Stop Child Abuse Now (SCAN) - 2608

Tonight's special guest is Francine Anne Umaru from Crofton, Maryland, also known as 'Sistah Fran', was born in Brooklyn, New York and raised in Englewood, New Jersey. She is proud of her Jamaican heritage. Francine was saved by the pen at a tender age, while suffering from childhood sexual, physical, and verbal abuse by her biological father. "When I was about 12 or 13 years old, I was emotionally, physically, and sexually abused by my biological father," she says. "My mother was complicit and is still married to him. The home I grew up in felt like a place in hell." Francine continues, "The unresolved trauma and toxic stress I carried manifested into Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), which I struggle with every day. I started my healing journey in October 2020. I have been seeing a trauma-informed therapist twice a week since then. I am still a work in progress and healing is not a linear process." Her passion for poetry has continued into adulthood. As the founder of 'Break the Silence and Bloom', she carries out her mission to facilitate and normalize conversations around child abuse and neglect; to encourage adult survivors to share their truth in safe spaces and promote healing so they can bloom. "In July 2017, I published my first book of 30 poems, 'Break the Silence & Bloom: My Poetic Testimonies'. There is a process between breaking your silence and blooming -- it is called "healing". We cannot bloom until we do the inner work first."