Miss BVI 2022 Jareena Penn is bringing awareness to the issue of domestic violence in the British Virgin Islands and the wider Caribbean by sharing her own story of being sexually abused at home and abroad as a young child.
Penn was speaking as an invited guest on a programme aired by the Government Information Service.
She said, “My first experience with it, my encounter was sexual assault… The first time that happened to me was at a very young age, I think I was four, living in St Kitts. But my first time here in the BVI, when it happened, I was seven. So throughout my years of growing up I’ve had different encounters with different people that I’ve trusted or that I felt like I could trust, those that were very close to me… that’s just to show you it could be the person that you trust the most.”
Miss BVI continued by cautioning members of the public to be aware of the people they surround themselves and their children with, warning that her experience is one in a mountain of evidence that this form of abuse is usually perpetrated by a trusted individual.
“It’s not somebody that’s outside that will more so do it, but somebody that’s really close to you. Somebody that knows your actions, how you move, how you go about your day”, she warned.
Reflecting on her experiences, Penn said that in the aftermath of the abuse at that young age, she developed trust issues and found it difficult to open up to people, even in regards to informing an adult about what was going on until they had approached her with evidence of their own.
The experiences, she said, also had a significant toll on her mental health, adding that in a period of her life she contemplated taking her own life.
“It did lead to me becoming suicidal. I did have those thoughts and I’m saying this now because it is very important. I am speaking to the community right now. It is very important that you listen or look out for signs of suicide, because people could be out here with the happiest of face and inside they could really be thinking on these types of stuff and I don’t want you guys to see it happen and make a joke out of it or take it as a lighting matter, because it is very, very serious”, she said.
Penn said that over the years, with the assistance of a mental health professional and other influential individuals in her life, she has managed, and continues to put in the inner work to facilitate healing and forgiveness of herself and the perpetrators of her abuse for what happened to her.
“So it’s like, when that encounter happened to me at 7 years old, these are two persons that I trusted and were very present in my life and were around me very, very often. So for that to happen it kind of took a toll on me but over the years I found how I could deal with it and how I could help myself get over it. I have forgiven them and stuff like that but it’s like the inner work still needs to be done and I’ve gotten to a place where I am able to really deal with it and talk about it where it doesn’t affect me anymore”, Penn explained.