“I saw how my mother, having given birth to me at the age of 18, suffered. She had sex with my father as a teenager. He would beat her. Then he left her. I also saw my grandfather get drunk and beat my grandmother.
I was raised by my mother and my siblings’ dad (not my dad). He sexually harassed me. He molested me, insulted me a lot, grabbed my private parts.
So, the topic of sex in general is very painful for me."
"I first attended ACET Ukraine sessions in 7th and 8th grade [aged 12 to 14]. Their "University of Healthy Youth" topics were interesting - but I understood that they were a challenge for me.
I had been sure that sex at my young age was normal and that it’s everyone’s choice to do it. I watched erotic films, I thought that sex before marriage was good, that abortions were normal, and that all men are scum.
But after the ACET sessions, I really thought about it. I seemed to argue with myself. I had other thoughts - about fidelity, love, the hope that there are good men somewhere."
"My conscience was telling me something new, because I heard something new at the ACET sessions.
"In the following spring, it turned out my friend helped at the ACET youth club ‘Space of Great Stories.’ I went with her and met the leader, Svetlana. As I often joked about sex, Svetlana talked to me about it. We talked about this topic for a long time. I said at the time that my opinion would not change, but in fact I started to change.
I cried at the club because they raised difficult questions for me: relationships with boys, with my family, with friends. I underestimated a lot. I am grateful to Svetlana for her many hours of conversations with me.
Now I help at the club, and I want to become an ACET coach. I am already different."
"I am still afraid of men, especially drunk ones, because I saw how my drunken grandfather beat my grandmother many times. And I am still sometimes afraid that I will repeat my mother's mistakes in choosing men.
But there is hope that I will find love, that my life will be good. Now I have friends at the ACET club who make the world a better place.”