Finding forgiveness after the fire
Through the help of their local church, Cathy and her husband learn to recover from the extreme violence they faced.
Fear and shame silence victims, forcing them to bear their trauma in isolation.
In South Sudan, the pervasive silence surrounding sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) is heartbreaking. In Aweil East and Aweil Center, this silence has been met head-on by Tearfund’s church-led SGBV training programs, equipping trauma healers with tools to restore hope and healing.
Mary Akuch, a trauma healer from Angelical Church, knows the depth of this issue firsthand. “Around three weeks after our training, just nearby our church, a lady, *Cathy, was in confrontation with her husbands servants and we had to jump in to avoid the situation from escalating further,” Mary recounts of her sister-in-law.
A confrontation between Cathy and her husband’s servants escalated into violence when her house was set ablaze, destroying all her belongings: “By the time we came to our senses that our house was on fire, everything had already burnt to ashes.” Each day after she wished to not wake up because it was a reminder of all that she had lost. Left with scars, burns, and fractured bones, Cathy was left in the depths of despair, nightmares haunting her each night.
With no place for them to turn, Mary opened her own home to the couple, offering shelter, friendship, and hope. As a survivor herself, Mary’s empathy fueled her efforts. Through relentless emotional support and prayer, Mary and her team worked to lift Cathy and her husband out of anguish.
Through the work of the SGBV trained team at the local church, Cathy and her husband received unwavering support from the men and women trained by the church. Her husband now wants to be trained himself so he can help others who have experienced the same violence that his family has.
“I feel better now thanks to the support I got from my sister-in-law and her fellow trauma healing group members. They helped get me through,” Cathy explains. No longer a slave to her past, Cathy and her husband have forgiven the women who hurt them and look forward to how they can now help other people through their church.
The number of sexual and gender-based violence cases that go unreported is strikingly high in South Sudan due to the high shame and lack of resources to respond to them. Tearfund is continuing to train churches in SGBV trauma healing programs as a way to combat the deep grief and despair with an everlasting hope found through Jesus. Each person deserves to have dignity, and Cathy’s story is just one of the many narratives of hope that are written through the work of local churches.
Tearfund works to follow Jesus where the need is greatest, and these trauma healing groups are one way to show God’s love to the hopeless. Your generosity helps women like Cathy to find worth, dignity, and hope through local churches!
*Pseudonym
