As South Africa observes Child Protection Week, HuffPost got to take a look at some essays written between 2013 and 2016 by teenagers about their abusive fathers.
The essays were submitted to the "Fathers in Africa" writing competition on the topic "What does your father mean to you?" Although many wrote essays about their love for their dads, others told a sad, dark tale.
The Child Protection Week campaign was launched in 1997, to raise awareness and mobilise communities to care and protect children from abuse, neglect, exploitation as well as other forms of violence and ill-treatment. #ChildProtection2018pic.twitter.com/NiIBNq4vnE
— South African Government (@GovernmentZA) May 28, 2018
One participant wrote that her father meant nothing to her, because he was "violent" and "abusive".
"My father is not the kind of dad that I am proud to have in my life. My father means nothing, but is abusive and aggressive to his children," she said. "He has abused me physically and emotionally, saying bad things about me in front of my friends — even now. He has never changed, and I will never forgive him for that."
She said her father provided for the family, but was not a true role model to his children.
"He provides for our family, is a caregiver and protector, but not a man that I can say is my role model. When I make mistakes, he is not willing to talk to me to show my mistakes or give advice. All he can do is insult me," she explained.
This young girl felt like she did not belong.
"He treats me like I am somebody else — not his daughter. My father doesn't have love for me. I wish my father was loving — not violent. A man who beats his wife is nothing!" she wrote.
It feels like he prepared how he would do the scattering of my heart.
Another teenager from Western Cape wrote about how unbearable living with his father was.
"I always wish he doesn't come home from work. He always makes me feel sad and angry. My father doesn't normally live with me, but now he is living with us until his house is finished. It feels like they are taking too long," he wrote in the essay.
He added: "Whenever I make a mistake, he would shout at me. When my father wasn't living with us, our relationship wasn't this bad, although it wasn't good either. I wish he could see that I love him, no matter what happens."
I always thought I was inadequate, useless and trash.
A schoolgirl from Soshanguve wrote about how she needed a dad, not just a father.
"Every time I talk to him, his response is a grenade blowing my emotions out of proportion. It feels like he prepared how he would do the scattering of my heart. It makes me wonder if he really knows how I feel," the teenager wrote.
"I always imagine me talking to him, just that one decent conversation. A father-daughter talk. How he would advise ... well, that is just my imagination."
A teenager from Settlers in Limpopodescribed her stepfather as a "grim [reaper] coming to prey on my soul". Her biological father passed away, but he was not a part of her life either, so when her mother remarried, she hoped that life would get better — but this was not the case.
I then thought of suicide, but couldn't, because I knew what tomorrow holds is brighter.
"It was a nightmare I couldn't wake up from. I was not allowed to cry or be me, but fake. The worst mistake I ever did was to call [my stepfather] dad. I was told how useless and idiotic I am. I was only nine years old, and that still haunts me," she wrote.
"I always thought I was inadequate, useless and trash."
Like many abused children, she even contemplated ending it all.
"I then thought of suicide, but couldn't, because I knew what tomorrow holds is brighter. Music was my life, dance was my fix, and the lyrics my story."