On the eve of the launch of 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children‚ two sexual abuse survivors shared their tales of triumph.

A networking event‚ called 1000Women1Voice‚ was hosted by the 1000 Women Trust in Johannesburg on Thursday.

 The 1000 Women initiative was started by businesswoman and philanthropist Wendy Ackerman as well as women’s rights activist Tina Thiart more than a decade ago. Their efforts have raised more than R6 million so far. The funds and other resources are distributed to grassroots women’s groups that work in their communities to support to women and girls living in abusive relationships.

On Thursday‚ they brought together Johannesburg women to highlight the fight against abuse.

Here are some of the stories women shared.

Author and entrepreneur Ronel Harris drives a fast car and lives in a beautiful home with her husband and three children. She goes on exotic holidays and spends weekends at her game farm‚ but her life wasn’t always a Cinderella story.

She recalls her childhood in Hillbrow‚ where she and her mother waited for an abusive man to walk through the door every night.

“My father. Drunk. Reeking of alcohol. I remember the beatings that followed. I remember the visits to my room. I still remember the pain that my body had to endure every time that he raped me.

“Yes‚ I am a victim. No‚ I am a survivor‚” she said.

Harris took responsibility for her siblings as a 12-year-old‚ after her father abandoned the family and her mother turned to alcohol.

She broke free with the help of her aunt and fell in love at 18 but at the age of 21 she was a widow‚ with a child‚ and was admitted to a mental institution.

To overcome adversity‚ Harris credits the power of dreams and the action and sacrifice required to make them a reality.

Another woman who knows the trauma of abuse all too well is Mrs Africa 2016 finalist Louise Niemann.

Raised by her father in Zimbabwe‚ Niemann recalls a cold childhood fraught with emotional and sexual abuse‚ following her parents’ divorce.

“My dad was incredibly resentful … and I was his outlet. I was never good enough. I never deserved anything. I wasn’t pretty enough. I wasn’t smart enough. He was always angry at me.”

When Niemann was old enough to start driving around the age of 16‚ a family friend offered to pick her up from school to teach her.

“The friend did pick me up from school every day but driving was not on the agenda.”

The man sexually abused her for a number of months until she found the courage to tell her father. Within hours she was on a flight to Johannesburg to stay with her mother because she had shamed the family‚ her father told her.

In the years that followed Niemann engaged in abusive relationships with men‚ sex and alcohol.

By the age of 30 she was in debt of R1 million‚ had been married and divorced more than once and was ready to die.

A revelation helped her turn it all around: “[I realised] the most abusive relationship I was in was the one with myself.”

Today Niemann is happily married. She and her husband have five children between them.

She works as a life coach. Her goal is to transform the broken self-image of men and women‚ which often leads to a variety of social ills.

Harris and Niemann are among the voices the 1000 Women Trust aims to amplify with its initiatives.

For the 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children campaign‚ it has arranged a road race along the N1 highway in the Western Cape to raise awareness around human trafficking.

Find out more about the initiative here