Every child deserves to grow up in a home. Not a house, but a home. Not a building with four walls and a roof, but a place where they are protected and loved. I grew up in a house with four walls and a roof. It kept out the wetness of the rain and the chill of the winter, but it also kept in the pain of physical, sexual, emotional, and verbal abuse. It hid the bruises from the world and contained within its walls the hell that I faced each and every day. Many people knew what was hidden behind those walls, but I grew up in an era where "you didn't get involved in other people's business" and "what goes on behind closed doors, stays behind closed doors".
I had no where to turn to. No one to ask for help. Silence was engraved upon my soul. That silence almost took my life. More than once. April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month. By breaking my silence, I hope that more children will grow up in a home instead of a house. I hope to give another little girl the chance to thrive and truly live. A chance I wasn't given.
Even though my voice was silent, I was telling others through my actions. It is important to listen to what the actions of an abused child is saying because more often than not a child of abuse doesn't tell they are being abused by their words. They tell it through their actions. We are all in this together. It takes a village to give a child a home. So please if you suspect a child is being abused or that there is just something not right, then please give that child a voice. Every child deserves a knight in shining armor.Every child deserves a home.
Below are some links if you would like to know more about preventing or recognizing the signs of child abuse:
