Once upon a time, Shania had a dream that her father assaulted her mother and her family broke apart because of the violence.
And, in a land far away, a boy went to live at a shelter because of his parents’ alcohol abuse.
Although these may not seem like your average fairy tales, they form part of a series of short stories being distributed to schools and read by children across the island.
The two stories, along with six others, are real life accounts of domestic turmoil as told by the young children who lived through it. The dramatic tales, written in a mix of Maltese and English, were put to paper by children under the age of 12, as part of a therapeutic process offered by the St Jeanne Antide Foundation, a local NGO working with the vulnerable.
Social worker Ruth Stafrace, who edited the book Il-Mela Darba Tiegħi (My Once upon a Time), told Times of Malta the children had undergone a therapeutic process, including writing down their unpleasant experiences in a bid to take control over them.
“The children all told us their stories over the past year and wrote them down. Then we started a process of transforming these tales into something we could publish while retaining the youngsters’ anonymity,” Ms Stafrace said.
Shania’s story tells readers that the morning after her dream she realised that the violence was real. “She saw lots of damage in the house. The mirror was broken and the computer was smashed into pieces. Her mum had bruises all over her body,” the story reads.
The tale goes on to describe how the fictional Shania often feels she has to take sides between her mother and father, until one day when her father is forced to leave by the police.
Each story ends with lessons learnt from the tale. So in the case of Shania, the young readers are told that when boys grow up they should never be violent, while girls are told they should demand respect from their future husband.
Ms Stafrace said the book was being distributed to all State schools across the island and used in Personal Social Development classes for children of the same age as those who recorded their experiences. Other tales include one of a nine-year-old boy who ends up being put into foster care after suffering physical abuse from his mother.
In the story, his headmaster plucks him out of class when he notices that the boy is covered in bruises.
“To me fostering means a new life, without fighting, noise and beatings. Now I’m finally happy. All those who are in a situation like I was shouldn’t give up. Speak out like I did,” the book reads.
The short book ends with a collection of passages taken from the young writers’ own diaries.
The short phrases were mantras the youngsters would recite to help deal with their traumatic experiences.
“I suffered a lot when I was younger. You can either carry that with you or leave it behind and move on. It’s up to you,” one passage reads.