One woman related how she watched her sister suffer at the hands of a cruel fiancé, another spoke of how she endured years of abuse by a narcissistic husband who took her children in the end and another about how she watched her mother being tormented in the most horrifying ways for 14 years.
These were some of the traumatic yet triumphant stories told yesterday at the Caribbean America Domestic Violence Awareness (CADVA) and Caribbean One Billion Rising sister’s circle event held at the Pegasus Hotel. Traumatic because the years of abuse left indelible imprints on the lives of the victims but triumphant because they have all fought to leave that part of their lives behind and now use it to help others who are being abused.
Women cried, some empathised and one could hear “I know what you talking about”, “That happen to me” while others could be heard praising the victims for triumphing as story after story of abuse was told. Intertwined in those stories were also powerful messages on how to get the better of an abusive situation as Guyanese women joined the rest of the