**Reader Be Aware: This post contains descriptions of sexual violence.**
Dear little girl,
You were only a child when the neighbour boy played with your body with his, it shouldn’t have happened, but it did, it was never your fault.
You were his sister, when he took you out to teach you how to ride a bike, then took you to his house and violated you. It shouldn’t have happened, but it did, you were only a child. It was never your fault.
You were only a passenger on that train to your school when the man began to feel your body over your clothes. It was wrong, it shouldn’t have happened, but it did. You were only a child.
You were only his friend before he took you to his home and forced himself into you over and over again while you begged in pain to stop. It is not okay; it should never have happened, but it did. You were only trusting a friend.
You were one of those admirers, who looked up to that preacher. You asked him, if he could be your father once, you did not know he wanted something else until he took it from you. You trusted him just like anybody would have. It shouldn’t have happened but it did. It is not okay.
You were only an acquaintance before he fed you a home-cooked food and carried you to his room to have you the way his body craved, you only trusted him as your pastor. It is not okay. It shouldn’t have happened, but it did.
You loved him and gave him your heart; it wasn’t enough for him. He wanted more, and you gave him yourself even when you didn’t want to, over and over again, until he found another girl. It shouldn’t have happened, but it did. It is not okay.
Dear little girl, I wish you were told this before, what happened to you is not okay, it shouldn’t have happened, not to you, not to anybody. I wish you knew that it was not your fault to have trusted people. I wish you knew, what affection looked like so that you knew what was okay and what was not.
Dear little girl, I wish you were told, that you are more than your body, you are a person of value, worth, and purpose. I wish you heard it enough times, that you were made to be loved and not violated.
Dear little girl, I wish you had met better men who would have valued you, protected you, and loved you in the way you should have been.
Dear little girl, I am sorry for the friends who would leave you, not knowing how to help you. I am sorry for the help you did not receive. I am sorry for the people who didn’t see you.
Dear little girl, you are a woman now, and I wish you had the chance to be a little girl again without all the pain.
Dear woman, you are here, and it cannot be undone. It was not an easy path to get here. Survivor is a small word to contain the battles you fought just to live another day. But you are here. All the things I wished to tell when you were little, I tell you now and will tell you till the end of time, as many times you would need to hear.
You are a person made for love. You are a person who was intentionally created. You were conceived in the mind of God before you were on earth. You are a person of worth, that never changed even with what people did to you.
Dear woman, what happened to you is not okay, it shouldn’t have, but it did, and you know that now. You know now, what love, affection, and respect look like, you know better to fight better now. You know better to ask for better.
Dear woman, you are not alone anymore, your story is the shared story of many, and together you will tell every little girl all the things you wish she knew, all things you wish she heard and all things you wish she believed.
Dear little girl, you are a woman now, and you have so much to give!
Photo by Kate Macate on Unsplash
