I set about writing this book after a period of time working to raise the issue of gender-based violence with my own church. The more I researched, the more aware I became that very few published accounts from survivors of gender-based violence (GBV) were available. Each time I gave a talk on gender-based violence, several people would speak to me about someone they knew who had lived with this type of violence, and others would talk about their own situations of abuse. Women’s aid organizations have published a lot of excellent material, including a few anthologies of poetry and prose written by survivors. I wanted to write a book giving a survivor’s account, which also included a view from the onlooker—a sister, a friend, a doctor, a sister-in-law—so those living the experience know they are not alone, so those who have survived can hear an echo of their experience, and so those who are interested in trying to understand the reality of living with gender-based violence can begin to walk a while in the GBV survivors’ shoes.
