Publisher's Synopsis
Approximately 15 million adolescent girls worldwide have experienced sexual abuse, and only one percent of this number has ever sought professional help. There is the fear of being just a girl, and the question of belief in a story told by one who has only been through a trauma. The girl child has quietly sought that one weapon to fight this, yet the cycle continues until we know we need to change the status quo.
Emerge is a collection of untold stories survivors of gender-based violence in Nigeria and parts of Africa experience and fail to speak about, because the culture of silence has suppressed their voices. In this book, each story may seem different, but it tells our collective struggle that her fight is our fight. It is a book to take out the buds from the ears of all, male and female, to connect with the truth and make the future better for the female gender. To rebel against the status quo, which doesn't respect each gender's needs, is the plan.
The stories contained in the book are testimonials of people and data from my involvement as an End Gender-Based Violence (GBV) activist. The names in these stories are identified with pseudonyms (names mentioned are not the real names except those who have willed that their stories be shared with their real names). Each case is developed beyond the surface as each story has a background that was most likely never shared as at the point of the fresh traumatic event from the survivors.
You can speak up even when you cannot wield a weapon. You can bounce back because you are human as much as you are a woman and you are not just a girl. None of us are safe until all of us are safe
