Taking a bold step to alter adversity (I)

Gender based abuse is one of the most reported form of adversity among human communities. The story below gives a picture of how gender based abuse can develop into different stages in a household:

Mohaludi* and Mokgerisi* started dating three years ago, when Mohaludi had just started as a freshman at a tertiary institution within her community. Mokgerisi, seven years her senior, was already working as a manager in a chain store. Initially Mohaludi considered herself blessed as she had met what seemed to her like an ideal partner who showed all the love and attention she so cherished. Eight months later, Mohaludi fell pregnant just after her 20th birthday. To Mohaludi’s shock, Mokgerisi started to show the colours she never really expected from him. Mokgerisi would come to the house they cohabited in drunk, during the wee hours of the morning, and cause an argument which would always leave Mohaludi’s face disfigured from his blows.