Maureen’s Story

Our EXPERIENCES play a role in shaping our life and how we see pain, but pain when channeled properly can be transformed into an avenue of service for and to the good of humanity…

…but we begin by OWNING and TELLING OUR STORY, for we are the generation that speaks up.

My name is Maureen Alikor, a survivor of rape and sexual abuse. Demystify Abuse Campaign was birthed shortly after the rape experience.

The Unfortunate Incident

On the 16th of November, 2016, at about 2am, I felt excruciating ovulation pains, sleep eluded me. Unable to sleep, I put a phone call across to my boyfriend, we spoke for a few minutes before I heard a loud noise.

It was my door.

Apparently someone, who I later learnt to be an armed robber/rapist had kicked the door with so much force and the door came crashing down.

They (two of them) pointed their guns towards my roommate and I. They requested for our phones, money and other valuables.

Then they forced us to undress, pushed us to the ground and raped us with guns pointed to our individual heads.

My AHA Moment

With the gun pointed to my head, they threatened our lives if we ever told anyone we had been raped.

I was angry deep down in my spirit, but I knew if I survived that incident, I wasn’t going to be QUIET.

My anger stemmed from knowing I had just being forcefully raped, yet the rapist was keen on taking my voice along with him; I was going to risk it. 

• Although I risked finding out what would happen if I disobeyed him and opened up about the rape, I was faced with greater risks.

• I risked giving myself the permission to go through my healing and recovery, because I had come to learn of the power of speaking up and how therapeutic it was for a rape survivor.

• I also risked keeping millions of young people who had been raped chained to the pain, if I kept quiet about the possibility of healing.

• I also risked seeing them battle the trauma and the uncertainties that would strive to hold on to them, and seeking to keep them as mere statistics on the news.

• I also risked seeing rape survivors crawl into their own skin, simply because they would feel unworthy, feel less awesome and damaged.

• I also risked seeing people heap the numerous blames on God for their plight, when I know that the devil is the master behind every perversion of the beautiful gifts given to us by God.

I desperately wanted to change this narratives, so two weeks after the rape incident, I publicly shared my story ONLINE (on my personal blog), then shared it to my Facebook. (see photo below).

• 

Sharing my story is still ONE OF MY BEST LIFE DECISIONS for a number of reasons.

A LITTLE BACK STORY.

Meanwhile, a day before the incident, I made a call for graphics designers on Facebook and I got a lot of suggestions, but I settled with Erhime Olotewo, a facebook friend.

I chatted him up and then called him, explaining what I needed the graphics design for. I told him I had been a victim of sexual abuse while growing up and though I had healed and moved on but I knew a lot of people who were still affected by their experience. I told him I would love to birth an initiative that fights sexual abuse and that I wouldn’t mind sharing my own story too.

I had made this decision in July of the same year while on a sickbed and wondering how the life experiences I had experienced would become helpful to humanity.

He sent his first attempt at designing the logo for demystify abuse campaign a few minutes before 2am, but because I was in pain, I told him I would make my comments on the logo the following day: after which I put the call across to my boyfriend.

A FEW MOMENTS LATER, THE RAPE HAPPENED.

I recognized it was one of the devil’s tactics geared towards stopping God was about to birth through me: BUT HE FAILED.

Demystify Abuse Campaign is the fruit of the devil’s failure.