Going on national television with my rape advocacy was a whole new dimension

When you live in a country where there is a crisis, you start hoping things don't generate to the worse. I used to think rape only happens during war and crisis, because that's what happened during the genocides in Rwanda and Yugoslavia. How mistaken I was.

I am an advocate against all forms of violence, and founder of the association Hope for the Abused and Battered. It is in the context of this organisation that I started hearing of, and receiving distress calls of girls and children raped everywhere, not only in the crisis zones.

To say I am distraught is an understatement. I mean even a 3 year old child was not spared. 

I have been a victim of sexual assault as a child, of attempted rape as an adult, and of marital Rape to the point of being hospitalized too. This means, I do my work with a lot of empathy and my tears flow be it in private or public.

I started raising awareness online in January 2019, I did live videos on Facebook and I wrote on my blog and anywhere else I could. I just refused to be silenced by noisemakers and naysayers. The Psychotherapist in me knows how to navigate all thos, and how to take care of myself through it all. But, I just can't slow down.

In 2014, I received an award for the Voice of the Voiceless, because I published my first memoir on a subject hitherto considered taboo.

You can call it what you may, but getting national attention was my goal. Last Friday May 10th, I am proud to say I achieved that. I was a guest on the early morning program called Feelings. Many people watch it all over the nation, and it has taken my advocacy to another dimension.

I am so grateful for the opportunity and look forward to more of such opportunities. Rape is simply put disgusting and we have to put an end to it as a society. We can't remain indifferent because it is not our child or relation. One more rape cases brings insecurity closer to home.

Rape ravages not only the victim but their families who are so filled with rage and shame and pain, really it is sad. I once did a video on the gruelling realities of rape, it is more than just the physical act whose effects could be repaired or treated in the hospital maybe.

I am ready to step up my work, and I am grateful for all the support I get from all angles. One case and campaign at a time, such attrocities like rape will be eradicated in our societies, and the victims shall believe in my slogan #rapedbutnotruined.