where I knew the girls would believe me because they are the ones that already gave me a warning about him.
Days went by and I grew so much bitterness and resentment towards everyone in the house because I was aware of the evil which every girl was witnessing but nothing was being done to stop him from hurting us. speaking or crying out about it only made matters worse, staying away from the house during weekends and not to being alone with him was the only way. And so I managed my distance until I left for secondary school a few months later after the first incident.
Months went by, and every holiday I managed to stay away from him and I learned to ignore the insults and hurtful statements he would make every now and then. Until I accidentally found myself alone with him at the house, sitting in one of the empty unfinished rooms of the house he called for me, he was aware everyone had left the house. As I walked into the room I already knew what he had called me for, he immediately asked why I stopped asking him for pocket money for school or money for shopping like the other girls in the house. I chose not to respond to any of the questions he was throwing at me. I could see he was getting impatient with me, he pulled out his wallet and gave me a bundle of 500 kwacha notes, he then asked if I wanted to greet my “friend”. There it was. that was the reason why I was summoned in the first place, surprising I was well composed, I turned around and watched him open his flyer and pulled out his manhood for the second time, I was not as scared as the first time, all I wanted to do was to leave but I knew I had to finish what had summoned me for, he asked me to hold his manhood, he then held my hand and used it to pleasure himself, he eventually got tired and let go of my hand, he then asked me if I could rub it against my lips the next time, without saying a word I left the room and went straight to the bathroom were tears started rolling down my checks. I blamed my late mother for putting me in such a position, I felt it was because of her death that now I was being sexually and mentally abused by the same person who claimed to love me when she was alive, the same person she regarded as her closest relative, I felt helpless because there was no one I could tell, deep down I knew they would not believe me.
After a few weeks I returned back to school, this brought me so much serenity but every holiday brought me back to the reality I called life, masking my pain, fears and anxiety was something I became good at but little did I know that all the negative energy was eating me up. During the summer holiday right after my 17th birthday, I had to come back home for the holidays, to my surprise I was the only girl present at the house that summer, all the other girls had gone away.
One faithful Sunday, I woke up to an empty house, well at least it’s what I thought until I walked out of my bedroom and found him sitting outside bedroom door since it had a wonderful view of the front yard of the compound, I greeted him and made my way to the
kitchen, a few seconds later he called for me and offered to buy me breakfast at his restaurant which was in town, I was relieved that we were leaving the house, hence I agreed to go with him to town. We arrived at the restaurant and he made his way to his office and I sat in the restaurant as I waited for my food, right after breakfast I decided I wanted to leave as I had plans to hang out with my friends that day. I walked to his office in order to let him know that I was leaving for home, he had company about four men and they were having tea, he then excused them and closed the door behind them as they left, I became puzzled for I did not understand why he excused the men.
He then pushed me against the wall and tried to kiss me, I kept my mouth shut for I couldn’t imagine locking lips with a man I considered my GRANDFATHER, he then unbuckle his belt and pulled down his underwear, I became so scared but I had no way out of the room, I moved closer to one of the windows to see just how high the room was from the second floor, I could see the cleaners right at the bottom which was the ground floor but it was too far down screaming wouldn’t help, my head was spinning I could not think, I had no idea why he was taking off his trousers, he had never done that before. He got me running around the room as I was trying to get away from him, he still caught me and pushed me against the wall once more, he then shoved his hands in the back of my trousers trying to squeeze my behind as he rubbed himself against me, I could feel his manhood pressed hard against me, as he was about to pull my pants down suddenly my phone begun to rang which made him pull away from me.
Answering the phone I felt a sense of relief because he finally had let me go, my friends asked me where I was answered carefully not wanting to give away anything and decided to hang up, he was still pants down, I quickly told him it was his wife that had called and was asking of my where about as she wanted to leave church and head back home. He then pulled back his pants, carried this briefcase and left the door open as he headed for the parking lot. As I left the office I was still in disbelief of what had just occurred and my body felt numb.
We got home and found one of my aunts’ from the village waiting for us, she could tell I was not myself so took me for a walk, she was the first person I told about the incident that had just occurred. To my surprise she seemed not be shocked by what I had just told her, she then took my hand and apologized to me and then told me she believed me, her advice was that I was to be careful around him and avoid him at all cost because I was not the first girl he had abused in that manner and because of his position he was bound to get away with hurting me too even if I tried to speak out.
Even after I had returned to school, I still got flashbacks, feeling helpless I began to slide into a dark place which caused me to have emotional outbursts at school, my grades begun to drop and I became suicidal. At this point my teachers and friends begun to notice, they decided to force me into a group counselling sessions with our school counselor. The sessions helped me a great deal as it was what gave me the courage to speak out and put an end to the abuse.
Eventually I broke the silence and communicated about what was happening to me during my holidays. It felt like no one believed me, instead of it ending, it was as if the whole world had now turned against me, my truth became the tool that pushed me further into darkness, but nevertheless reading became my therapy as I was isolated from the family. They believed I had made up the stories for attention and that I had a mental problem.
Twenty-four months later I graduated from high school not with the grades I had hoped for, but I saw it coming for I was not in the right state of mind and was single handily fighting depression while I sat for my final exams, which the family failed to acknowledge.
All in all I told my truth and it set me free and with the help of my legal guardian who had returned home from her studies abroad, I begun to rebuild my life.