“When it happened, I cried and blamed the day I was born”, Katina*, 16 years old, recalls. Her father is a soldier who left them when they were young. Her mother was always drunk and ignored her children’s welfare.
At 10, Katina became a mother to her siblings: two girls and two boys. She shares, “I began gathering firewood and selling them at the market to buy food. We were able to have one meal per day.”
Katina got used to, and felt safe, going to the bush. This was their only source of livelihood for six years until January 2022.
“I never noticed the man sneak behind me. He suddenly just grabbed me and raped me while I was trying to feed my sibling,” she says.