Voices are powerful.
Collectively, they move mountains. Singularly, they can spark change, big and small. Sometimes, however, voices are silenced.
I’m here to remind you, they carry.
As a teenager Carry, crawls home, bloody and beaten. She opens the door, gasping for breath, begging her mother to help her. Instead of calling the police, Carry’s mother calls her Uncle Richard, who carries her to the upstairs bathroom and assaults her yet again.
The trauma of these experiences lead her to a life of alcohol and drugs, sex work, and abusive relationships, which she eventually overcomes, entering a new life with a stable job and happy marriage. The pain of her past catches up with her, culminating in auditory hallucinations that vocalize her most damaging beliefs and make her lose her grip on reality.
Is she worthy? Will she ever heal? And can she go from being a victim to a survivor?
Every 68 seconds, an American is sexually assaulted. Every 9 minutes, that victim is a child. Meanwhile, only 25 out of every 1,000 perpetrators will end up in prison. (https://www.rainn.org/statistics)
I’m Randi Radin Kalman, an author, speaker and passionate advocate for political activism and legislative change for sexual assault victims.
I was once one of those statistics. At the age of fourteen, I was raped—once by a stranger and once by someone close to me. In my book, Voices Carry, I fictionalize the trauma and mental health obstacles that I had to overcome on my quest to open the boxes of my past.
I work with an organization called RAINN as an advocate and activist for those who have been sexually abused, and are dealing with unreported rape. In my role as a member of their speakers bureau, I lobby for the rights of victims and survivors and have met with Senators and Representatives on Capitol Hill, urging them to pass bills that would benefit our community, such as the recent Debbie Smith Bill.
My heart goes out to the marginalized women and men who find themselves objectified, dehumanized, and misrepresented in Western society: the traumatized daughter, the sexual abuse survivor, the addict, the sex worker, and the women working through recovery. I hope my story becomes an anthem of hope for the voiceless—encouraging her readers to reclaim their identity, take back their stories, and share them with the world.
You can share. You can listen. You can step up and lead. You can help spread the message that survivors of sexual assault need greater care on a national level. You can help effect change. You can join our cause. Your voice matters and we want to help you use it. When you join our community, we’ll send you a free chapter of Randi’s forthcoming book.
Finding My Voice
I sat down the summer of 2022 to process the pain of my past. What came from it was a novel, Voices Carry, which I hope will prod survivors toward their day of reckoning.
Using My Voice
While once voiceless, I am determined to use the voice I’ve unearthed to advocate for justice, raise awareness for once silenced secrets and speak up for those who have been oppressed.
In Voices Carry, I relay a fictionalized version of my harrowing story of trauma and triumph. Throughout this memoir, you’ll be inspired to pursue radical healing and unconditional self-love despite complex trauma, no matter what you’re facing.
Voices Carry provides a call to women and men in every walk of life—to embrace their past, heal their pain, and hold abusers accountable for irrevocable acts. Her protagonist’s journey demonstrates that even the simple act of REPORTING these crimes, even decades later, can send us into a journey of self worth, value, healing and coming to terms with our past traumas.
This is one women’s story of her experience in the world of sex trafficking, what led her to it, and how she survived to tell the tale. Sex trafficking happens every day in our own backyards, yet most people never know it. This story is designed to make sex trafficking a mainstream topic in society. When more of us that tell our stories, the more acceptable it is to bring it out into the light, and address the problem
Share Your Story
Every story matters, including yours. And, change only happens when we bring our stories to the light and don’t leave them hidden in the dark. We’d love to hear yours. Share your story with us anonymously and inspire others in the process. We will share it on our blog so that others can find solace, connection and strength in shared experiences.
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