“I told him to stop. He thought I was joking. I froze"

                

                                                    

It took a long time for Kristina Erickson to realize that she had been raped in a dorm at Beloit College.

“We were kind of wrestling around,” she said. “Things turned more sexual. I told him to stop. He thought I was joking. I froze.”
Afterward, she brushed it off. But later, in her senior year, a flashback crystallized what had gone wrong, and she broke down sobbing.
Not long afterward, in the crowded basement of a fraternity house during a party, a drunk man stuck his hand up her skirt as Erickson — totally sober — was walking past. She grabbed his hand, shoved it away and yelled at him to never touch her again. In that case, she filed a complaint with the college.
Erickson later wrote an essay for the student newspaper in which she disclosed that her mother had been raped while she was a student at Beloit in the 1980s.
“I am a legacy child in more ways than one,” she wrote, “and I have inherited the rape culture on our campus that I’m sure she prayed would be gone by the time I got here.”
Erickson, 23, graduated from Beloit in 2013 and teaches high school English in the Phoenix area.

Source:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/local/sexual-assault/

In this situation what do you do?

Most often we find ourselves in situations and just like Erickson's case the guy would think you are joking. Not to be harsh on her but then if She kept insisting and was firm in her NO you would agree the guy wouldn't have continued. Or better still she could have screamed and shouted he would have seen the seriousness in her NO.

Most often we don't know how to say and be firm in saying NO. Today you have learnt something on how to negotiate NO and be firm in saying NO. When persuasion fails, force is applied so if you saying it softly and the person is not stopping, apply force by shouting and being firm in saying NO if possible, push him or her off and flee!

#EndSexualViolence #NOW

Living with Diabetes….from junior high to senior high

My name is Mercy.  I am 17 years of age, I come from a small village named Assin Fosu in the Central Region of Ghana. I was very young when my mother and I realized that things are not going on well with me. I used to eat a lot of food but always lose weight, drink a lot of water and at the same time I urinate a lot especially at night. My mum and I were very worried and she thought it could be a spiritual illness. I was sent to  many hospitals for check-ups but still experienced the same problems as they did not diagnose me.
A friend of my mom advised my mom to send me to a prayer camp for deliverance, she did exactly that  unfortunately while at the prayer camp one sunny day I went into coma and was rushed quickly to Assin Fosu St. Francis Xavier hospital. That was where I was diagnosed as a type 1 diabetic after I had gone through some laboratory test. I regained consciousness after a few days and I was told by the nurses that I had a strange disease known as “diabetes” and that am not supposed to take in any food containing “sugar”.
When they told me about this, I wasn’t shocked or surprised because I have an uncle who also has diabetes and had seen him on a number of ocassions injecting himself. I felt very proud and bold enough to tell my close friends that I had diabetes.
I am now a matured person and about to start a new life in the Senior High School (SHS). I am a boarder and almost everybody knows what goes on in the boarding school.  Things are very difficult in terms of food and my medication. I didn’t think of these problems initially because I knew “diabetes won’t stop me”. Since I inject my insulin often and eat a very good and balance diet food I am always fit as fiddle.
My friends and teachers know I have diabetes mellitus (DM) so they always check on me and also make sure I take my insulin all the time. My best friend also advises on my diet and tries to help me eat healthy.
I sometimes get bored and feel worried because when a friend or family member invites me to a party, in the first place I always remember what the nurses told me about diabetes so I always put that in mind. Sometimes I don’t want to go because all that is served there are drinks which have high sugar contents and I can not drink those.  I can’t seem to have fun with them when I don’t eat or drink what they are also having, so many times I rather stay at home.

I will like to take this great opportunity and advantage to advice my fellow teachers to take good care of students living with diabetes and other chronic illnesses. They should also learn a bit more about the problems that living with diabetes also have, like hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) or also to be able to recognize when their blood sugars go really high in school.  This could safe the lives of some of the young ones, since teachers spend the longest times with the children, they may be able to diagnose or identify some of the problems which the young diabetics may go through during classes.  A teacher should be able to quickly manage a child with low blood sugar, or help the child in boarding school to inject their insulin and eat healthy.

Teachers should also treat all the students equally whether or not they have chronic diseases like diabetes, make them comfortable so that being in school will not be a problem at all.

I will also like to advise my friends living with diabetes and those who are not living with it that they should take good care of themselves very well especially with the DM patients. They should inject their insulin and go for check-ups on a regular basis and I bet them that everything would be perfect with them.
It is my dream to become a “FASHION DESIGNER” in the near future.
#DIABETESWON’TSTOPUS#

Source: http://www.diabetesyouthcare.org/living-with-diabetes-from-junior-high-to-senior-high/