I was scared': A young girl's struggle to feel safe at home
3 March 2020
•By Rita
Mya hides in the corner of her home when the quarrelling starts.
Her mother and father have been fighting every day for four years, since she was 10 years old. Sometimes her father would come home drunk and beat her mother.
“Their fights became pretty bad when I was in Grade 8,” Mya says. “When my Dad was drunk, he shouted at everything and everyone including me, even when I was studying.
“I was scared and couldn’t learn. I was so depressed.”
A member of ChildFund Myanmar’s child protection group, which has been established in Mya’s village, heard of Mya’s situation and referred her to Htet, a case officer with ChildFund’s local partner Future Light.
For the past three months, Htet has been helping Mya and her parents access counselling. As the sole income earner for his family, Mya’s father works odd jobs and has felt the immense stress to provide for his family and support his daughter’s education. The counselling sessions, however, have helped him understand his drinking problem and the impact it is having on his life and on his family. Since attending the counselling sessions he has significantly reduced his drinking, Mya says. He no longer beats his wife. Mya says speaking to Htet and her counsellor have helped her relieve her emotional distress and understand that she is not alone in her situation. Mya has also learnt how important it is to continue focusing on her school studies so she can realise her dream of becoming a teacher.
