“I used to hurt myself. Like all different things, like bang my head on a brick wall or starving myself. I used to take it out on other people. Sometimes I am scared I am going to really hurt someone.”

“I have nightmares, I cry out of the blue, I get headaches and belly aches, and I’m scared. I got so scared one day, I ran away and didn’t come back for 3 hours. I didn’t even know where I was going. I was just running.”

“It’s my fault I did the wrong thing by telling. I wished sometimes I never said anything because I was taken away from my sister and brother and put in a place where I didn’t know anyone and didn’t feel safe.”

“I feel fake like a mannequin sometimes. I have to look happy on the outside when deep inside there is pain and hurt which feels like would never leave.”

“Every time he walked into the room, I clenched all my muscles cause I thought he would hit me again.”

“I would think about what happened and I felt scared.”

“The world is not real for me anymore, it doesn’t feel real.”

“I remember laying in bed at night and hearing my brothers scream and cry because they were hungry and scared.”

“I think it was abuse because the day after he raped me, he hit me”

“All I can remember is them touching me and me saying stop, don’t.”

“When I went to school I felt different to all my friends because I didn’t know if this had ever happened to anyone else.”

“After it happened I was frightened to tell anyone because I didn’t think anyone would believe me.”

“Sometimes I just wanted to get a knife and stab myself. I was angry at mum for letting him do this to me. When that happened to me I didn’t really care about anyone not even myself. “

“Being abused made me feel sad, because my mum wasn’t there to help me get away from him.”

“When he was abusing me, I thought I was going to die, I was so scared.”

“I was so confused because I was only 7 years old and I didn’t understand why he did it.”

“I wish I was someone else because I wish it didn’t happen to me.”