LOADING
June 6th, 2019

A night gone wrong

2
2 years ago when I was 20 years old I went on a night out with a group of friends in our local town. We went to bars and the club and I began mixing drinks and became incredibly drunk, more then I ever have been, barely able to function...
May 18th, 2021

I Don’t Know My Story

1
I don’t know my story.. of all of the pain that I’ve been through.. I couldn’t feel my pain at times.. but what I had to go through to get here.. I’ll never understand my praise.. I don’t try to figure it out.. because my worship my worship is for...
June 27th, 2019

Survivor of child molestation and date rape

1
I grew up in a family that was great at keeping secrets. I remembered bits and pieces of a night when my parents had gone out and left my two brothers and I with a male adult. Nothing came about with these brief memories until I was at university and...
October 22nd, 2019

Choose healing over silence

2
Ke Mosadi gare ga Basadi (This will be the name of the foundation) Choose healing over silence “I was raped by a stranger at the age of 14. Twenty three years ago my life changed. What started off as a fun occasion turned into the biggest nightmare. Like every other...
August 17th, 2019

My/our German “Weinstein” Case

6
My name is Jany Tempel. I live both in Germany and Thailand. I turned public now, to end the big silence of our country. Almost twenty years ago I had already written a novel about my arduous life. The book wasn’t published back then, mainly because I reported on crimes...
December 26th, 2019

Ms.

2
I was raped by a co-worker when I was in my mid-20’s. We were at a work function, we were all drinking, then about 10 of us went to his place to continue the party. He grabbed me on my way out of the washroom and dragged me into his...
December 19th, 2017

When no means nothing

1
My boyfriend suggested I have sex with someone that wasn’t him because he was my first. He fought with me for months about it; I finally gave in. It was planned I walked to his friends house shaking from terror, what the hell was I going to do to get...
February 1st, 2021

I didn’t know

2
Hello, I don’t always tell this story because I have afraid of reactions but I really need help… When I was 14 a 25 years old man asked me to a coffee, I wanted new friends so I accepted but I hadn’t anything although just a coffee in my head....
June 11th, 2025

Just Words

4
Just words. You have trouble talking about these things. You realize you have trouble talking about a lot of things. You remember being excited about your first job at Dairy Queen. One of your friends works there and you know a lot of people work there as a summer job....
April 9th, 2019

A Message from the Director

2
Click to view and comment
February 13th, 2020

Start of grooming at 15

2
When I was around 11 years old my parents and I moved to a new house. It was a lovely time. A neighbour of ours who was very friendly with the rest of our neighbourhood as first was kind. People always said he was very charming. Walking home from school...
June 18th, 2019

My best friends dad

2
April 27th 2018. Two weeks prior to this incident I was in Longleaf psychiatric facility. I took over 300 pills cuz I didn’t want to be alive anymore but little did I know the worst was yet to come. Ironically when I decided to take all the pills I called...
September 5th, 2019

Spoke out and got fired

2
My name is Vanessa. I served in the United States Army from 2012 to 2016. In my four years of active duty service I encountered 15 cases of sexual assault/harassment/rape/gang rape and then retaliation for reporting. That cost me my military career after reporting. The sexual assaults started when I...
August 26th, 2019

Family members ex husband

2
I was 5 years old going through heart surgery when he would come home late from work drunk, or high or his normal scary self and he would come into my room and put his hands down my pants and feel my butt I would act like I couldn’t feel...
August 24th, 2020

My deaf husband sued the Vatican

1
My deaf husband was molested by the priest who is the head of the deaf residential school in which he was raised. This is for your mother and your husband. I am them. Although you were the person who was raped, those of us live with you and love you...
May 25th, 2019

The Trauma That Made Me

2
I was raised in a broken home in a broken home from a pretty young age. Not young enough that it’s all I ever knew, but young enough that visitation schedules were a steady part of my life. I am the oldest of my parent’s 3 children, but my dad...
December 17th, 2019

dad and mom rape

2
PLAYED BASEBALL FOR 3 YEARS IN FRONT OF MY HOUSE WITH MY SON, AND THIS 6TH GRADE GIRL NAMED SAM ,WAS TRYING OUT FOR THE BASEBALL TEAM AT SCHOOL .SHE LIVED 4 DOORS DOWN FROM ME .SHE STARTED TO PLAY WITH US AND GET TO KNOW REAL WELL. ONE DAY...
June 15th, 2019

Men get raped too…

2
When I was 17, I was raped by a man who was in his 50’s after boxing training. Couple days later I tried to lie to myself and say that everything was fine but it wasn’t. Therefore I told my brothers girlfriend. At first she believed me and asked to...
June 7th, 2016

Was It My Fault?

