Help Woman and Children

When I was a little girl, very young, my mother used to go to the fields to work and I used to stay with my older brother and my younger brothers. My brother used to beat me until, when I turned 10 years of age, he raped me. This was the worst thing that ever happened to me. He threatened that he would beat me even harder if I said a word to anybody. He continued doing this, raping me, for a long time. I was a little girl filled with fear and I used to beg my mother to take me to the fields to work with her, but she didn’t pay attention to me. She used to say that I had to obey my older brother, but how could I obey him after what he had done to me; I had suffered so much damage in my heart. For a while I kept the secret that I was suffering sexual abuse. Every time that my mother used to go to the fields I used to hide with my little brothers, to protect them from the same experience as me, and when it was dark or I heard my mother coming from work, I used to go back to the house.

One day I had enough of keeping this secret and I told my mother everything that had been happening, hoping that she was going to sympathise with me or protect me. But she didn’t believe me and she beat me and called me a liar, asking how I dared to speak like that about my brother. I felt desperate. All I wanted to do was to hide, to stop the abuse I was suffering.

When I was 17 years of age I met the father of my older children. I left home and ran away with him thinking that my suffering had come to an end. But this was not to be. This man used to drink a lot and when he came home he used to beat me cruelly. He used to go to town for many days and leave me with my children, Anderson and Rosario, without food, and if I asked for something he would beat me very cruelly. At the beginning I told him about my sad childhood, thinking that he would help me, but instead he blamed me for what happened to me. One day, tired of what was happening to me and taking advantage of his going to town to get drunk, I sold one of his cows, took my children, 6 year-old Anderson and 1 year-old Rosario, and took the first bus to Lima, the capital of Peru. Someone had given me the address of a distant family member and we went to her house.

This person used to live in a district in the south of Lima called Villa El Salvador, a very dangerous and rough place. I didn’t know the capital at all and I expressed my desire to work to support my children, and they gave me an address to go to and told me which bus to take to get there.
Nobody helped me to get there, I had to go on my own, and when I got there two man captured me and sexually abused me and wanted to kill me. At that moment I only thought about my children; how would they survive without me, so I begged them with all my heart not to kill me and they took me to a very remote, lonely beach and dumped me there, threatening me that if I said a word, they would kill me, because they know where I lived with my children. This happened only 2 months after our arrival in Lima. When I arrived home I was terrorized and traumatized, but I didn’t say a word about the matter, only that I had been assaulted.

I didn’t want to go out at all, I was frightened, but one day I got up courage and went to look for a job. I found one in a house where I only had one day off, on Sunday, but only for a few hours, not all day long. I had to leave Anderson at the house of my distant relation and I had to take Rosario to an orphanage. So on Sundays I used to see my children only for 2 hours, and then I had to go back to work. After a whole year of this sad situation I met my present husband and was able to live with my children together.

After 3 years of not hearing anything about the father of my older children, one day I was shocked to see him where I lived. He told me that a friend had given him my address and that he wanted to see his children. I already had a family with my new husband. Anderson was so happy to see his father, who took advantage of the situation. He lied about taking to the shop nearby to buy some sweets with him, but he never came back. When my husband arrived I told him everything and we went to the police to file a complaint, but they didn’t accept my version. Then I went to a lawyer, and she drew up all the necessary documentation, but when I was ready to pick him up, I didn’t have the money to make a long trip that would take many days, and then I had to pay for other documentation, totalling $250 in all. This was the only way that my child could be with me. I learned from people coming from my town that Anderson’s father was abusing him and that he desperately wanted to come back to me. This situation made me very sad because my husband couldn’t afford to pay for my trip.

When I arrived at Help Women and Children I received spiritual help and also counselling. They made me understand that I am a valuable person and that I can achieve things in life. I thought that I was useless in life, I even smacked my children badly, but with this charity I have started believing in myself and the things I myself can achieve if I make the effort. Also with this charity’s help I enrolled in evening school for adults, where I am learning to read and write, and now I am studying very hard in order to help my children in the future. I feel that I have been born again, even though sometimes I cry a lot when I remember my childhood. I look forward to every day and am growing stronger and taking proper care of my children. My husband and my family are going to a Christian church nearby…I only need Anderson with me in order for my happiness to be completed.

Thanks to Help Women and Children, I have my child back now after I lost him for more than 2 years. I never thought that I was going to see him again; I didn’t have identity documents, I couldn’t afford to pay a lawyer to draw up the custody papers and I didn’t have money to pay for the ticket to go to my remote village and fetch my son. With the help of this great organization I got my identity documents, paid a lawyer’s fees, bought a return ticket - it takes 3 days just to reach my village from Lima - and brought my child. I found Anderson, now 11 years of age, underweight, with bruises, scratches and flies in his body, and very lonely; he had been abandoned by his father! Now that he is with me I am taking care of him. I only can say THANK YOU from the bottom of a mother’s heart, a mother who has her child back again. Thank you also for looking for and finding a vacancy at the school for him and for paying for all his uniform and school materials through sponsors you found for Anderson. Now I can say that I AM A HAPPY PERSON.