Istoryang Kabataan are stories about young peoples’ daily lives and experiences. For today, let us get to know more about Ms Abegail Mesa, founder of Rescue Kabataan.

Roxas Boulevard in Manila used to be my “home”. On that 7.6-kilometer stretch of wide road I lived, hoped to die, and realized ten years after I would just want to be alive. No longer just for myself but for those who are now just hoping to die there, too.

This was my story.
More than a decade ago, that boulevard became my home for about six months. Its bright areas stood witness to the darkest days of my life. Its unlit sections, to the dim future of a then 16-year old party animal.

At a tender age, who would have thought that I could don on so many robes — that of a mistress, a prostitute, and an escort service provider. Sometimes even simultaneously. Who would have thought I would also be gang raped at 19 and a drug dependent for seven years.

Everything then was just going downhill. Nothing, I thought, mattered anymore — not even my life, not even my family and their lives. For at least three times, suicide was the only option I had for all in my life to end. For at least once, I wanted theirs to end too.

And then life gave me a glimpse of how it was to die alive — to not have anybody beside you, not even yourself. Breathing became a harrowing chore. With everybody gone, I just had to cry for help to the only one who did not leave. I cried to God and asked for one final chance, for Him to use me as much as He wants.

I entered rehab for two years and tried to put back my shattered pieces. When I got out, I went back to my family, the people I left behind when I was just busy hating the world for leaving me broken and alone. And they never left. The only one who left me was myself… and my fiancé who disappeared five months before our wedding.

But the wedding not happening no longer broke the stronger me. Instead, it became my biggest breakthrough. I spent much of my time doing something more valuable than getting married and bearing children. I founded “Rescue Kabataan”.

It has been a long time since I last visited this 7.6-kilometer stretch of wide road they still call Roxas Boulevard. Somewhere in its bright and dark sections I lived and I hoped to die. But today, I am back, grateful to be alive, writing better chapters in my story, hoping to be beside those who do not know how to write better ones by themselves.

– Ms. Abegail Mesa, founder of Rescue Kabataan

Her story will be featured in Maalaala Mo Kaya on Saturday, January 20, 2018.
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