2
My experience has left me confused so I would really appreciate it if someone could help me understand this. First off I was 19 when this happened & I’m 20 now. This happened back in September of 2015. I was in a sexual relationship with a Marine & I had...
April 21st, 2021

A respectable collegue

1
The next day I walked down the stairs to the hotel, aware that he was sitting at the table having breakfast. Some things you think would never happen to you, you think that working externally with a colleague (married and with children) is not dangerous. But then in a moment...
June 22nd, 2022

1 in 5

1
1 in 5 Prior to joining a university campus, a serious of random webinars with quizzes about how much alcohol can affect the body and cheesy acting about doing the ‘right’ thing. It flies over most college freshman, who all have the same belief that I once had ‘that won’t...
May 24th, 2019

The Statistics that Changed Me

2
2 sexual assaults and 1 rape… the statistics of my story. I can’t promise that this story is pleasant, but I can tell you that power and growth comes with telling it. So sincerely, thank you for hearing me out. October 2017 I was in Chebut, Argentina(a part of the...
March 17th, 2023

Indigo

I returned to fine art in 1990 when I took at class in indigo dyeing at San Francisco State University. I was lucky that the instructor, Yoshiko Wada, and another student from her class, were in the East Bay so that we could carpool together. We would talk textiles on our weekly journey across the Bay Bridge to the Campus. The other student was an accomplished Quilter named Linda MacDonald. Linda lived in Willits near the famous Mendocino Art Center, but traveled to Berkeley to attend this class once a week. The Indigo vat was made in a 32-gallon garbage can and had to be kept covered between dyeing sessions. Indigo is a unique rich blue dye that develops with an oxidization process when exposed to air. Dipping the fabric several times, and allowing the natural fiber to oxidize before dipping it again, creates darker shades of blue. The dye in the vat is created from a mixture of indigo pigment, various chemicals and a reducing agent to remove oxygen from the dye. It is a rich green color while in the vat, which shows up on the fabric before it is fully exposed to the air. The smell emitted from the dye is unusual, a musky odor in my mind. I like to think that it smells like the color blue. The vat needs to be carefully stirred and maintained between dyeing sessions. There is a “bloom” on the top of the vat created by oxidized indigo, making a bubbly and shiny ball of material reminiscent of a flower. The “bloom” gets moved to the side before entry of the pre-wetted fabric. The process reminds me of baking bread or making yogurt where the steps need to be carefully followed to achieve the desired results. In the process of bread and yogurt making, there are living cultures involved in order to create the product, and with the creation and dyeing process of indigo, it has that same feeling of being alive. In order to create interesting patterns, my classmates and I would use resist techniques on the fabric like pastes, stitching and clamping. Simple household items like clothespins could be used to create patterns by folding and then placing the pins at intervals along the fold lines. Beautiful and surprising results were achieved using these methods. Image of Indigo dye on fabric during the oxidization process. My dream of being a professional artist, all started in early childhood, and the first memories of my creations go back to Nursery School. I loved playing with all kinds of materials, like paint, clay, and crayons, just to name a few examples. Mel (Melanie), painting at Jack and Jill Nursery School, Walnut Creek, California, 1960. In 1974, a neighbor in Marin where I was living at the time and studying art at College of Marin told me about an Art School in Mexico. I ended up sending off slides of my work with an application to the Instituto Allende, and was delighted to hear that I was accepted. I began my journey to study there in San Miguel de Allende by flying to Mexico City in January of 1975. A bus ride completed that journey. When I first arrived, I moved in with a family who had two small children, including a newborn. It seemed like a safe living situation for a 19-year-old woman, but that shortly proved to not be true when the husband started coming on to me. I ended up finding my own place on the other side of town. It was a spacious abode with a wall that was shared with a weaving factory next door. There were 2 adjoined bedrooms, a bathroom, a large living/kitchen area and a small concrete patio out the back door. There was no hot water, refrigerator or a telephone. When I needed hot water for dishes, I would boil some on the stove. For showers, I had to build a fire in a box below a water tank outside to get hot water. I felt much more secure living there and walking a further distance to the Instituto on the other side of town than