I grew up in the Eastern Cape, a little place called Whittle Sea. My mother died when I was in grade 1. I was very lonely so I cried a lot. After her death I went to stay with my father’s family and life was hard. But then life got even harder when I moved in with my father and his second wife. I decided to go back to my father’s family thinking life there could be better than it was with my father and his wife. I was wrong.

I was doing grade 7 at the time. I wanted to be a social worker by then. But then when I was in Grade 8, I was raped. That changed my career plans – now I wanted to be a Prosecutor. I have met a lot of rape victims and the rapists are walking free. That makes me very angry and I want to make sure that they all rot in jail.

I passed my Matric and I moved to Cape Town where I stayed with my aunt, my mother’s sister. Things didn’t get better and I decided to leave. I live with my other aunt and life is still hard. I have faith; I know God has a plan. He knows what He’s doing.

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Submitted at a Write4Life Workshop at Etafeni Day Care Centre.