Why should I not be brave like her? She tried to talk to me but I could not listen to her, that’s my wickedness to such a young girl.

I lived with my brother for a long time since our parents left us. He was the one striking gold in part of Johannesburg, a breadwinner for me. His life was dependent on me, he was not like everybody he loved his young sister. He would make sure I attend every class at school. Things changed a little bit when there were attackers in our house that was the time I was raped and he was not there in the house. He was no more the brother I know he started having a short temper. A few months I fell pregnant and he told me not to keep the baby but I refused. He stopped being a breadwinner for me and he was no longer there for me even the time I gave birth to Owame my little daughter. She grew up my Owame so hard but still, she was strong and healthy. So one day I got a job from Shoprite being a packer there. And my daughter already started school. When she comes back from school she had to stay with my brother so when I came back from the work I found her crying and she told me that my brother undressed her and I could not understand anything. This keeps happening when I came from work until my brother was sick in a bad situation he had been living with HIV without taking any pills and it was so hard for him. And Owame was a teenager she understood more than me she cried so hard when my brother resulted to aids she knew that she is also infected but still I could not believe that my brother did that until he could tell them the truth that he was the one who raped me no one was in the house but him alone trying to make me miss out and the child is his and he too raped his own child. The following day he passed away then Owame decided to leave me all alone to live on a street because I could not believe her. I could not forgive myself I went to the social worker and explained to them everything then that’s how Owame was off the street but at the house of the orphanage.

All I learnt is to trust your own child while telling something, and if you are in a situation that’s not good I advise you to go meet a social worker they might help even though I lost my Owame but now I understand that she needs time to process this because it’s not easy for a child especially a girl to live with a virus inside her veins.