{"id":988862,"date":"2020-05-19T14:05:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-19T14:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wearestrongercharity.org\/en\/?p=988862"},"modified":"2026-01-15T13:26:27","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T13:26:27","slug":"founder-and-chair-olga-venosa-my-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wearestrongercharity.org\/en\/blog\/stories\/founder-and-chair-olga-venosa-my-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Founder and Chair Olga Venosa – My Story"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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I have always been a curious child, full of passion and determination, and most importantly, full of dreams. Among those dreams\u2014rooted deeply in kindness and hope\u2014was the desire to\u00a0found\u00a0a charity to prevent violence and bullying and to support their victims.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On the 29th of May 2017, the day of my birthday, with a bit of luck and a great deal of determination, that dream became a reality.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I am myself a survivor of violence, bullying, and an eating disorder\u2014but I survived it all. I was only six months old when I was violated for the first time, a daily nightmare that\u00a0accompanied\u00a0me for ten years of my childhood.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

My only escape was studying and sports, but eventually a harsh reality changed everything. Following this abuse, I was deeply mentally scarred. I was afraid, anxious, and ashamed. I felt as though there was no one I could turn to. This secret shame I carried led to an intense vulnerability that shaped my teenage years. It left me extremely exposed to bullying and harassment.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In an attempt to\u00a0hide my sexuality and femininity, I became reluctant to speak to boys or to date. I grew anxious about attending parties, could no longer concentrate on my studies, developed bulimia, and completely lost my confidence. This led to rumours being spread about me, various forms of bullying, and often being left out and picked on. Through these experiences, I\u00a0witnessed\u00a0first-hand the devastating effects that\u00a0abuse\u00a0and violence can have on a person\u2019s formative years.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Bullying and violence bring with them a whole host of other struggles. For me, these included anxiety,\u00a0binge\u00a0eating, bulimia, depression, and suicidal thoughts. Throughout my teenage years, I reached a point where I no longer wanted to care for myself. I even gave up sports\u2014the one consistent joy in my life. I lived under constant stress and paranoia that someone would discover what had happened to me as a child and that it would fuel even more bullying and harassment.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sadly, this experience is all too common for survivors of abuse. This is why I strive so hard to provide a voice and a message for others: speak up and talk to someone as soon as you can. It took me time to realise that what happened was not my fault and that I had no reason to feel ashamed.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the hardest yet most important decisions I ever made was to tell my family what had happened to me as a child and what was still happening during my teenage years. My mother\u2019s reaction was a rejection of reality. She never supported me and continued to visit the neighbours,\u00a0who\u00a0she treated as\u00a0her best friends\u00a0rather than her child\u00a0perpetrators, failing once more to\u00a0protect\u00a0me. She made me feel guilty and ashamed, as if it were all my fault. She never removed me from danger or provided a safe home where I could heal and grow.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It took even more strength to speak to my father\u00a0almost a\u00a0year later. His response was that of a caring parent. He offered me the possibility to see a psychotherapist and a nutritionist to help me with my mental health and eating disorder. However, both parents asked me to keep everything a secret, which only deepened my guilt and shame.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

My only escape then became leaving home and finding safety elsewhere. Travelling felt like a way out\u2014a chance to discover new cultures and rediscover myself. And so came Spain, Chile, Ireland, Holland, and the UK. Along the way, I explored psychology and neuroscience, mindfulness, yoga, meditation, and my greatest passion: dancing\u2014all in search of what made me feel safe and whole again.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While following my dreams came naturally to me through passion and determination, my unresolved trauma made the journey incredibly difficult. The same vicious cycles repeated themselves in every type of relationship\u2014romantic, friendly, and professional. Only in recent years I\u00a0have\u00a0become fully aware of the depth of trauma and how profoundly it affects daily life.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When I finally decided to go public with my story, I gained even more awareness, confidence, and strength.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Strength does not mean hiding vulnerability\u2014rather, it means embracing it.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Since then, I have vowed to be honest and open about my story in the hope that it encourages others to seek the help they need and deserve. The journey can be long and certainly not easy, and it is different for everyone. The scars may never completely disappear, but I have learned that we are not alone. When healing begins, people show up for us. With dreams, determination, passion, and belief, it is possible to achieve anything you set your mind to\u2014and it\u00a0can\u00a0get better for everyone.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s\u00a0make the world a better place.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have always been a curious child, full of passion and determination, and most importantly, full of dreams. Among those dreams\u2014rooted deeply in kindness and hope\u2014was the desire to\u00a0found\u00a0a charity to prevent violence and bullying and to support their victims.\u00a0 On the 29th of May 2017, the day of my birthday, with a bit of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":992311,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-988862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wearestrongercharity.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/988862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wearestrongercharity.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wearestrongercharity.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wearestrongercharity.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wearestrongercharity.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=988862"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/wearestrongercharity.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/988862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":992365,"href":"https:\/\/wearestrongercharity.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/988862\/revisions\/992365"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wearestrongercharity.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/992311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wearestrongercharity.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=988862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wearestrongercharity.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=988862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wearestrongercharity.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=988862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}