How I overcame my Suicidal Thoughts after Rape - Mercy 24

It would destroy her reputation.

Growing up, I used to hear about suicide and mental health issues, and when I was fifteen, something terrible happened to me and affected my mental health. One day, a man entered our house, and while my mother lay down on the ground drunk, he overpowered me, stabbed and raped me. I woke up shocked, in pain and bloody, and when I asked my mother to take me to the hospital, she refused and said that if people knew what had happened to me, it would destroy her reputation.

It gets worse

A day later, my mother realized I could not sit around with my stab wound, so she reluctantly took me to the hospital. As the nurse attended to my injury, I told her that the man who stabbed me had also raped me, but my mother did not want anyone to know. I begged her not to tell my mother, but she insisted that she talk to her so that I could get medication to prevent pregnancy and HIV infection. My mother warned me against telling anyone else about the rape incident.

Time passed, and then one day, my mother introduced me to a man she claimed would give me a good life. Unfortunately, the man came to take me away so I packed my clothes and left home with the man. He took me to a mansion, and within a few minutes of being in that house, my smile turned upside down. I could hear the cries of little kids, and I later realized my mother had sold me to child traffickers. There, I was raped again by three men. 

I began contemplating suicide.

Thoughts of self-harm overwhelmed me, and I began cutting myself with broken beer bottles. I also had suicidal thoughts since I believed I had nothing else left in this evil world. I had had enough. 

A light in the darkness

One day, I attempted suicide but was rescued by a lovely lady who took me to her house and saved me from my captors. She helped me cope with suicidal thoughts by introducing me to activities like reading novels, trying new hobbies, and seeking out God, and I even joined high school at the age of twenty-one. In addition, she introduced me to a mission centre in Nakuru, where I began talking to young girls about how to take care of their mental health and overcome life’s challenges.

New me

I am now a proud, energetic, and ambitious mentor, a mother, and a young lady who embraced everything life brought her way thanks to God, my past experiences, my rescuer and friend Hope, and me.