living with the husband who had made me feel so unsafe. There was the Central Plaza, which was called the “Jardin” that was in the middle of town, and I would pass through it on my walk quite frequently. This was the site of fireworks and festivals, like the celebration of Cinco de Mayo. The streets were cobblestone and many charming shops and galleries were located downtown. The School itself was on a beautiful campus with large ornate doors in front that were closed when school was not in session. Photo of the closed front doors of the Instituto Allende I had heard about you and what you had done to other women before you appeared in my main living space one sunny spring afternoon pointing a gun at me. You had a bandana wrapped around your face and tied behind your head. I had heard you first, in the bathroom. Dressed in a long polyester dress with colorful psychedelic patterns. I wasn’t wearing any underwear or shoes. I walked through the 2 bedrooms and turned left when I saw you standing there. I screamed and shouted, “help me,” thinking that workers at the Weaving Factory would hear me and come rescue me. Nobody came. You said to me “Coyote” which I later learned meant to be quiet or to shut up. You grabbed my shoulders and dragged me out the unlocked back door onto the concrete patio. The tops of my feet got scraped. I gave up. I knew you were going to rape me. I just wanted you to finish as quickly as possible. You took off your belt and put down your gun. Somehow I managed to pick up your gun and threw it over the wall embedded with glass on the top, into the alleyway. The same wall you had climbed over to get into my place through the unlocked back door. Towards the end of this ordeal, I heard a knock on my door. You left, climbing back over the wall. I answered the door. My friend Rhonda had come by to visit me. I told her what had happened and we walked to the Police Station nearby. I had your belt with me. The one you left behind. I went to the front counter, telling the officers behind the counter what had happened to me. They were laughing and playing cards at the time. I showed them your belt. They told me to bring you in if I saw you again. I left with Rhonda and took a bath at the where place she lived. We didn’t talk about what happened. We moved in together shortly after that. I sent a telegram to my father and stepmother about what had happened to me. Nobody came to help me. Rhonda helped me when I got hepatitis A and could no longer go to school. I was on my own when it came to figuring out how to return to the Bay Area. I moved in with my father and stepmother. They didn’t talk to me about what happened to me. They sent me to a doctor who diagnosed me with type 1 diabetes. He showed me how to give myself insulin injections. He told me to practice by injecting oranges with empty syringes. My mother told me years later that “You were never the same again” after what you did to me. I survived. I gave up art for 15 years before realizing that I wanted to go back to art school. In those years, I became so disturbed that I had panic attacks, deep depression and needed to move in with my mother at age 30. I started therapy after becoming self destructive in my 20’s. Depression also called “the blues” has been my long time companion. It has taken me a lifetime to heal. My iPhone predicts the words, depression, PTSD and C-PTSD for my text messages. After my Indigo dyeing class at San Francisco State, I enrolled in the Textiles Fine Art program at California College of Arts and Crafts (now known as California College of the Arts) in Oakland. I was married at the time and had become pregnant with our daughter Emily right before classes started in September. Emily was born on May 13, 1991. By the Fall of 1992, I was a single mom and an art student. An inheritance from my mother who died in 1995, allowed me to graduate and to buy my first home. I continued to work with indigo dyeing and created a large textile piece about my experience in Mexico. After many years of therapy and other healing modalities, I recently started painting on canvas. Part of that process has been a Soul Retrieval session to bring back my 4 year old self who loved to paint. I am feeling uplifted and encouraged after many years of recurring periods of severe emotional pain. Stay tuned for more details about my new work. One of my final pieces was a textile called “Out of the Blues.”
1
I returned to fine art in 1990 when I took at class in indigo dyeing at San Francisco State University. I was lucky that the instructor, Yoshiko Wada, and another student from her class, were in the East Bay so that we could carpool together. We would talk textiles on...
July 16th, 2019

Robbery

1
One night when I was 24 years old, I was returning home after a dinner with friends and two guys approach me two blocks from my building. The took all my money and things, and raped me there on the street. A month later the police caught the guys, and...
November 28th, 2022

i just want to tell someone.

