Gugu Ngcinga is a child from Guulethu. Her parents died in a car accident when she was 7 years old. She then went to live with her aunt, Nomasomi in the Eastern Cape. Her aunt was a drunk.
Aunt Nomasomi treated Gugu like a servant and made Gugu clean the toilet with her toothbrush. Gugu’s aunt made Gugu sell her body to the shebeen men and took the money to buy alcohol. When Gugu was 13 years old, doing Grade 7, she told her teacher, Noxolo Dyasi, about all the things that her aunt made her do.
Gugu’s teacher was surprised that such a young girl could go through a lot of bad things but still kept quiet. She knew she had to do something about it. She asked Gugu if she wanted to have her aunt arrested, and Gugu said no. She wanted to go stay in the orphanage home, but her teacher refused and wanted Gugu to stay with her. Gugu agreed because she knew she was going to be well treated by her teacher than by her aunt.
Gugu went to stay with her teacher and her teacher was treating her well, she even bought her new clothes. Gugu was very happy, she even passed her exams that term, because she was not stressed like when was still staying with her aunt. Gugu’s teacher was proud of Gugu’s school marks.
When Gugu was in Grade 11 she got raped by one of her schoolmates. Gugu got him arrested. Gugu had nightmares and did not go to school for many months and it was exam time and she failed the grade. The teacher was very disappointed. She told Gugu that she must not abort the child because there are chances that she could not be able to have kids or could die.
Gugu gave birth to a baby girl, Othandwayo, and took her to stay with her grandmother. Gugu took the advice of her teacher. She repeated the grade. Other kids were making fun of her, but she ignored them and focused on her school work and she passed Grade 11. Her teacher was proud of her. Gugu did the same thing and passed Grade 12 with 5 distinctions.
She studied Psycho-therapy at the University of Gauteng and she became a professional therapist.
She thanks her teacher very much for being a mother, teacher and everything to her. She opened a center for rape victims called Save Rape Victims. She traveled all over the world encouraging and motivating rape victims to not lose hope and still make the effort to achieve their goal.
She quoted these words: “Being raped does not mean your future ends; there is still a bright future ahead of you.” Gugu opened another rape victims’ center to make sure that they are not giving up on their dreams or goals. Gugu changed many rape victims lives by being courageous and strong.
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