This is the last in a series of interviews with children who have been rescued by the Ministry of Human Services, which we are publishing in recognition of Child Protection Week.
*Diane grew up in the hinterland with a father who tried to find pleasure in fondling his own baby daughter without much opposition from her mother, and when she became a teenager he decided to stake a personal claim to her.
She lived with her mother and siblings unaware that her father had cruel intentions because her parents had been separated since she was five years old. The home was quiet, happy and it provided shelter for Diane. All this changed when she decided to leave home and spend a few days with a grandmother.
“I went for a holiday with my grandmother and never saw home again because my father came for me,” Diane said. She is a fluent speaker and though the story she was about to tell was painful, she calmly recalled the events as they unfolded with a level of maturity and eloquence that belied her 14 years.
Diane was visiting her paternal grandmother when her father barged into the home and uprooted her and two younger brothers. He declared his children were going with him and that no one could challenge him on his rights as a parent; the grandmother did not even try. She let him take Diane and her brothers and failed to inform the children’s mother when it happened.
It was some three months after the father snatched them that Diane’s mother became aware of it, but she was powerless at that time to do anything because the father had moved them away to live at an undisclosed location.
Diane and her brothers were later introduced to a stepmother. The family shared a shack her father erected which Diane described as, “barely able to withstand a strong breeze.” She was afraid at first and grew particularly afraid when her father started acting strangely. In her own words, she was terrified of a man whom she barely knew and who was suddenly dominating her life.
Things got stranger, Diane recalled, as her father started to ignore her stepmother and developed a sudden interest in her. She said he asked her and an older brother to go and cut cabbage at a backdam and she questioned why only them.
“I asked him why my stepmother couldn’t go but he shouted at me saying she was not going and that I had to shut up,” Diane recalled. She had doubts about the trip, but had no choice but to go.
As she suspected the trip had nothing to do with cabbage since they had barely gathered a few when her father ordered her brother back to the boat and insisted she accompany him for a walk.
They ended up at an abandoned home in the area where her father ordered her to take off her clothes while flashing a cutlass in his hands. She resisted and recalled asking how a father who was supposed to protect her, could turn on her and ask for sex.
“I kept saying why and saying that he was suppose to watch out for me, not take advantage but he got angry and then he assaulted me,” Diane recalled. The mentally tough teenager begged for a brief moment and broke into tears. She cried for a short while then continued her story.
The assault lasted for a few minutes and Diane was told not to say a word. Her father even threatened to take her life if she uttered a word about the ordeal. The child picked herself up and went home braving a smile while struggling to act normally. She was forced to sleep with her father on several other occasions under the pretext they were going to cut cabbage. The assaults occurred in January last year.
Diane recalled that her father started to beat her stepmother constantly after she questioned the nature of his relationship with his daughter. She was afraid to be left alone with him and for good reason; her father started demanding sex every night and for hours. The child said she was unable to rest for two weeks.
The father later decided to show Diane off so he abandoned his sons and left the area with her alone. They ended up in Region Ten where he took her drinking and when people enquired who the child was he identified her as his wife. He even met a distant relative and told the same story to him, but the man’s wife had seen Diane before and knew instantly that something was wrong.
“She asked me if I wasn’t his daughter in his presence and he was embarrassed. He admitted that I was his child,” Diane said. The woman immediately hatched a plan to rescue Diane and she invited them to sleep over for the night and the father agreed. At the home she questioned Diane and the child recalled breaking into tears. She later told the woman the entire story.
That night they attempted to hide Diane away, but the father flew into a rage and they were forced to produce her. However, they decided to go through with the plan the next morning and unknown to him they placed Diane on a bus and sent her to Georgetown.
“I was on this bus on my way to Georgetown for the first time and I cried. I came off the bus and stood at one spot for hours until I saw my aunt who helped me to escape,” she recalled. The woman took Diane to a relative in the city and they later called her mother. Her mother was informed of the abuse and it was only then that she revealed how the father had fondled Diane as a baby.
The family subsequently called in the Child Care and Protection Agency of the Ministry of Human Services and begged for the child to be protected. Officials at the agency moved swiftly and arrested the father; he was convicted on one of the charges. The trial is ongoing for the other matter.
Diane confronted her father and he denied the assaults, but she is determined to attend court and win justice. She said of the court hearings, “I never miss a day.”
Diane said she has learned how to forgive, but more importantly, free herself of the shame she felt. She is hurting still, but is healing also. She said staff at the agency have taught her how to cope and to rise above the ordeal.
“I went through that, but I am looking ahead,” Diane said. She is attending a city school and is doing well. Her brothers were rescued from the area where the father abandoned them and are now with her mother. She has hopes to leave the city a stronger person and to return home to lift her community. Diane also plans to work to protect children in her community who are at risk.
*The name of the child has been changed to protect her identity.
Moderator!Was this beast of a father prosecuted for child molesting,incest and assault.OMG.
I’m just speechless to know how a man can do this to his own daughter, i’m glad that she was rescued and he’s in jail and is on trial, i hope diane continue with here life and be strong and help other in similar plight.
