Mauritius: The ordeals of a young, homeless woman


Date: October 9, 2019
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Lovena is a resident of Safe Haven Halfway Home. This young woman aspires to become a make-up artist. When she was a child, she used to play with make-up and this childhood passion for make-up has not faded. She intends to turn this passion into a career with the help of SHHH. Lovena will soon follow a course in make-up. She also loves dancing. Lovena said dreamily and with a wide smile that in ten years, she wishes to see herself in her own house.

This 18-year-old woman whose lovely smile can brighten the day of anyone however harbours painful memories of her childhood and teenage years. Lovena was abandoned by her parents when she was only one year old. Her father is a drug user. Lovena’s aunt took her under her responsibility along with her elder sister. She lived most of her childhood without having any knowledge about her birth parents. None of them tried to get into contact with her. When she was 10 years old, she first got to know about her birth parents and about the fact that she was abandoned. This revelation perturbed her as she felt betrayed and she became rebellious. Lovena, who was then still a naïve child, insisted on leaving the house of her aunt and on living with her mother. Unable to deal with her rebellious behaviour, her aunt put her in a shelter. When she was 15, Lovena was then placed in Rehabilitation Youth Centre. The years that she spent at RYC were an ordeal which she still has not overcome. She moved to another shelter after spending 3 years at RYC. However, she had to leave that shelter when she turned 18. Lovena lived on the streets for few days as her aunt refused to take her in and she had nowhere to go.

Lovena’s smile began fading as she talked about her dreary, colourless past. Blinking her tears back, she laments why her parents abandoned her. She believes that if she lived with them, she would not have gone through all this emotional trauma. She has been moving from shelter to shelter and is emotionally tired as she has to continuously deal with new faces. Lovena wants to stop living this life of a nomad and seeks a home, a dwelling of her own. SHHH has welcomed her in its hearth and will help her bring back colours in her life.