But what I found much worse, was what my aunt said to me. She said I didn’t work hard enough, and that I would never find a man to marry me. She said I would never be happy. Those words hurt me more than when I was beaten. A part of me was angry at the people who did this to me. But I ran away when I was ten and my then heart began to heal. Now I’m not angry anymore. I leave it to God to judge them. But I do want to say: please stop treating children like that. It’s unfair. I’m slowly starting to believe that I can have a better life. I live in a centre where I’m learning to sew. I’d like to have a family one day: three boys and three girls. If anyone comes and asks if he can take the children away, I’ll say that their father and I don’t want that; that we want to look after them ourselves. I’d like to say to children in the Netherlands who are being badly treated that they shouldn’t hide. They can always come to us in the centre. We’ll help them.
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Sarata