1
we dated for like a month a long time ago in march/april 2021. we broke up late april and stopped talking after that and i started dating someone else again. in late august me and the other person broke up and kaya found out so he started texting me again...
April 17th, 2021

“I should do this more often”

1
I was 6 the first time a man ever touched me. At the time I didn’t know it was wrong, I thought it was normal. My biological father would touch me in the bath and help lotion me up afterwards massaging me as he does. I knew I didn’t like...
August 24th, 2019

My Trauma(s)

2
Why do I freeze at the worst possible times? Why can’t I move? Why can’t I scream? Why can’t I fight back? Does it mean that I want it if I don’t fight back? Each time I tell my story or share the shit I’ve been through, I have to...
September 21st, 2021

The Little Girl in Green and Blue...

1
Why? Why would you do that to a six year old girl? Why would you do that to a six year old girl in green and blue striped shorts? Why would you assault her? She couldn’t stop you. She didn’t stop you. She didn’t understand. She looked up to you....
June 8th, 2023

Unethical or illegal?

1
Last year my partner and I worked for the same business. It was a small business near a small town and it had no management or HR of any sort – only one man owned and ran it, even though it served thousands of people each year. I hit it...
August 17th, 2019

My/our German “Weinstein” Case

6
My name is Jany Tempel. I live both in Germany and Thailand. I turned public now, to end the big silence of our country. Almost twenty years ago I had already written a novel about my arduous life. The book wasn’t published back then, mainly because I reported on crimes...
December 13th, 2021

He was my best friend

2
He was my best friend of 8 years. I was really leaning on him for support as I had just experienced my first sexual assault like 6 months beforehand. I was really struggling mentally so he offered to take me out for a night and we went into the city...
December 21st, 2014

Family Secrets

2
From the ages of 6-11, I was molested by my 12-17 year old step-brother. He started out making me kiss him. Saying that all brothers and sisters did it. Then came the touching and later on the oral sex. He would threaten to rape me or tell our parents “what...
March 5th, 2016

My Only Brother

0
My parents were always out so it would just be me and my brother which was fine he took care of me and we were close so I never thought he would hurt me or tell me anything wrong so I trusted him. My mom went to work her night...
June 23rd, 2014

I’ve Never Told Anyone Before

0
I was first raped at the age of 13 hanging out with my friends when I wasn’t supposed to be. It was one of my friends there who was the son of my best friend. To this day you are the first that I have told. I did not tell...
October 15th, 2022

Male dancer

1
Hello my Name is Tj. This happen about 4 years ago I was 19 years old at very young age I always tried to see the good in people. I was always happy and felt nothing could break me down went threw cancer as a baby lost my brother and...
August 10th, 2014

Halloween Nightmare

1
I was raped at the age of 22 while in college. It was my senior year and all I was looking forward to was running well and making the grades in school. I was on the varsity cross country and track team for my university and when October came it...
December 5th, 2020

Summer 2019

1
I got my first job working at a lovely Mediterranean restaurant/cafe one summer because my teacher said she knew the man who ran the place and put in a reference for me. I was 15. He was in his 60s. Two days after I started, the groping began. Only he...
April 27th, 2019

Everyone Else Likes You, Too

2
I had never been to a bar before. Sure, I’d gone out to Applebees with other coworkers where they’d serve me drinks. But I was 19, and had to drive home. I had never been drunk before, and didn’t push my limits. I went to the bar to see him...
June 11th, 2020

Afraid, Ashamed and Alone

2
It was a family member. I was sleeping over at their house because my mom had to get a cancerous spot removed on the back of her head. He touched me. He continued to touch me. And i just froze up. The next day, I tried to act like everything...
July 10th, 2019

