Grade 8, Ikageng
There was a child that I know who goes by the name of Thando. Her father was abusing her. The father did not want her to go to school. Thando was light in complexion and she is so beautiful, but her father was beating her up and raping her every day.
Her life was so bad that when she goes to school, she was afraid to talk to her teachers or go to the police station because she knows that her father would kill her. She likes to read books but she does not like to talk with people. She is always quiet, likes to help people and is so intelligent.
Thando always had scars on her face and arms, and when we asked her what happened, she always told us that she fell or maybe that she bumped on the door. But we did not believe her because every time she said so, she had a scared face.
Thando started to use drugs because she wanted to escape from her physical and emotional problems. Thando started drinking to numb her feelings of depression. She started smoking dagga to deal with her stress at home and at school.
Her friends were very worried about her because she refuses to eat with them during lunch, using home work as an excuse. Each day she spends hours reading books and has become extremely thin.
Her friend has spoken to one of Thando’s other friends, who told her that Thando does not eat lunch and everyone is concerned about her physical well-being. Thando keeps complaining that she is over-weight and ignores people’s comment about how much weight she has lost because of the drugs she is using. She fainted at school and her father was called to take her to the doctor. Thando’s father denied her and told the teachers that he does not have a child by that name. He said that he does not even have a child.
Thando’s mother died a long time ago, and when Thando was crying, her mother came to her in her dreams and told her not to cry. Her mother said, ‘You are my everything. You were not born by mistake. I love you, do not listen to your father.’
She was getting depressed and wanted to drop out of school and run away from home. She made bad decisions which she will regret for the rest of her life. She ran away from home because she told herself that she could not stand the abuse. She started by being a prostitute and selling her body to old men. She regretted what she was doing but could not stop because she was someone’s property from the day she ran away from home. She tried to escape but she could not, and she was always punished for trying to escape.
Thando explained everything to this man, this stranger told Thando that he will help her to get her father arrested. He told her that she must return to school so that she can have her dreams fulfilled.
After some years, Thando became a therapist who was helping children who were abused at home, and who do not know much about their rights, and how much these rights mean to them. She became one of the best therapists in the world, and became a travelling therapist.
She worked so hard to get to where she is now. She also is thankful to the man who helped her to escape prostitution. She even renewed her mother’s grave and went to visit her father in jail and accepted his forgiveness. Her father came out of jail and Thando and her father became a happy family.