nope, still NOT my photograh here…
Sharing their stories here, from the Front Page Sections, translated…
“Grace”, “Happy”, “Yi”, and “Rou”, these four women had varied backgrounds, but, they’d shared the common bond of being abused in marriage, they still had their scars intact, and the four of them decided to stand up, set up the first national abused woman forum.
“It’s not our faults we were beaten up, the ones who were beating on us are the ones who needed to make a change!”, the four women stated how although, they’d gotten themselves out of the abusive backgrounds, but the nightmares, the senses of panic would still, lurk behind them constantly, in the process of training, as they’d recalled when they were being abused, they were too sick to their stomachs, to throwing up, to shaking endlessly, to not finding their words at all, but, they felt, that it was, more than worth it, to help their sisters who are still, enduring through their abuses.
“En-En”, along with three other women, made up a lecturing forum under the Modern Day Women’s Foundation, Southern District; the group’s ideals came from the person in charge of the workshops, Wu. Wu who’d gotten involved in domestic violence prevention for over ten years said that the foundation, nine years ago, started the “Plantations of the Heart”, set up a supportive network for women who were abused, and they’d assisted the ladies in making handmade soaps, selling food items to increase their incomes, but the results were limited.
Wu had given lectures all over, and, four years ago, she’d had a thought, “I’m very good at public speaking”, decided to train the sisters who are articulate, who are stable emotionally, to become lecturers, to help themselves and others too, and, they’d gotten paid for the lectures they were giving, to help out the economics of their separate households.
Wu said, it’s estimated that about seventy-percent of the battered would put up with the abuse, for the sake of their young, on average, the women in Taiwan were abused for seven to ten years, and after thirty-seven times of being beaten up, they’d called for help.
“I still can’t understand why I was beaten”, En-En tried to stop her ex from getting involved with bad company, from gambling, drinking, she was once, dragged, to the streets beneath her home, to be beaten up in public; Le-Le’s ex is a gentleman before everybody else, but, he would, beaten her black and blue when it’s just the two of them, and claimed, that he’d needed more help in work, forced her to still work, after the two abortions she’d had.
And so, these women hoped, that in sharing their stories with the rest of the public, it might somehow, prevent the instances of abuse, bring about more awareness of the methods, ways, and process of abuse, and, it must be, really difficult, for these women, to have to, relive that nightmare, again and again, but they’d found support in each other, and found something that they’re good at: sharing their own life’s experiences, to help bring about awareness to the world.
Life, the Obstacle Course 