Warning: Please be advised that the content in this narrative has the potential to trigger unwanted or uncomfortable feelings.
I am 13 years old. I saw him as a father.
He clothed me, fed me, and schooled me. As my father, I did not hesitate to do what he asked me to do like an obedient child, except those nights when he would touch me inappropriately.
I flinched when his large hands would cover my upper chest.
I felt helpless as his dominating adult body overwhelmed my small child’s body-frame. I turned my face, cried and then played dead to stop the pain.
He tells me to be “quiet like a good girl” and “this is our secret”; “Don’t tell no one” as I laid there in pain and feeling confused.
I am 13.
Should my father be doing this to me?
Soon after my helpless body was touched and penetrated, I started to feel weak, tired and sick.
I am 13.
I went to school and fainted. I knew something was wrong with me, but “who do I tell when it seems like everyone is looking at me funny.”
I was told that I am pregnant. “ Pregnant”? What is that?
Quickly I was removed from my home in the city and taken back to the village. I am surrounded by family, but I am scared. People are talking, but I am scared.
I keep my face down.
Who can I trust? Do they know what happened to me?
As my belly slowly extrude from my little and weak body for nine months, I am petrified.
” They say I was “bad girl!”. I am beginning to think that I am.
At night, I cry and feel anxious. I am afraid of how this thing is going to come out of me. I feel excruciating pain.
It is almost like the pain I felt before on most nights, but this is worse. My tiny body has to push out a baby.
They tell me I had a baby, I am still in pain.
I am 13.
My body is not working like it used to; I am urinating and defecating uncontrollably as if my body can no longer take the pain.
I do not smell like the little girl inside of me. Will this pain ever go away? I am told not to talk like I was told before.
I keep my face down.
I was betrayed. The big people failed me. He says he does not know me, “Papa, it’s me, ooh. Who can I trust to protect me? Can I trust you?
I keep my face down.
I am 13 years old, I am Regina, I am your daughter, sister, and countless of girls that are sexually abused every day in Liberia.
#FindRegina#
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