20/03/2025
"THE OPPOSITE"
By Jonas Manasseh K***a
Lena was only 19, but life had already tested her in ways most people could never imagine. Having lost her mother at a young age, she was forced to grow up too quickly as her father abandoned her.
With no other family to turn to, she had moved in with her aunt and uncle in Matero Compound, Zambia, hoping for a safe haven, a place to belong. But the house, once filled with laughter, quickly became a place of fear.
It started subtly at first. Her Uncle would say things that made her feel uncomfortable, brush against her in ways that seemed innocent but weren’t. Lena tried to ignore it, hoping it was just her imagination. But it wasn't. One evening, everything changed.
Her uncle advances crossed the line, and Lena was left alone in a whirlwind of fear and confusion. She didn’t know what to do. Terrified and feeling betrayed, she turned to her aunt, desperate for someone to believe her.
But instead of finding comfort, Lena found disbelief and rejection. "You’re just being dramatic and probably sleeping with my husband already.," her aunt had said, shaking her head.
Lena’s world crumbled. Her own aunt, the woman she thought would protect her, turned her back on her. In the blink of an eye, Lena was thrown out of the only home she had left. Alone. Abandoned. She had no place to go. No one to turn to. She consequently stopped school as her aunty was the one that sponsored her.
Lena now stays with her grandmother in Lusaka West with no hope regarding the continuity of her education.