Starting to write a book about Suubi Teen MOPS Uganda

Jane's story (her name has been changed)-

Maybe it was just too simple?  Just too good to be true.  We were opening a soap workshop.  And we rented a 3 room house with running water and its own kitchen and toilet.  Honestly a major step up for most of the women.  But for Jane a dream home.  We had reserved one room for Jane and her son John(name also changed).  All our women are poor.  Most have a history of abuse.  But none with her history, hers was the worst.  She was born in Rwanda in 1990.  In 1994, members of the Hutu ethnic majority murdered around 800,000 people, mostly of the Tutsi minority. Jane lost her parents and most of her extended family.  She lived with her grandmother for about a year.  When she was 5 her grandmother who was also caring for many cousins died.  Extended relatives came to claim all the children, but they rejected her.  They merely claimed she was not one of them, and left.  At the age of 5, she was alone.  No one there to comfort her or feed her in a jungle abandoned. 

For about 2 years she would hide in the trees and survive on fruit.  But one day she fell.  So she found an abandoned house and she stayed there…alone.  One day a snake, a giant snake curled its self around her and began to strangle her.  She screamed.  And on hearing her scream people came running to rescue her.  I’ve heard her say how much she wished had just died that day.  Because her life only got harder.  Her rescuers sent her to live as a servant to an older woman.  And this woman sold her as a slave to a family in Kenya.  For nearly a decade she would work from before sunrise until late into the night.  Often with only 3 or 4 hours of sleep.  And she was given one small meal to eat.  Finally, she could bear the abuse no more.  She ran.  She ran to a highway that leads to Uganda.  And a woman picked her up and drove her to Kampala.   In Kampala, she found a job washing dishes.  The owner was especially kind to her.  And eventually, she slept with him.  When she found out she was pregnant, he insisted she abort the baby.  When she refused he sent men to beat her.  They hit her so hard she passed out.  They left her to die. Her body still bears the scars.    Miraculously she and her son survived.  But she had no job, no place to live. For 3 years, she slept on benches in churches and often had to sell her body to feed her child. There is a great deal of bitterness when she recalls these years on the streets. 

I am not sure how she found MOPS?  I do remember Sylvia visiting her home.   It was just a shack in a slum.  She had pieces of cardboard on the dirt floors.  One room, no windows, no real door to protect them at night.  She had no electricity, no water. For me,  It was such an amazing feeling to move her from this shack into a proper house.  But we had no idea that safety was dangerous for Jane

.  As long as she was operating in a fight mode, she could stuff all the emotions she had, all the nightmare memories.  Once she experienced safety all the nightmares began to surface.  And with them resentment towards her son.  She had done all these unthinkable things just to keep him alive.  And she was angry.  And when she began to be abusive towards her son, we moved him into a boarding school.  And sadly she could not stay in the nice house. She could not feel comfortable there.   And she would runoff.  And she would steal from Suubi.  Eventually, we had to fire her from her job.  But we continued to support her son.  We knew we had to support him or he would also be abandoned.  And he was only 6 years old.