I feel unsafe in my community because there are many negative outcomes. There are many crimes that happen in my community, like house robbery, violence, and rape. Feeling unsafe in my community reflects the violence. My neighborhood has injuries because accidents, and injuries are not preventable and predictable. Every time I take a walk I make sure that I leave my phone and money at home because I know that I will get robbed or mugged.

I think this is a terrible thing because it makes me feel unsafe and uncomfortable, as I get older. In my community we experience high rates of violent crime – the fear of violence remains an everyday reality for too many people. I don’t trust anyone, not even my own blood, because many people are raped and killed by their own blood. I even fear my neighbour’s husband, because I don’t know what he could do to me. The violence in my community is making me affecting my ability to succeed in school. I am still young, but I am a victim of violence in my community and I don’t feel proud about this because it makes my life very hard.

I sometimes wish I could go far away. I get scared when I am going to school or coming back home, because I feel like someone is watching or following me. I even get scared when passing criminals because they can do whatever they want to me. They like taking advantage of young girls. The danger in my community that I experience is making me lose focus at school. I even struggle to go to the library because of these gangsters in our communities.

Bang, bang, boom, screams, and sleepless nights – that is the kind of community I live in. At night I don’t sleep peacefully because I am always expecting the worst. We do not get help from anywhere. The ones that we are supposed to trust are the ones who destroy us. The people that are supposed to help us like the police officers are the ones who work with gangsters and drug dealers. You call for help at the police station and the police will take their time or they won’t come. Even if they do come, they do nothing and that makes the community angry, so the community ends up doing the work of the police. Bad things happen, like killing the criminals and that’s when the police decide to take action.

The only thing that can make us feel safe is when the police decide to work with the community and make sure that the community is happy and ensure there are no drug dealers. The police must make sure to arrive on time, so that the community does not take bad actions. If the police do a good job there could be less crime in my community.