Judith Heard
At the age of 15 Judith Allen Heard went through a harrowing situation when her uncle defiled her. Years later, her marriage hit a dead end in the midst of Covid-19. She shares that nothing could help her overcome the trauma except opening up and standing for those who have gone through the same experience as she recounts her story to Gabriel Buule
“Domestic violence forced my parents to part ways and as a child I ended up at my father’s family home in Rwanda where I was raised mainly by my grandmother.
A few years later, my father was killed in the 1994 Rwanda genocide. Life was never easy at all and all my hope was in the hands of my grandmothers and uncles, who lived with us in Kigali.
I still recall that pitched and eerie night as my uncle roughly held my little hands as he ordered me in a condescending voice not to say a word. It was the night to my final exams but nothing was making sense anymore. I was 15 years old.
My desperate decision was to run away from home and that sadly meant I stayed away from the exams. Whereas everything happened in the dark, deep in my mind I believed that the village and school would notice.
My next stop was in Nyamirambo, in Nyarugenge-Kigali, a place that was never easy for a girl at the time. I found solace in karaoke as I traded my husky voice in local bars for tips and sometimes food.
Opening up about sexual harassment is one of the most painful experiences of my life, and it is not easy to talk about the details of what I went through.
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