STORIES MOTHERS

PTSD is a horribly debilitating condition. Following a traumatic event, sufferers of PTSD are left with a worldview which has been altered profoundly and which often leaves them deeply afraid and anxious, the future may look bleak as they struggle to liberate themselves from the images of the trauma they have endured. This can be particularly hard for women with ‘birth trauma’ because they often suffer these problems at a time when everyone expects them to be happy and positive.  As a result, they often end up feeling guilty and this lowers self-esteem.

The work Help Women and Children is doing in Britain involves showing women the first steps to recovery from their birth trauma by listening to their concerns, organizing workshops, and by creating national and international awareness amongst other things.  The amazing work in the community of Los Huertos in the district of Chorrillos, in the south of Lima, is even bigger. The charity has not only successfully removed families from the vicious circle of poverty but is also dealing with different traumas by being a listening ear, counselling and setting up small businesses for them.

If you would like to get involved as a Partner by giving £2.99 per month, want to sponsor a child in Peru, buy their products, or want to raise money for this charity by doing the Inca trail or going as a volunteer, please send an e-mail to info@helpwomenandchildren.com

STORIES IN THE UK	STORIES IN PERU
Story 1 - I felt so ugly within me, full of anger and grief	Story 1 - when I turned 10 years of age…he raped me
Story 2 - I feel like suicide is my only option	Story 2 - My husband snatched my 9-year old son
Story 3 - I can't ring any of the help lines because I just cry so much I can't talk	Story 3 - My mother went to rescue me after more than 2 years… now I am 11 years of age
Story 4 -  My c-section appears to have been totally unavoidable. My baby was experiencing no distress. I think my doctor just got tired of waiting	Story 4 -  I was so poor that my mother had to give me away to a lady called Alicia
Story 5  - She stuck her fingers into my sore, stitched vagina roughly without asking and I just  started sobbing uncontrollably	Story 5  - I suffered trauma after the birth of my third child

Story 3 :My mother went to rescue me after more than 2 years… now I am 11 years of age When I lived in Lima with my mother, my father appeared after a long time when I was already about 8 years old. In my innocence I thought that it was good that my father came to see me and to tell me that he wanted to go with me to buy all the sweets I wanted in the shop next to my house. My mother objected to me going out with him but I pleaded with him and he told my mother that I was only going to buy sweet in the shop next door to the house, and eventually she agreed. My mother had already married somebody else and my sister was a little baby and she couldn’t be left alone. As soon as we left the house my father told me that we were going to walk to somewhere very pretty, and I believed him. We arrived at a place where lots of buses were leaving and got onto one of them. The journey was very long and I didn’t know when we would arrive. When finally we arrived my father told me that this town was called Coyllurqui and he was taking me to his house. I was frightened. We reached his house and there was a lady there who was my father’s new wife. This lady had grown-up children aged 18, 15 and 13 years, who immediately looked at me scornfully and mockingly. No sooner had I arrived than the mistreatment by his family started. My father had bought me a pair of trousers and two shirts, crayons and pencils. But when I complained to my stepmother that his stepchildren were inspecting my things, she used to hit me, looking for any excuse. One of these was that I didn’t know how to wash my clothes properly, or I didn’t know how to make my bed. Then she would throw my blanket, sheets and pillow into the street, but my father would say absolutely nothing. My stepmother would send me to fetch wood from the fields in order for her to cook, and when I returned with this heavy load her children would be waiting for me at the door and always stuck out their feet so that I would fall over. They started to laugh at me on seeing me on the floor. I wanted to defend myself and they hit me very hard, although I was only just 8 years old. What hurt me most was seeing my father so indifferent to what was happing to me; he didn’t care at all about the daily abuse that I suffered from his wife and stepchildren. All that I wanted at these times was to return to my mother. I shouted at my father, asking him to take me back to Lima, but he answered that I was going to stay with him until I was in secondary school. He always told me “The problem is that you don’t love me” and this made me feel very bad. I used to see when my father gave my stepmother money for food and also gave her money for my keep and for what I needed for school. But whenever I asked my stepmother to buy a pencil, she refused, saying that my father did not leave anything for me. My stepbrothers always ate well and gave me the leftovers from their plates. I was very hungry and when I asked them for more food they told me that there wasn’t any. I often saw from my hideaway how my stepbrothers came back to the house and secretly took money, and then accused me of being a thief and beat me. They also said horrid things about my mother. It made me feel so humiliated that I wanted to cry. Throughout the time that I was constantly mistreated by both my father and my stepmother and her children I didn’t know how to wash my clothing and went dirty. Some months before my mother found me, a neighbour realised that I was being mistreated and threatened to report it to the police, and from that point they didn’t beat me like before, but they still insulted my mother and me. My father had already left home for another woman and abandoned me with my stepmother. I missed my mother and my sister Rosario enormously and cried secretly, because if they saw me cry they would beat me very hard. Time passed and one day they told me that my mother had come to find me. I couldn’t believe it. At that moment I went out and saw her and hugged her very tightly for a long time!. At the same time my step-mother realised what was happening and one of her relatives came out to help her beat my mother. I was very frightened, I thought that everything was ending and I was filled with sadness. I wanted to defend my mother at all costs, with the little strength that I had. Torrential rain started to fall at that very moment and my stepmother left with her bunch. Then Señora Felicita, my neighbour who knew that they were abusing me, took us into her house, and on seeing all this, another neighbour, a girl, went to call the police, but they didn’t come. When it stopped raining I went with my mother to the police station to get help, but they were very indifferent to our situation. The next day we went to the Justice and the Justice asked me directly, “Whom do you want to go with?” I answered with certainty that I wanted to go with my mother. This was the only way that I was able to come with her to Lima. I was very dirty, with my shoes falling apart, but it didn’t matter, I was happy with my mother beside me. On arriving home after more than two years, I saw my sister Rosario and greeted her, but when she saw me she just said, “How are you?” I couldn’t believe that I had returned and I was in shock. Then, just a few days after arriving, we played together and I could see that my sister was more cheerful. I feel very happy now; I am studying at a big school. My mother told me that thanks to “Help Woman and Children”, which found this school, I can now study and have all my uniform and new books. This organisation also helped her to go to fetch me back from that place where they mistreated me so much. I feel free! Finally I can play with my school friends who are very nice and treat me well. I feel grateful for everything that you have done for my mother and me. I have felt the affection that this organisation gives to children like me who, after suffering so much, can be saved. I am sure that “Help Woman and Children” will go on helping so many children and women like my mother who cannot find a way out of their problems in different places in our country. See his mother’s version, click here TO UP

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