The survivor Khadija (a pseudonym), is a 45-years old female from Rif IIb district in Ibb governorate, married and has 3 children. Khadija lived a miserable childhood in a fragmented family filled with ignorance and injustice. Her parents separated when she was 8 years old, and she was the oldest sister of a brother and a younger sister, and they all lived in their maternal grandfather's house.

After her father married another woman, he forcibly took Khadija from her grandfather's house and forced her to leave school while she was in the third grade to live with him and his wife in order to serve them. Her stepmother was very harsh in dealing with her, and she was entrusted with all the housework without taking into account her age stage .In addition to being subjected to many types of violence such as beating, verbal abuse, deprivation of childhood, education and depriving her from her basic rights such as eating, drinking and clothing.

Khadija says: " How sad I felt when my stepmother used to wake me up to help my brothers get prepared for  school, and while they were studying, I was cleaning  the house"

Khadija suffered a lot in her life with her father and his wife, as her father responded to his wife’s incitement against Khadija without hesitating or verifying the truth of what he was told about her, and her suffering increased more and more when her father brought her younger brothers who were in the grandfather’s house to live with them. She assumed a responsibility in addition to her previous responsibility, as she was the one responsible of raising her younger brothers, and for them she endured the most severe types of insults and psychological suffering.

Khadija said: " I used to bring water from a far place when I was a child, sometimes my body couldn't handle the water can, which has a capacity of more than 10 liters, so I had to rest a little and carry it a little, and this thing made me late to return home, which made my stepmother beat me up and curse me".

When Khadija reached the age 13, she was surprised by the announcement of her marriage to her cousin, who was about 13 years older than her, without taking her consent. Like any other persecuted girl in her father's house, she thought that marriage will be a lifeline for her.

Khadija says, "I got married when I was a child. I didn’t know the meaning of marriage or how to deal with my husband and I was afraid of him because he is older than me"

Khadija  suffering continued and even got worse, as she was subjected to moral and physical violence by the husband, and she suffered from the neglect of her husband, who left her and entered into relationships with other women, and she also suffered from his family, she bore burdens and tasks that were not commensurate with her physical and psychological ability, and she also suffered from health problems during pregnancy due to her young age, malnutrition, and the large number of burdens and household tasks entrusted to her, which led to the deterioration of her psychological condition, as well as the deterioration of her health condition during her first and second periods of pregnancy, and this caused her to lose both of them after giving birth in periods not exceeding seven days .

Khadija says: " The doctor said that my uterus is healthy, but my body is still growing, and this is the reason why I lost my fetuses"

Khadija became nearly 20 years old and her physical growth was completed. She gave birth to her third, fourth and fifth children .As days passed , problems with her husband increased and developed into complete abandonment of her and her children, and she ended up being divorced, so Khadija collapsed immediately afterwards and gradually entered the cycle of mental illness, as she began to show symptoms of sadness, crying and introversion, and then she returned to her father's house, her responsibilities and suffering increased , because of their mistreatment of her, her brothers, and her three children, for whom she endured what no human could bear.

After (3) years of patience, endurance, fatigue and painful coexistence with the father and his wife, the survivor was no longer able to bear living with them, so she decided to go and live with one of her uncles, in order to earn a decent living and provide education for her children, an opportunity that she was not given when she was a child.

As a result of endurance to previous pressures since childhood and until the moment when she decided to go to her uncle’s house, the psychiatric symptoms intensified, which appeared clearly in symptoms of severe depression with some psychotic symptoms of severe low mood, lack of pleasure in life, excessive nervousness, distress and depression crying, hating life, running away from home, feeling despair to the point of trying to commit suicide more than once, she even thought of killing her children  to end this miserable life and the injustice of all those around her.

In her uncle house, her condition got stable a little after she went to see a private psychiatrist, but due to her poor financial condition, she was not able to constantly buy medication, which led to her condition fluctuating between recovery and relapse, until she heard from one of her neighbors about the existence of a psychosocial support center which provides free psychological support services. Thus, Khadija arrived at the Psychosocial Support Center of the Psychiatric Care Developmental Foundation, where she was received, calmed and  was provided with  Psychological First Aid, then she was presented to the psychiatrist who diagnosed her condition with severe depression accompanied by psychotic symptoms, an integrated treatment plan was developed, which began with a focus on the pharmacological side, in order to calm the patient.

After her condition was stabilized, she started psychological sessions with the psychiatrist, where the treatment plan focused on psychological sessions with its cognitive and behavioral techniques, and on family counseling sessions in order to create a supportive family atmosphere for her, and finally she was helped to develop her practical skills and encouraged her to sew.

After nearly six months of treatment the improvement was noticed, and through that she was able to return to her normal state and gain ways to live and discover her abilities and potentials in sewing, as she was able to buy a sewing machine in installments and help herself and her children to live, and she returned to her husband after the insistence of her children , and the family was reunited.

Khadija says: " What I went through was difficult ,but I recovered a lot after the psychological support I received at the Psychological Support Center and my encouragement to develop my sewing skill".

She also adds :" I 've always been told by others how to dress, where to go, and how to live my life. Now, I know I have these choices. I feel confident, and my focus is on developing my sewing skills and expanding my project".

With funding from the United Nations Population Fund, the Psychiatric Care Developmental Foundation implemented the psychosocial  support center project in both Ibb and Taiz governorates. The PSS center provides specialized and non-specialized psychological support services for gender-based violence survivors