WAIT A MINUTE, THIS WOMAN KNEW THAT THIS DEMON WAS FONDLING HER CHILD SINCE SHE WAS A BABY AND DID NOTHING ABOUT IT? WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE? THIS IS HOW IT STARTS, AND SAYING OR DOING NOTHING, SHE GAVE HIM THE GO AHEAD TO CONTINUE HIS SEXUAL ABUSE FOR YEARS. WOMEN OFTEN SAY NOTHING BECAUSE THE MAN IS PAYING THE RENT, AND THEY FEEL THAT THEY CANNOT LEAVE AND FIND A JOB AND MAKE A LIFE FOR THEMSELVES; AND THAT IS A SHAME. ALL YOU NEED IS AMBITION AND THE WILL TO SURVIVE AND YOU WILL DO SO AWAY FROM A MAN LIKE THIS WHO SEEMS TO ENJOY BEING IN CONTROL OF EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING. AND HIS MOTHER NEVER SAID A WORD WHEN HE TOOK THIS CHILD FROM HER HOME AND WHY? I CANNOT HELP BUT WONDER WHY DIDN’T SHE INFORM THE CHILD’S MOTHER — THAT IS WHAT ANY RESPONSIBLE GRANDMOTHER WOULD HAVE DONE. BUT SINCE IT IS HER SON, SHE SAID NOTHING. I DO HOPE THAT THIS CHILD GETS THE HELP SHE NEEDS TO AT LEAST HELP HER TO ONE DAY OVERCOME THIS; WHO KNOWS HOW MUCH THERAPY SHE IS GOING TO NEED; AND AS FOR FEELING ASHAMED, YOUNG LADY YOU HAVE NOTHING TO BE ASHAMED ABOUT. THE MAN WHO DID THIS TO YOU OUGHT TO BE ASHAMED AND IN JAIL, IF NOT, HE IS GOING TO CONTINUE. OBVIOUSLY HE BEAT UP ON YOUR STEPMOTHER SEVERAL TIMES AND SHE TOO DID NOTHING. HOW IN THE WORLD COULD ONE LOW LIFE DEMON HAVE THIS MUCH CONTROL? I WOULD LAY DOWN AND DIE BEFORE I SEE MY CHILD ENDURE SUCH ABUSE. NOW IT IS TIME FOR HER TO FOCUS ON SCHOOL IN ORDER TO GET AN EDUCATION, THEN LATER ON TAKE A FEW COURSES AT UG, PERHAPS MAJOR IN CHILD PSYCHOLOGY, THEN SHE CAN HELP CHILDREN LIKE HERSELF. BY THEN SHE WILL HAVE A MUCH BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF JUST HOW IMPORTANT THIS WORK IS, TRUST ME ON THIS. I SINCERELY WISH HER WELL, AND FOR THOSE OF YOU OUT THERE WHO HAVE BEEN TOLERATING THIS KIND OF ABUSE FOR YEARS OR EVEN WEEKS, I WISH YOU WOULD OPEN YOUR MOUTH AND SAY SOMETHING TO SOMEONE WHO WOULD UNDERSTAND AND TRY TO HELP YOU. THE PROBLEM WITH MOST ADULTS IS THAT THEY REFUSE TO BELIEVE WHEN CHILDREN ARE TRYING TO TELL THEM WHAT A MAN IN THE FAMILY IS DOING, THEY JUST SWEEP IT UNDER THE RUG AND PRETEND IT NEVER HAPPENED UNTIL THE CHILD GETS PREGNANT, AND THAT ONLY MAKES IT WORSE. THIS IS SOMETHING I HAVE EXPERIENCED, SO I DO KNOW WHAT I AM SAYING.
Please, learn to turn the ‘Caps Lock’ off. It’s damn annoying reading everything in caps.
Indeed this is a Heartwrenching story,just think about how many “DIANE” are out there waiting to be rescue.There are so many reasons preventing these innocent girls from speaking out,for example…fear of abuser,fear of being condemn by society,living in a place where it is not acessable to law enforcement,Even scared that family members will not believe etc..I hope and pray that justice will be serve and these criminals regret the day they first put their filthy hands on a girl.
This is a devastating ordeal for any child to go thru. I’m glad to hear that she was rescued and her father is having to account for the inhuman crime against her. I wish her all the best. We can rise above anything if we are determined to.
Tears just stream down my cheeks while reading this story, wondering how many more “Diane” are out there. My heart ache for this child, the pain and trauma she’s been through only God knows. I know she is in good care now, we must applaude the Ministry of Social Services for the awesome job they are doing.
You will heal one day Diane, you are one brave woman, i admire you.Wish I was there to hold you in my arms and help you heal. Stories like these just break my heart.
There are many, many more girls… and boys in Guyana who are going through what Diane went through. They are abused and then taunted and teased and called names by the people around them, who knew what happened to them…..They have no one to turn to and no where to go… One reason why some of them commit suicide… Diane seems like a strong person with a will to live… May God continue to grant her the strenght to heal and be an inspiration to others who were abused…… I knew one girl from my neighbourhood who had some horrible things done to her by one of her uncles just as she turned 13… Very smart girl, was attending a really good high school… She dropped out of school and started sleeping with groups of boys and men, as many as ten at one time. She wasn’t doing it for money. She was doing it because she felt like nothing and just wanted to die because of what she went through. Her mother, an educated woman, would take her to a church every week, so the pastor could cast the demons out of her, instead on listening to her only child.
There is only so much that Ministry of Social Services can do. We, the Guyanese people have to start being more sympathetic to children, even if they are not ours. Be like the woman in this article that rescued Diane. My mother always use to always say “to hurt a child, a little innocent human being, or to see him/her hungry and not feed them is the worst sin in this world”.
Speechless that is how this story makes me feel, and I wonder if that man is human. I forsee that child becoming a good individual with the attitude she has.
I WOULD HAVE STRIKED AT HIS … U KNOW WHAT… HE WOULD HAVE NEVER EVER HAD A CHANCE TO USE THAT THING AGAIN..
agree Viper…i personally would have helped.
May Diane and the other teenager tha was aired last week be an inspiration to other abused victims out there. that there is always HOPE {Help Our People Excel} just when you think that there isn’t any. Rice up above the past. Put that past behind and be a leader and positive example to others esp to the abuser(s) that u r a better person now that them. may that a positive and constructive challenge in your life rather a negative & distructive challenge.