World News for Students of English

16-09-2016 15:00

Eleven years ago, then just 15-year-old Laxmi, had a proposal by her friend’s 32-year-old brother. She told him no. Ten months later, he found her at a famous market in her hometown of Delhi, pushed her to the floor and poured acid on her.

It took Laxmi four years to be brave enough to go out in public, but when she did she said that she realised she didn’t want to feel like a victim. She wanted to feel like a fighter. She said that she needed to change the way that she perceived herself and how others perceived her, and that if she did not do something about it, nobody would.

She founded a charity to support acid attack victims and that brought her to the UK to an event raising money to support vulnerable women.

Laxmi was joined by a woman from England whose ex-boyfriend also attacked her with acid. The UK has seen the number of acid attacks taking place double in 10 years.

Laxmi says that mind shifts are happening and people are more accepting and that people like her feel less like victims and more like normal people.

Difficult words: found (start), vulnerable (in danger), mind shift (a shift – a change of how you see and think about things), accepting (open-minded, respectful).

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