Survivors open up and share their stories
Three women hope to open up the discussion about sexual assault by sharing their stories of survival and the challenges they endured in order to have their voices heard.
“If my story can help one person then it would be all be worth it to maybe prevent them from going through what I went through,” said spousal sexual assault survivor Krista Jenke.
“Just so people understand they are never alone in this and they never have to feel alone,” she continued.
Jenke sat alongside fellow survivors Kealy Cheyenne and Jennifer Zeutzius, who shared their experiences at the Saskatoon Sexual Assault and Awareness Centre as part of Sexual Assault Awareness Week.
There is no set date for Sexual Assault Awareness Week in Saskatchewan. The SSAIC is always advocating for more awareness around the issue; asking the government to declare the awareness week is one way they go about it.
“Survivors don’t often have a voice,” said Megan Evans, SSAIC’s manager of communications and development.
“There are lots of news articles that focus on the perpetrators, sentencing and jail, but we don’t often hear from survivors for a lot of reasons.”
Experts estimate that only one in 10 sexual assaults is reported to police, and that fewer than one per cent of all sexual assaults result in a conviction.
Some victims minimize their experience as less violent and thus less important, and some fear of re-victimization.
Others don’t want to get the perpetrator in trouble or think it was their own fault.
“When it comes to sexual assault and going to the police, the tables are turned on the person reporting it,” Cheyenne said. “You’re put in a position where you end up feeling guilt and shame, like ‘Maybe it was my fault that I was taken advantage of.’ ”
With the rise of the #MeToo movement and the evolution of the conversation over generations, the women are hopeful things will continue to get better. However, Cheyenne noted there is still “a hell of a long way to go.”
All three women spoke of the importance of reaching out for help.
Zeutzius said that she is teaching her own daughter the importance of consent and if she was ever caught in a sexually abusive relationship, she would advise her daughter to seek help as soon as she could.
“Even if she’s not ready to seek help, just to have it in the back of her head that she can always reach out. I don’t think that I could have gotten through the last assault the way I did without the Sexual Assault Centre ... and I’m forever grateful for that — just knowing that someone was there for me when I made my report because I didn’t know who would believe me.”