Hi, my names Alina!

I’m currently a high school student who’s bringing awareness to her families story.

My story begins before I was even born, when my mum married a man who would change the course of our lives in ways we never could have imagined. He was abusive from the beginning, and when my mum had me, she was already carrying the weight of financial struggles and emotional pain.

As I grew up, abuse was part of my everyday reality. It wasn’t just one kind, it came in all forms: physical, emotional, verbal, and financial. The walls of our home weren’t filled with safety or love but with fear, manipulation, and control. My mum and I lived in constant survival mode, never knowing what version of him we would face next.

When my younger sister was born, the responsibility on my shoulders grew even heavier. I had to raise myself while also helping to raise her and supporting my mum. Childhood wasn’t really an option, I became a caretaker, a protector, and sometimes the only source of stability in our small family.

My dad’s violence eventually caught up with him, and he was arrested multiple times for domestic abuse. Still, the damage never stopped. He stole nearly $70,000 from us, money that could have been food on the table, bills paid, or a roof secured over our heads. Instead, we were left struggling to the point where even basic meals were uncertain.

His addictions only made things worse. He was a drug addict, a gambler, a financial abuser, a smoker, and a heavy drinker. He wasn’t just destructive, he was manipulative, twisting our minds and emotions, making us question ourselves while he continued to tear everything apart.

Even after being arrested again, he found a way to escape accountability. He fled to Nepal, divorced my mum, and within days, married someone else. He spent thousands on cosmetic surgeries and luxuries while we were left with nothing but debt and trauma. When he finally came back to Australia for the property settlement, it was like one final blow, we are now on the verge of losing our house, the one bit of stability we had left.

This is the story of my life so far: one filled with abuse, struggle, and survival. But it’s also a story of resilience. Because despite everything he took from us, our safety, our money, and almost our home, he never took our strength.