I was five years old when my friend’s father sexually abused me. I did not even understand the act but it felt wrong. Once it got over, he made me promise I’d never tell anyone if I didn’t want something bad to happen. Too afraid of the consequences, I remained quiet for the next 20 years. Sign my petition to ensure no one else has to go through what I did.

Months went by as I suffered in silence. I never played with that friend again, ran away at the sight of his father. Soon after, we moved to a new neighbourhood. I thought I would finally be safe. Sadly though, that didn’t happen. A friend’s brother and his gang, my grandfather’s friend’s son - the incidents of sexual abuse seemed never ending. 

All these episodes had piled up and shaken me up so badly that they had significantly affected my studies, confidence, personality, and much more. As a result, most of the time I just cried myself to sleep or tried to run away from home to hide from all the pain. 

It took me more than 20 years to open up with my best friend and it was only 2 years ago I was brave enough to speak about it to my mother. Upon opening up, I realised that I was not alone. There were many more like me who did not speak up due to the fear of more harassment. 

I realised that a lot of men don’t find it easy to talk about sexual assaults. They either don’t know whom to trust with the information or their incidents are trivialised and made fun of by those they confide in. This can change if you sign my petition.

It’s not like I did not try to talk to people. I looked up the words ‘sexual harrassment helpline’ on the internet and found multiple NGOs offering mental health support, but I wasn’t sure if the person to answer on the other end would be a man or woman. I couldn’t tell whether they would understand the impact of sexual assault on a man. 

Today, I have reached a stage where I am not ashamed of judgment of what I have had to deal with. The ones who should be ashamed are the people who have sexually harassed, bullied, and called me names. 

So I request you to join me in appealing to the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment to launch a free of cost counselling helpline for adult male survivors of sexual abuse that they can call to share what they are going through.