Poster for YWCA violence against women campaign - Photo courtesy of the YWCA
Abuse against women happens every day. Regardless of skin colour, race, creed or ethnicity, abuse is an international issue that knows no boundaries, and every October, the YWCA Metro Vancouver takes up the cause with their Week Without Violence campaign.
This year’s Vancouver campaign focuses on the idea that while emotional abuse cannot be seen, it certainly does exist. For this reason, the YWCA of Metro Vancouver is making people face up to it with its campaign, “Abuse isn’t always black and blue.”
The aim is to raise awareness about the services provided by the YWCA to abused women from anywhere around the world. Services include access to a wide range of housing facilities. Among these facilities is Munroe House, a partly subsidized second stage transition house where women and their families can stay and transition from an abusive life to an independent and peaceful life, void of any violence.
A former resident of Munroe House, agreed to speak about her experiences on condition of anonymity, and wanted to be referred to as K.
After leaving a nine-year-long abusive marriage, K, who is originally from India, recalls that prior to leaving, she was “a voice never heard.” She says she felt like she was a woman “who deserved to be abused.”
“The abuse kept getting bigger and bigger,” says K. “The turning point for me was when my then five-year-old [son], started to witness the [physical and emotional] violence,” she adds.
K had the strength and determination to leave thanks to the support system provided by the Munroe House and its crew, as well as other women who were fleeing abusive relationships of their own.
She still has to deal with her ex-husband through the legal system, and says her scars will always remain, but she is now a happy single mom with a successful career.
Chantelle Krish, Public Relations Manager at the YWCA of Metro Vancouver, is working to push the “Abuse isn’t always black and blue” campaign. She says that she and her team are trying to spread the word about an issue that is rarely addressed or talked about, but one that many immigrant women bring with them or discover once they’re married and have lots of responsibilities.
“We often see a situation where a woman comes [to Canada], say on a student visa, falls in love, has children and so on…[and she sometimes] becomes trapped because she has no legal status in the country and is fully dependent on her partner, who becomes abusive. So we [the YWCA] provide a system for immigrant women who may not have another support system in place in this country,” says Krish.
YWCA legal educator, Andrea Vollans, says that this trend doesn’t mean that abuse against women is more prevalent in immigrant communities, but rather that local women, unlike newcomers, would likely seek help within the network of family and friends that they have in this country.
Amongst other things, Vollans’ job is to advocate for mother’s without legal status and refer them to experts who can help them resolve their legal issues and apply for permanent residency.
Vollans admits that she gets teary-eyed whenever a letter declaring permanent residency arrives for a Munroe House resident.
“Every time a woman gets that letter, it is such a tangible [and] real thing,” she says.
According to Krish, few of the Munroe House residents have returned to their abusive relationships in recent years. She says that about 50–75 per cent of women return to their abusive partners after staying in a first stage transition house (or shelter) for 30 days.
She says that this figure is a real testament to the fact that given a choice and a solid support system, women would not go back to an abusive partner.
K. urges women to research the information and support systems that are available to them and use this information to leave their abusive relationships behind.
“There is hope out there,” she says.
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Week Without Violence runs from Oct. 17–23.
For more details, visit www.ywcavan.org/content/Week_Without_Violence/1480
