Sexual abuse is a worldwide issue that affects millions of victims each year, regardless of age, gender, or sex. According to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC), one in every three women and one in every six men in the United States has experienced some form of sexual violence in their lifetime.
Unfortunately, many of these experiences remain hidden in the silence of the victims, motivated by fear and guilt that this type of situation can cause them, or by threats and intimidation from their perpetrator.
However, through platforms such as Yo Digo No Más talk show, survivors of sexual abuse, on the other hand, can have a space where, in the company of its host Maria Trusa, they can break the silence and tell their stories in order to begin to heal the emotional wounds that this can cause.
In episode 02 of the show's third season, Angela Riscanevo is a brave woman who, through her own story as a survivor of sexual abuse since she was four years old, shares how she found the strength to move forward and rediscover happiness after an experience that caused her so much pain for years.
Sexual abuse during childhood
Angela begins her testimony by discussing her childhood. She is the only child and grew up with her parents until the age of 15, when her mother died. She has lived with her father ever since, calling him her “greatest treasure.”
Going back a few years, specifically when she was four years old, a horrible experience changed her life forever: she was a victim of sexual abuse.
Angela describes how, due to the amount of work her parents had, they left her in the care of one of her uncles, who became the perpetrator of the sexual abuse she remembers as a child. Not only that, but it caused her significant health issues during her adolescence.
Her parents were teachers who worked morning and afternoon shifts and were unable to provide personal care for their daughter. Instead, they entrusted her care to the person they most trusted, Angela's uncle, Angela's father's brother.
Her uncle sexually abused her repeatedly while she was in his care, and while Angela knew something was wrong, the lack of sex education she received as a child prevented her from fully understanding what was going on.
“I had no idea what was happening. Something inside me told me it wasn't right, but I didn't say anything “ngela stated during her testimony.
This lack of knowledge even caused her to have constant nightmares in her adolescence, because when she began to understand a little more about her situation, she feared getting pregnant at her age, believing that the sperm had somehow remained stored in her body as a result of the sexual abuse she suffered from her uncle from the age of four to eleven.
Silence exacerbated the situation.
Finally, when Angela was about 15 years old, she realized that everything she had gone through as a child had a name: sexual abuse. However, because of her fear and guilt, she chose to remain silent and conceal her story.
“I never dared to speak because I felt guilty, and I always imagined that I was going to be punished for this situation,” ngela testified.
Although her mother repeatedly asked her if something was wrong with her or if something was bothering her, she always denied everything. She never told her anything about the sexual abuse she had suffered for many years.
This silence, however, caused her significant health problems such as depression and eating disorders, and she even began injuring herself through minor skin cuts.
The situation reached a boiling point when Angela attempted suicide and ended up in the hospital.
Her father became the driving force in her life.
Finally, after her suicide attempt, Angela noticed her father's deep concern for her and his anguish at not knowing why his daughter had attempted suicide.
This led her to realize that, after the death of her mother at the age of 15, her father was the only person she had left, so she decided to turn her story around for the sake of her health and her father, initiating a healing process that assisted her in recovering from the emotional wounds left in her life by sexual abuse.
Angela's story exemplifies the importance of not remaining silent in the face of sexual abuse. Silence can only exacerbate the problem's severity and increase the number of victims.
To learn more about ngela's story, watch the entire episode on the Yo Digo No Más movement‘s YouTube channel. Survivors break the silence in this space to bring an end to the silent pandemic of sexual abuse.