So drunk I can’t remember

4
I was turning 18. I was partying like any teen would. I drank a lot. I threw up, sat down. They picked me up and put me in their car. They said “don’t worry we’ll take care of you. You won’t miss the bus”. I remember lying on the bed...
April 1st, 2021

Sex doll

1
After work one night I was drugged by a co-worker. I woke up in his bed naked. He was not in the room. I felt 2 emotions very heavily and immediately. Shame and wrong. I remember looking around for my clothes in a panic. I don’t remember how I got...
September 8th, 2021

Raped by ex boyfriend

1
This is really hard hard for me because I haven’t really explained this to anyone but here I go. I was raped by a guy I knew when I was 14. I don’t remember much because we drank a lot one day and I only remember getting dropped off home....
October 12th, 2023

Workplace Sexual Harassment

1
As I write this story to you, please note that this sexual harassment case is still in progress. It began in December of 2022 when I worked as a contractor for a company named TEKsystems. I do IT work for Nutrien Ag Solutions. The first week I was there, I...
April 10th, 2023

My principal mom raped me

1
When I was just ten years old my mom would remove my clothes then sexually assault me. it didn’t matter how much I cried as she did it. She only cared about what turned her on. :’( I’ve been quiet about it because she’s a principal at a school, but...
September 18th, 2019

Raped in the Air Force

2
My first duty stationed 28 years ago, i was sexually assaulted by my first supervisor and violently raped by an officer in my unit. The violence of that raped, ruined me for a long time. Suffer from severe PTSD and after 31 years i am being forced out of the...
May 8th, 2019

Spoke out and was blamed

3
I am the only girl at a job of 4 men. I am also 20 while these men are 40+. One worker would grab me from behind when I would walk in the back to the bathroom. This would happen often. One day all my coworkers had to go outside...
April 20th, 2019

“raped” by my long time bf

2
One night we were out to bars with friends to get drinks, including my bf of 7 years. After drinking we went to a hostel room. Everything started as usual, then he wanted to have anal sex, which I refused cause it hurts, he answered with “I don’t care” and...
June 25th, 2023

Abused by another child

1
When I was first starting first grade, I had a friend my age who I was close with. I had a crush on him, and I really liked hanging out with him. When we were alone together, he started telling me to kiss him, and I did because I liked...
March 15th, 2024

I’m a Survivor because I am a...

0
My ex husband wanted to get rid of me and my family because he had a new girlfriend so he started bringing the Neighbors in to rape me and his girlfriends to cut my hair and burn me nothing has been done I went to a woman and children’s battered...
July 24th, 2019

LOST

3
When I was 5 years old, I was sexually assaulted by many men. The next day I tried to kill myself. At the age of 10, I was raped and again tried to end it by ending my life. I also am a survivor of FASD and there for not...
June 3rd, 2019

I was used. I got left. I...

2
15. That’s how old I was. 15. I thought my life was great. I had just got my permit and was loving my life. 15. I got used and then left. During this, I got strong. I have known this guy since I was in sixth grade. We used to...
August 30th, 2019

My story growing up with a secret

3
I’m a black South African, I’m 40 years old now, and my son it 20 years old… loved, taught but I still can never live him alone with my nieces as I was left alone and violeted💔💔😭😭 I have spoken about this, but I hate putting this down in writting😭😭...
May 25th, 2019

The Trauma That Made Me

2
I was raised in a broken home in a broken home from a pretty young age. Not young enough that it’s all I ever knew, but young enough that visitation schedules were a steady part of my life. I am the oldest of my parent’s 3 children, but my dad...
September 10th, 2024

My neighbor and his friends

1
My 70 year old neighbor and his friends sexually assaulted me when I was 6.
August 18th, 2019

Abusée par un voisin de mes grands...

