There are truths we learn far too young.
Growing up as a young girl, I learned far too early that the world was not designed to keep girls safe. Gender-based violence wasn’t a concept explained in classrooms, it was a shadow I encountered in hallways, in offices and heartbreakingly, even within the walls that were supposed to shelter me. Every encounter left a mark. Every silence carved a wound. And slowly, I began to question not the violence, but myself.
I wondered if I was the reason.
If the way I laughed, walked, spoke or simply existed invited harm. The world had taught me to shrink, so I folded myself into smaller and smaller versions of who I was meant to be. But healing has a way of arriving quietly, then changing everything. When I joined the Youth Leaders Fellowship Program by UNFPA Ghana, I stepped into a space that felt like the sunrise after a long night. There, I learned words I didn’t know I needed, words that felt like truth, like liberation, like breath:
“You were never the problem”
“Your clothing was never the problem”
“Your existence was never the problem.”
In that moment, something in me began to unlearn the shame I had carried for years. I learned to name what had hurt me. I learned how gender-based violence is woven into systems, traditions and silences. And I found a fierce, compassionate, brilliant community who believed that every girl deserves the right to live without fear.
Slowly, my voice returned. Then my courage.
Then the fullness of who I was always meant to be.
I became a woman who speaks clearly and boldly.
A woman who stands upright even in the face of injustice.
A woman who knows her worth and refuses to let anyone diminish it.
A woman who fights not only for herself, but for every girl whose voice is still trembling. And then, unexpectedly, life handed me a moment that showed me how far I had grown. Someone said to me: “This December, I want to give my daughter a mobile phone so she doesn’t get bored during the holidays. I want to share your number with her so she can talk to you and learn from you. I want her to grow up with your values, to know how to stand up for herself.”
Those words stayed with me.
They wrapped around my heart.
For someone to want their daughter to grow into a woman like me…
They reminded me that my journey, my pain, my healing, my resilience is shaping more than just my own life. It is becoming a light for others. It is becoming a path.
I am proud. Proud of the woman I have become, proud of the journey that shaped me and proud that others see in me the values they hope their daughters will inherit.
As the world observes the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, I am reminded of what UNFPA Ghana helped awaken in me: the belief that stories can transform, voices can protect and empowered young leaders can reshape the world.
Today, I stand tall. I stand sure.
I stand in the fullness of the woman I have become.
And I will keep speaking! Loudly. Fiercely. Unapologetically because every girl deserves a childhood free from fear, a world that honors her dignity and a future where her power is never questioned. The legacy of womanhood does not have to be one of pain.
Author: Djiminfa Amoussou
