Since I was a young girl I never felt safe in my community. There are a lot of bad and terrible things that have been happening in front of my eyes. People are being raped day by day, even innocent children. I sometimes feel unsafe when I am walking alone in the streets. I always look over my shoulders because the tragedies that are happening in my community are traumatising.

Sometimes there are house break-ins and when I am at school I get stressed about my home instead of focusing on my studies. People are being robbed when they are going to work and the thugs leave them injured or killed. I sometimes hear their cries asking for help, but I cannot help because the thugs may come after me.

Hospitals and police stations are always full, they deliver poor services due to the large number of people coming in every day. As a result those people who get injured cannot get immediate help, and those who report house break-in cases end up not being helped at all. In one particular there was once a woman in my community who was robbed and got a heart attack and couldn’t get help from hospital because there was lot of people and poor service. She ended up dying.

I think there must always be police or securities patrolling throughout the day, so that people can feel safe anytime. Children can be sent to shops in the evening and be able to walk alone in the street. I will feel safe even if I’m left alone and the number of house break-ins and rapes will decrease.

Children who were raped must be taken to counseling so that they can get psychological support. Our parents will be free when they are going to work in the morning. I will also focus on my studies instead of stressing about what’s happening in my home.

Children must stop taking things from strangers and talking to people they don’t know. I think there should be campaigns running in the community that are teaching children about how being a criminal is dangerous, about health and life skills awareness. As a community we must create sports or extra mural activities to keep the youth away from doing wrong things. The youth will no longer be criminals when they think about the results of it.

Every person must feel safe in their community and they must stand up for themselves. Being unsafe in your community is the worse and the most hurtful thing ever because your community is your home. We must fight for our rights, we must feel safe in our communities because it’s part of our rights. In our communities we must learn to treat each other equally and to not be afraid of men and act like they are strangers. Men must be our pillars and we should be able to rely on them and feel safe when they are around. We must end corruption in our communities and make our voices heard so that we can change the world.