Hannah’s story is one you might expect to see in a sensationalised and melodramatic movie. It is not something you’d think could happen to a student nurse on an elective abroad in Africa. When I first read Hannah’s chapter, and knew that she wanted to write under her own name, I feared for the tabloid headlines: ‘student nurses kept as sex slaves in Africa’. I’m writing that here to steal their thunder, because whilst that is what happened, it is not a helpful way to treat Hannah’s story.
On a week’s placement to a rural village, miles from any other habitation, Hannah was repeatedly raped by the ‘King’ of the village who wanted to make her his wife. When she was finally back in the town, feeling safe, she unhesitatingly went back to save her friend who had been kidnapped. They were both then raped by multiple men.
Hannah and her friend both made it back to their home countries. Here, Hannah tried to compartmentalise what had happened, but over time the flashbacks and nightmares began to surface. She told her tutor what had happened and a letter was sent to the company who had arranged the elective. Unfortunately, their response smacks of a business trying to protect itself by disparaging the victim. They questioned why she had waited to disclose, and asked why she had left a positive evaluation of her experience on their website. They said they would ‘issue a warning’ to the ‘King’ concerned, but would take no further action unless further complaints were made.
Hannah was asked if she wanted to report what had happened to the police. However, she didn’t think they could take any action as the crime had happened in Africa, and she didn’t think the African police would do anything. She didn’t think she would be believed; the company hadn’t believed her, so why would they?
Furthermore – and this is a common reaction from victims who choose not to report to the police – Hannah wanted to block it out, put it behind her, and move on. Since then, she has been focusing on her recovery and receiving help from the Rape & Sexual Violence Project in Birmingham and Solihull. She shares her story in the hope it will raise awareness of the impact of sexual abuse crimes on victims, and increase understanding about the difficult decisions that victims make about whether to report.
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Picture of Hannah Guest
This world is so cruel- She went back to save her friend because something horrific happened to her. And it lead to them both being raped.
Im sorry to those that have been through similar situations <\3
