Amanda Carrasco

This past week I became aware that a woman in India was gang raped at the orders of an elders council. I found this to be abhorrent and shared this story on my social media to bring awareness to the atrocities that go on in our world. If people don’t know, then they can’t take action. It is my hope that with knowledge people will do what they can to bring about the change that needs to happen in our world to speak to the value of human life.

One of my facebook friends private messaged me that she did not feel that story was appropriate for facebook and that she changes the channel if there is stalking or rape on it. If we ignore the problems they will not go away!

This made me wonder if part of the reason it is easy to turn away is because the victims are nameless and faceless people. Sure rape happens, but if it’s not someone we know then we can pretend it doesn’t. It’s when crime comes close to home we realize how great the problems are.

So that’s why I want to share part of my life story publicly. I want to put a name and face to rape. It’s mine. I was sexually abused as a child from a young age to age 10. My parents knew nothing about it while it was happening. I was raped in high school by an older boy and again at a party in my early 20’s.

I have spoken to too many women who have been through what I have been through. Some had never told anyone what had happened to them. What I went through is still painful even though I have found a lot of healing, but I am grateful that I have been able to use what happened to help other women who know the shame that is left like a residue on your soul.

If you want to pretend this doesn’t happen, then you can no longer look at my face. I am proof that it does and that we have to talk about these issues and take action. Praise be to God that I am also proof that you can go through horrific things and find healing and wholeness. It is difficult to share my story, but I do so because though the scars remain, THEY DO NOT DEFINE ME.

I bring a reality of hope, of life after the darkness.

So how do you help? You help by being a part of the change that has to happen in our culture. This is a fantastic 12 minute video from TedX that will explain the sexual objectification of our culture: http://www.upworthy.com/being-a-sex-object-is-empowering-oh-wait-no-it-s-not-here-s-why-2. Men and Women should watch that video and take the steps she suggests. Things have to change! We should be outraged at what has become normal. If we can not change things here, how can we make changes around the world – changes that will stop women from being raped, stop children from being sold and stop lives from being lost.

If you have been a victim and need help or someone to talk to contact me through social media or my email on the contact page. YOU ARE NOT ALONE!

I can only imagine how incredible it would be to live in a world where people saw the value in each and every life.