Documentary film subject, Olivia Zinnah age 13, dead from complications of child rape at age seven

by Kyna Morgan

I couldn't stop myself from writing this post, and I'm glad I didn't try to.  As some of you may already know from seeing my facebook post or tweets this morning and afternoon, a young girl named Olivia Zinnah in Liberia has died of complications from a rape that she suffered six years ago when she was seven years old.  Jessica Vale, the director of the documentary film about Olivia, called Small Small Thing, tweeted me about her death with a link to an article on the Shadow & Act blog.  I was stunned and disgusted, saddened by yet another rape, another death from rape, and the loss of a young girl with such possibility in her future.  Less than two weeks after the death of Damini who also died of complications from a gangrape (Damini is the name many people called the young woman who was gangraped by a group of men on a bus in Delhi, India, who used an iron pipe to rape her (a gruesome fact that has not been shared enough in the news),) a young girl of 13 years old -- Olivia -- has died of complications of a rape from years ago.  Rape is the number one crime in Liberia.

Please go now and sign the petition to pressure Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to make a public statement about the death of Olivia and the epidemic of rape in her country.

change.org
Petitioning President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia
"President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia: Issue a statement about the death of rape victim Olivia Zinnah, age 13."

This morning, director Jessice Vale tweeted me this:

Thank you to the half dozen or so people who have retweeted my tweet about Olivia's death and the fact that we should support Vale's film to help get the word out about Olivia and child rape.  Of course, we should do this ALL the time, and expose the truth about the inherent brutality of rape and the fact that it is IMPERATIVE for us all to stand against rape and rape culture in all its forms.

Back in April of 2012, I was privileged to be able to share the story of the film Small Small Thing, with a lot of help from Jessica, on the Her Film blog.  Jessica and her team raised $32,000, seven thousand over their goal of $25,000 through Kickstarter to help make this film.  To read more about this amazing film, please visit the post on the Her Film Archives.

Please follow and help support the film on Twitter @Smallsmallfilm and Facebook at www.facebook.com/SmallSmallThing.