T&T and the world cel­e­brat­ed In­ter­na­tion­al Women’s Day (IWD) 2025 yes­ter­day, March 8. Sa­ree­ta Bridge­lal’s jour­ney em­bod­ies the spir­it of IWD’s theme “Ac­cel­er­at­ing Ac­tion”. Through her ad­vo­ca­cy, re­search, and sup­port for sur­vivors of child sex­u­al abuse, she is tak­ing bold, proac­tive steps to dri­ve mean­ing­ful change.

Bridge­lal did not just en­dure abuse—she took ac­tion by break­ing the si­lence, found­ing a sup­port group, and us­ing her ex­pe­ri­ence to up­lift oth­ers. Rather than ac­cept­ing the sta­tus quo, she be­came a cat­a­lyst for change.

By chal­leng­ing the cul­tur­al si­lence sur­round­ing abuse, Bridge­lal is push­ing the con­ver­sa­tion for­ward. She ac­tive­ly works to dis­man­tle the “sweep-it-un­der-the-rug” men­tal­i­ty, ad­vo­cat­ing for ac­count­abil­i­ty and sur­vivor-fo­cused sup­port sys­tems that em­pow­er those af­fect­ed to heal and re­build their lives.

RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Sa­ree­ta Bridge­lal nev­er planned to speak pub­licly about the child sex­u­al abuse she en­dured from the age of eight to 19. For years, she pushed it to the back of her mind, be­liev­ing si­lence was the best way for­ward. That changed in 2021 when she be­gan to share her sto­ry as a young moth­er, an abuse sur­vivor.

“My nar­ra­tive was filled with pain and anger,” Bridge­lal said. “I thought I would purge my­self by let­ting it all out, but I wasn’t solv­ing any prob­lems. Some em­pathised, while oth­ers told me I should not speak. I saw how much our cul­ture em­braced the ‘sweep-it-un­der-the-rug’ men­tal­i­ty.”

De­ter­mined to cre­ate a space where sur­vivors could open­ly share their ex­pe­ri­ences, Bridge­lal found­ed a sup­port group in 2024. By Feb­ru­ary this year, at least sev­en vic­tims had reached out.

Bridge­lal said she un­der­stood the feel­ing of be­ing trapped in si­lence.

“I knew what it was like to think you were alone in your mis­ery. That’s why I start­ed the group—to en­sure oth­ers knew they were not alone. Peo­ple feel com­fort­able speak­ing with me. I have found the strength to for­give my abuser, and I am try­ing to move for­ward,” she added.

A so­cial sci­en­tist and re­searcher, Bridge­lal was ap­proached in De­cem­ber 2024 to as­sist in sec­ondary re­search for a pa­per at the Caribbean Re­gion­al Con­fer­ence of Psy­chol­o­gy (CR­CP2025).

In re­view­ing the con­fer­ence guide­lines, she re­alised she could sub­mit her own re­search on child sex­u­al abuse and its ef­fects on sur­vivors as they tran­si­tion in­to par­ent­hood. She lat­er sub­mit­ted a pa­per ti­tled “The Im­pact of Child Sex­u­al Abuse on Par­ent­ing Abil­i­ty in the Caribbean.”

“As a moth­er, I knew I had to make con­scious choic­es about how I par­ent. Sur­vivors must take charge of how past ex­pe­ri­ences shape them. We must not use abuse as an ex­cuse for poor par­ent­ing. Knowl­edge is not wis­dom un­til we ful­ly en­gage with it,” she ex­plained.

In Jan­u­ary 2025, Bridge­lal re­ceived con­fir­ma­tion that her pa­per had been ac­cept­ed for pre­sen­ta­tion in June this year in Bar­ba­dos. She saw the op­por­tu­ni­ty as a step to­wards break­ing the si­lence sur­round­ing child sex­u­al abuse and ad­dress­ing the long-term ef­fects it has on sur­vivors.

“Speak­ing at CR­CP2025 will open doors to con­ver­sa­tions about how we can be bet­ter par­ents and ad­dress child sex­u­al abuse with­out shame. Sur­vivors need to know that there is a way for­ward. A good life is pos­si­ble when we take charge of the nar­ra­tive,” she added.

