*Mynie

I was 16 years old, young and inexperienced when I met my boyfriend. At the age of 17 I fell pregnant. I was deeply unhappy and disappointed when I gave birth to my eldest daughter. I had to go through the pregnancy alone but luckily my mother stood by me because my dad also disappointed her when she was pregnant with me. I couldn’t express how hurt I was because the father of the child was in remedial school (juvenile jail).

My daughter was born and I had to go work for her. I boyfriend from the remedial (juvenile jail) school and we then picked up our relationship again. Then he started abusing me in the relationship, every week I had a blue eye. It was very difficult. If I looked at another man he would say I am sleeping with that man. I stayed in the relationship for many years because I loved him. A few years after that I married him.

The he went to jail for three (3) years and when he came back from jail things were messed up but we remained married. For many years I had a messed up life. One day I became tired of life. I raised his children alone. My second child has blood cancer (cancer of the blood). I didn’t know what that was; I stood alone as a mother with two (2) children. I was in and out of hospital and prayer carried me, even until now.

After a few years I met another man and he made me feel very special and loved me very much. He lifted me out of the circumstances that I had in my life. Now I am glad that I am out of those circumstances because I stepped out of the box.

My child invited me to a workshop. I had no knowledge of what it was about because I never had the opportunity to attend workshops before. My whole life I just had to work for my children because I was a single parent. But since I am at the courses I learnt how to communicate with people and to talk about things. I feel that many people’s things were worse than mine. This made me very strong. I now live like I feel I want to live. I learnt about business and how to manage your own business. I now know how to give other people advice that is experiencing abuse. My future plans are to help people and to be a women’s activist