When things come up.

By Stephanie Wayda, BA.

You’ll always hear something you aren’t expecting. Through my journalistic work and recent research work, I’ve come to realize that stories of sexual abuse can surface in interviews even if the interview doesn’t directly ask about abuse.

My undergraduate degree is in Journalism from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I wanted to go into journalism to learn how to develop the skills to help people tell their stories better. My true passion lies in storytelling. Journalism felt like a great path to learning, research and storytelling.

I’ve focused on helping others tell their story and relay important issues. In Champaign, Illinois I helped tell stories of arrests for marijuana before and after legalization showing how Black people were arrested more, a minority community surrounded by liquor and gambling establishments, and then as part of my undergraduate studies I was the Director of Photography on a documentary following women across Sierra Leone, Africa, advocating and finding solutions to period poverty for girls and young women.

Since graduating from university, I’ve been working on research related to my documentary work. Dr. Sophie King-Hill, Idrissa Kamara (Fourah Bay College, Freetown, Sierra Leone), and I are conducting qualitative research about why professionals in Sierra Leone choose careers in sexual health. We’re looking to understand the motivations of these professionals working with what is a stigmatizing issue in the context of Sierra Leone due to religion and traditional values.

Sierra Leone is a coastal West African country with a population of almost nine million people. Sierra Leone’s history includes the Transatlantic Slave Trade, Civil War, Ebola, a deadly mountain slide, and now the removal of USAID. Gender based violence in Sierra Leone is a common occurrence. According to UNFPA, sixty-two percent of women report experiencing physical or sexual violence. To combat this, the government of Sierra Leone has passed legislation such as the Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Act 2022. Most recently, they passed the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2024.

Our research, conducted in spring 2025, used narrative interviews. In the interviews, we asked participants about their backgrounds, life histories, life course development, career pathways, and current attitudes, beliefs, and context. This was to help us get a better understanding of the context of their lives and the motivations leading them to their choice to have a career in sexual health. None of the questions asked about previous experience with sexual abuse or any specific sexual health topic. Yet, in several interviews, I heard stories of sexual abuse. I wasn’t expecting to hear those stories in this research, but I did. I expected to hear stories about the context of growing up in Sierra Leone, and the challenges it presented, or stories of personal struggles, monetary or otherwise, or other positive stories about wanting to help others.

In Sierra Leone, I talked to educators who support students’ needs outside of the core curriculum, who support student health and wellbeing as well as educational achievement lesson plans, and who offer discussion or hygiene items to students in need. I talked to students at the university looking to pursue a career in sexual health. I talked to women who support other women, children of all genders, and their community. Throughout these interviews, I heard stories about different kinds of sexual abuse which were committed by different individuals. The way in which the participants opened varied from casual, short, long, or intense, depending on the person. This really spoke to the varying impact that sexual abuse has on people and that not all victims understand and process it, or recover from it, in the same way. I encountered many different stories from an array of different people and learned to navigate each one differently. From the people I talked with, I found that the abuse committed against the (survivors/victims) was by a person in the close family unit, i.e., romantic partner, mother, father, or sibling. From what people said, the family units stayed intact, and the abuse wasn't something openly discussed.

The people I’ve gotten to know in Sierra Leone are extremely compassionate and kind, but hearing of the additional adverse experiences they encountered and how that positively motivated them to help others really impacted me.

As a journalist, I’m accustomed to hearing about difficult topics and sensitive issues in interviews and having to compassionately navigate them. In the research setting, it became even more apparent that people felt comfortable opening about their experiences of abuse, again, even if abuse wasn’t asked about. I felt emotional and honored that people feel comfortable opening up to me about their experiences of sexual abuse. Before this research project and talking with professionals in the sexual abuse field, I had to develop strategies based on little previous knowledge to navigate talking with someone about their abuse. Journalism classes don’t necessarily teach you how to navigate those conversations. Much of your response relies on your compassion and understanding, which can still be effective.

Sexual abuse isn’t a topic that I feel at ease talking about or hearing about. It makes me feel deeply emotional, but I’m able to disconnect that part of myself when someone opens up. I think that everyone deserves respect and to be properly listened to and understood. After talking with someone, I can emotionally process or take measures to take care of myself, but in the moment, that person deserves and receives every bit of my attention.

Research interviews are different from journalistic interviews due to less strict guidelines and fewer oversights. Confidentiality isn’t guaranteed, and anonymity is taken very seriously if needed in journalism. Whereas research interviews value anonymity, and any recognition is taken seriously. Talking to people isn’t any different, but the adjustment to asking questions in a set way was something I easily adjusted to. I felt a lot of pressure internally to conduct these interviews to the highest standard, with minimal experience with academic-style interviewing. I anticipated less personability from myself and the participants but found that people felt comfortable and safe talking with me about their story. I found I felt far more comfortable than I anticipated. As a non-clinically trained person, I consulted with my advisor, Dr. Sophie King-Hill, to reflect on how I handled situations, and I felt like I handled them in the best way I could, not expecting the topic of abuse to come up as often as it did.

In the past few months of working with sexual abuse professionals, Dr. Sophie King-Hill, Prof. Kieran McCartan, and David Russell, I’ve learned a lot about sexual abuse and strategies to support individuals opening about abuse. Learning from these professionals made me realize how, outside of a professional environment, society isn’t equipped with proper tools or information to navigate anything surrounding sexual abuse. Their guidance and support helped prepare me for those interviews and speaking with people about their abuse.

In the U.S., I think about all of the barriers and struggles victims and their families face, such as stigma, shame, and resources. In Sierra Leone, I found that people faced the same barriers. With the interviews in Sierra Leone, I heard stories of sexual abuse, and I learned about myself in the process. I learned that I could listen to stories of sexual abuse and support individuals in the moment of opening up. I can offer agency in their opening up so they can decide what they’d like to share.

From all my experience in Sierra Leone and my reflection, I’ve truthfully found an increased sense of personal responsibility to support people in the moment of them opening up. One person I talked with wasn’t sure about opening up, and before they said anything about the issue they were going to bring up, I made sure to tell them they don’t have to share anything they don’t want to. Once they opened up, I wanted them to feel a sense of empowerment in sharing their story, so to one person I said, “You have the power now to share or not share. It’s up to you, you have all the power at this moment.”  

I’m not sure where my work will take me, but in my career, I will take my experience in talking about sexual abuse and expand my ability to talk about other difficult topics with a focus on the participant telling their story in a comfortable way. I’ve also developed strategies to listen to difficult topics. This experience deepened my cultural competence and ability to discuss difficult topics cross-culturally. Since people have been so vulnerable with me, it’s encouraged me to be more vulnerable.