Tuesday night, Viola Davis gave a moving speech about her younger sister’s sexual assault that occurred when she was a kid.

Davis was speaking at the Stuart House, a L.A. based organization that helps sexually abused children.

“I have a sister, who, when she was 8 years old, put on some rollerskates with her friend, went down to the corner store at 1 o’clock in the afternoon, went into the store, and was sexually assaulted in the store,” Viola began. “She came home and she told my mom. My mom ran down to the store, started screaming at the store owners and they said: ‘Leave that man alone. He does that to all the little girls.’ And then my mom proceeded to flag down a police officer. They found the man. They put him in the car. I saw my little sister crying. My mom was crying, too. And that was it.”

“And then from there, a precocious, very intelligent, very creative child grew up to be frail, angry, a drug addict by the time she was 20,” Viola continued, her voice cracking. “Six children, all of which have been taken by social services. A prostitute. An IV drug user. You know, memories demand attention, because memories have teeth. And in my vision, and in my dreams, when I pray for my sister . . . you pray in general terms. You pray that she finds peace and love and happiness, she gets off drugs. And then of course you open your eyes, and you’re like, she’s still on the streets.”

“I wish she had the Stuart House to throw her a rope, because her whole life could have been different,” Viola said toward the end of her speech. “There are a lot of beautiful stories that are going to come out of the Stuart House . . . there’s going to be so many testimonies of winning and heroic young people literally opening their mouths and speaking about their abuse — daring to call out their abusers. And I guess if there was anything I was going to speak about today, I’m going to speak about my sisters of the world. The people who fell through the cracks. The people who didn’t have a Stuart House.”

Davis’ story was not only touching but the reality for so many kids across the world.

In closing, Davis simply stated, “This is a day the lord has made, and I’m going to rejoice and be glad in it,” she said, “because I wish I could tell my sister that she’s not dirty, and that she should not feel any shame for something that she literally was not responsible for. I wish I could save her life.”