The hidden chains

About this book

That particular morning will forever remain etched in my memory. After my devotional time, a thought dropped into my spirit with startling clarity: Why not put all the experiences and struggles young people go through into writing? The question haunted me because I had witnessed too much silence around too much pain. During my university years, I have interacted with young people at every level —in tutorials, mentorship sessions, casual conversations, and quiet moments of crisis. What I discovered shattered my assumptions about the bright, smiling faces I saw in fellowship gatherings and lecture halls. Beneath the surface of academic achievement and social confidence, a generation of young women was drowning in struggles they felt too ashamed to voice. When I began tutoring and mentoring freshers, their fears became impossible to ignore. Behind their eager questions about coursework were deeper anxieties about identity, belonging, and survival in an environment that demanded more than they knew how to give. As relationships deepened and trust developed, the real stories emerged—stories of depression masked as laziness, trauma disguised as rebellion, and addictions rationalised as normal experimentation. The pattern was heartbreaking and consistent: brilliant young girls entering university with hope and leaving with wounds they never expected to carry. They were struggling with issues that had no space in orientation programmes or casual conversations. Their pain was real, their questions were urgent, but their voices were trapped in silence. Through God's guidance and grace, I found myself uniquely positioned to walk alongside many of these young girls. In tutorial sessions that became counselling moments, in late-night conversations that turned into prayer sessions, and in mentorship relationships that became lifelines, I witnessed transformation that could only be described as miraculous. Young girls who had lost hope discovered