2
Bonjour chère Linor, Je suis en train de regarder Brave Miss World. Merci! Je témoigne car j’en ai peu parlé dans ma vie. J’avais 4 ou 5 ans. Je vivais avec mes grands-parents et ils me posaient parfois le samedi chez la voisine qui me gardait pour aller à un...
March 15th, 2022

Waiting For Justice

2
A lot of you all have been following my healing journey for the last 6 years now and I just wanted to give a bit of an update. Recap: On March 5, 2016, I was attacked and sexually assaulted by a random stranger as I went for a morning jog...
May 16th, 2020

I am a survivor

1
MY STORY I WAS REPEATING MY GRADE 9 IN WILLOWMEAD SECONDARY. EVERYTHING WENT WELL UNTILL I DECIDE TO SKIP SCHOOL FOR THE FIRST TIME TO ATTENDED A HOUSE PARTY. MY FRIEND AND I WENT TO THE HOUSE PARTY THERE WHERE STUDENTS FROM SOUTH VIEW HIGH. MY FRIEND AND I WHERE...
April 25th, 2024

Another kid raped me

2
When I was in kindergarten there was a girl that everyone hated, she would pin other younger kind down and rape them but to us it just looked like punching and stuff like that. That wasn’t OK but we were scared that she would punch us if we told the...
June 24th, 2020

Too naïve

3
I was 16. I had my first job, a lifeguard. I was so excited. I have been a swimmer since I was 5 so this was a very fitting job for me. I was the youngest person working there by far. Most of the kids were in college and one...
June 23rd, 2021

Obsessed Abusive Ex

1
I gave an friend a place to stay out of the kindness of my heart after their life went to shambles. My family helped them and gave them support. I became pregnant and their family became close again bc that reason then they flipped the script over time and made...
September 28th, 2019

I Didn’t Know I Was Raped

2
Grass stains on my back and blood in my jeans I gain consciousness while my body is jerked like a rag doll My eyes focus on the hazy streetlights as I try to make sense of my surroundings I hear his zipper as he’s walking away So, I pull up...
November 27th, 2024

I know when I see a rapist...

0
The stalking, gaslighting, victimizing, and of course sexual abuse, were never okay with me. But you just don’t get that because you’re a predator.
October 25th, 2020

Healing from Incest

1
The shut down was slow while the rising ready. At 22 years old, my body, brain, and being could hardly function. I suffered from a paralyzing catatonia, but why? My mind traveled through its memory networks searching for something that would serve as the root of this depression, this distance...
June 24th, 2020

Too naïve

3
I was 16. I had my first job, a lifeguard. I was so excited. I have been a swimmer since I was 5 so this was a very fitting job for me. I was the youngest person working there by far. Most of the kids were in college and one...
November 15th, 2020

J’avais 13 ans

1
J’avais 13 ans j’étais allé avec mon amie chez un gars pour la soirée ils étaient trois gars et c’etait la première fois que je buvais de l’alcool et ce gars qui s’appelle pascal m’a agressé. Je ne l’ai dis a personne et j’ai fait comme si rien ne s’était...
June 28th, 2021

Boy scout of america

1
No one ever told me what to expect once I finally said something that I remembered from over 50 yrs ago. talking about it could bring on some emotion that would possibly need a professional counselor or psychologist to help me with emotion .I didn’t think I needed help with...
March 14th, 2015

Broken Trust

1
I had a friend who I quickly became very close with. I was very depressed at the time and he was too so I spent all my time with him and went to his house everyday. However, when I started falling asleep there, he would touch me and I would...
June 25th, 2024

i was pulling my shorts up

1
i had this boyfriend from 15-16 and he was always bad to me. he told me he was ‘protective’ over me because he cares & i never thought it was escalate to this. i lost my virginity to him and had consensual sex with him many times before he raped...
September 15th, 2019

Online Dangers

1
I had an online friend named Brandon, and he was shockingly nice. I was around 14 at the time. We decided to meet up because he was the town over and i could walk there. So I walked to his house and we got to know eachother. At one point,...
May 16th, 2020

I am a survivor

1
MY STORY I WAS REPEATING MY GRADE 9 IN WILLOWMEAD SECONDARY. EVERYTHING WENT WELL UNTILL I DECIDE TO SKIP SCHOOL FOR THE FIRST TIME TO ATTENDED A HOUSE PARTY. MY FRIEND AND I WENT TO THE HOUSE PARTY THERE WHERE STUDENTS FROM SOUTH VIEW HIGH. MY FRIEND AND I WHERE...