I think so far, this interview has affected my group most. We interviewed a child abuse survivor. For confidentiality reasons, the name of the survivor will not be named. In a private room in our school, we interviewed her about her experiences. When we interviewed this person, the conversation felt real, she wasn’t hiding anything from us. At first I was nervous that she might be timid and afraid to share information, but I was quickly reassured because when we are talking because she seemed so relaxed and happy. She was even able to laugh about some of the the darker parts of her life. I think the survivor was able to laugh because she had moved on and continue living. I think that an important lesson to take from our interview is there is no way of knowing what someone’s been through by looking at them. The survivor talked about how in India where she grew up, her culture didn’t recognize how awful and common child abuse was. When her father beat her in the middle of the street, people still looked away and encouraged her to just to go home with him. It was easier for them to ignore it than to help. She talked about how not feeling loved affected her and upset her a lot because she felt worthless and invaluable while her siblings were given so much love, praise, and gifts. She was a slave in her own home. She worked all day and didn’t get to go to school, while her siblings were sent to an incredible boarding school. Eventually her siblings started asking their parents why their sister was being treated this way, but they would not answer. The last thing she told us was that the best thing we can do to help children suffering from child abuse is to listen and not act shocked because child abuse is more common than you think.