Bridge­lal be­lieves the cul­tur­al ac­cep­tance of child sex­u­al abuse stems from shame.

“I tried to speak out as a young adult, but I was ig­nored. I lost hope of get­ting help. When I re­port­ed my abuser, he was nev­er charged—on­ly warned. We need to shift the blame and shame from sur­vivors to per­pe­tra­tors,” she said.

Her own heal­ing process in­clud­ed ther­a­py and med­ica­tion, though she ad­mit­ted that she ini­tial­ly felt ashamed of us­ing the lat­ter.

“I had to take charge of my re­cov­ery. Ther­a­py alone didn’t work for me, and nei­ther did med­ica­tion by it­self. To­geth­er, they helped, along with read­ing and self-re­flec­tion. I had to move from be­ing a vic­tim to be­ing a sur­vivor. Now, I am sim­ply Sa­ree­ta, the ad­vo­cate,” she added.

Bridge­lal be­lieves re­li­gious lead­ers can do more to sup­port sur­vivors.

“Many avoid dis­cussing child sex­u­al abuse be­cause they see it as ‘dirty’. That stig­ma must be elim­i­nat­ed. Re­li­gious in­sti­tu­tions should have trained in­di­vid­u­als to of­fer sup­port. I re­ceived coun­selling from a re­li­gious leader who sim­ply lis­tened, and that made a dif­fer­ence,” she said.

Bridge­lal al­so ques­tions what hap­pens to sur­vivors once they be­come adults.

“The Chil­dren’s Au­thor­i­ty fo­cus­es on pro­tect­ing mi­nors, but the ef­fects of abuse don’t dis­ap­pear at 18. More tar­get­ed sup­port groups are need­ed. Each should serve a spe­cif­ic de­mo­graph­ic. My re­search fo­cus­es on par­ents, but ad­vo­ca­cy should ex­tend to oth­er groups,” she said.

She not­ed that her work will not end with the CR­CP2025 pre­sen­ta­tion.

“I plan to re­search how child sex­u­al abuse af­fects dai­ly life and de­vel­op so­lu­tions to pre­vent abuse and sup­port sur­vivors. There is strength in num­bers. The more we speak about the is­sue in a prob­lem-solv­ing man­ner, the more we re­duce the in­stances of abuse and its im­pact,” she said.

As a young moth­er, Bridge­lal hopes that one day, her life’s work will bring com­fort to oth­er women.

“I am the moth­er of a young daugh­ter, whom I would do any­thing for. Speak­ing on the is­sue of par­ent­ing as a child sex­u­al abuse sur­vivor will help us be­come bet­ter par­ents and speak frankly about the is­sue of child sex­u­al abuse with­out shame,” she said.

De­spite un­der­go­ing her own per­son­al strug­gles, Bridge­lal of­fered ad­vice to oth­ers strug­gling with sim­i­lar is­sues.

“I strong­ly feel that no mat­ter what life throws at us, re­search and open strat­e­gy shar­ing al­low us to take charge of how neg­a­tive ex­pe­ri­ences im­pact us. We, in turn, have to ac­tive­ly choose to be bet­ter par­ents. Par­ents should be able to ac­cess knowl­edge and ac­tive­ly choose how they per­form as a par­ent with­out ever us­ing past child sex­u­al abuse as an ex­cuse for how they choose to par­ent,” she said.

Bridge­lal en­cour­ages those in­ter­est­ed in con­tribut­ing to her re­search to reach out.

“We must take charge of our sto­ries and en­sure that sur­vivors know they are not alone,” she said.

“Re­mem­ber, there is strength in num­bers. The more we speak about the is­sue in a prob­lem-solv­ing man­ner, the more we re­duce the in­stances of child sex­u­al abuse and its im­pact on liv­ing a suc­cess­ful, hap­py life.”

Any­one want­i­ng to sup­port Bridge­lal’s re­search can make do­na­tions to Sa­ree­ta Bridge­lal Re­pub­lic Bank, Fyz­abad, Ac­count Num­ber 330030312301, or call Bridge­lal at 379-9751.